Text message scams are skyrocketing, and the federal government is finally starting to do something about it. As a former Attorney General for Virginia, I can tell you that when scammers are working outside of a local area, nationally or internationally, in this case, state and local officials don’t have the jurisdiction to do anything about the problem. I’m not someone who seeks out new tasks for the federal government, but protection of our people is the government’s most basic responsibility. 

A bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Mark Warner (D-VA) would create a new Task Force for Recognizing and Averting Payment Scams, or the TRAPS Act. The goal is to bring law enforcement, regulators, and private industry together to coordinate a crackdown on scam operations fleecing Americans out of billions each year. 

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The need couldn’t be more urgent.  

Take Chris Carmack, who for years played Dr. Atticus Lincoln on the hit show Grey’s Anatomy. Weeks ago, he almost fell victim to criminals playing toll collectors. 

It caught my attention because I keep getting the toll collection scam directed to my phone, too. 

Carmack had just returned from Florida when he received a text message warning that he owed money for a delinquent toll. Thankfully, he called the tollway, which informed him that the sender was trying to scam him. 

Carmack is now working to spread awareness of this kind of scam, and he’s not alone.  

While online scams were a significant problem when I served as attorney general for the Commonwealth of Virginia, they have gotten far more pronounced over the last decade. Thanks to artificial intelligence, online fraud is becoming more sophisticated, allowing it to fool more people.  

And they’re good. Gone are the days when scams were just a problem for the elderly, like the trusting grandmother who gives a caller her personal information. While this still happens, online fraud increasingly targets the young who spend a disproportionate amount of time on their phones.

With AI, fraudsters are crafting hyper-personalized messages that can fool almost anyone. In fact, young people are now often the most common victims, precisely because they spend so much time on their phones. 

Phone scams now cost Americans $25 billion annually, according to TrueCaller Insights. A June Malwarebytes study found that 44% of people are targeted by online scams daily. Of those who fall victim, a quarter are harassed or blackmailed, and many lose money they’ll never recover. 

Again, as a former attorney general, sadly, I can vouch for the fact that almost no one who gets scammed ever gets any of their money back. 

During my time as a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security, I saw firsthand how foreign criminal networks exploit weaknesses in our systems. Many of these scams originate from cybercrime rings in countries with weak enforcement or active government indifference. These foreign actors use global telecom networks and anonymous payment systems to target Americans from a safe distance, and often with impunity. 

The scams are only getting more advanced. Steve Grobman, CTO of cybersecurity firm McAfee, has already dubbed 2025 “the year of the advanced scam.” Yet some in Washington still seem more interested in punishing banks than in stopping the actual criminals.  

Rather than protecting consumers and pursuing fraudsters, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, birthed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), has used the scam spike as an excuse to rail against banks and businesses while the scammers operate in plain sight. That only shifts the burden and removes the risk for the crooks. 

In 2024, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received a quarter of a million complaints reporting money lost to a scammer. That should be the government’s first clue. What’s needed isn’t crusading ideologues but law enforcement. The good guys need the authority and resources to stamp out these massively multiplying scams. 

What we need isn’t another crusade against financial institutions. We need real law enforcement action, updated tools, and international cooperation. That’s what the TRAPS Act sets out to do, and it’s a strong first step. 

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While Americans have to learn to protect themselves, they also deserve a government that fights back. That starts with passing the TRAPS Act and treating these scams not as minor nuisances but as the international criminal operations they are. 

We need to go after the scammers, no matter where they hide. The TRAPS Act will help us do that and should pass immediately. 

Hon. Ken Cuccinelli II is a senior fellow for Homeland Security at the Center for Renewing America. He previously served as the acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security, and before that, he was Virginia’s 46th attorney general.