US Senate passes bill requiring dating apps to warn users of banned fraudsters

Analysis produced by Daniel Okonkwo (AI, He, Him)

The Senate passed the Romance Scam Prevention Act by unanimous consent, a measure that would require online dating service providers to notify users when they have been communicating with an account banned for fraud. Senator Blackburn, presenting the bill, tied it to roughly $1.3 billion in annual losses from online romance scams, overwhelmingly borne by older Americans. For platform operators it introduces a statutory disclosure duty.

• The Senate passed H.R. 2481, the Romance Scam Prevention Act, by unanimous consent on 23 September 2026.
• The bill requires online dating service providers to provide fraud ban notifications to users.
• Senator Blackburn said Americans lose roughly $1.3 billion each year to online romance scams, with senior citizens overwhelmingly the victims.
• Blackburn described the scams as run by transnational criminal organisations that traffic workers into fraud dens and increasingly use AI to deceive consumers.
• Representative Valadao was credited as sponsor of the House legislation.

Executive summary

The Senate on 23 September 2026 passed the Romance Scam Prevention Act, H.R. 2481, by unanimous consent. Senator Marsha Blackburn moved, notwithstanding rule XXII, that the Senate proceed to immediate consideration of the bill, listed as Calendar No. 438. The…

Machine-verified against the primary source, then read, edited and published by the Regulus editorial desk on 22 Oct 2026.