On March 25, GAO published testimony before the U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee summarizing findings and updates on the recommendations from its April 2025 report on federal efforts to combat consumer scams. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the report found that at least 13 federal agencies tasked with preventing, detecting and responding to scams have carried out such activities without coordination and recommended the development of a government strategy. GAO’s report further found that the absence of a broader strategy has led to inconsistent data collection practices and an ongoing inability for the federal government to determine accurately the total number of scam complaints or the associated financial losses.

GAO noted that, in October 2025, the FBI concurred with its recommendation that the agency lead a coordinated federal effort to develop and implement an interagency strategy and subsequently outlined a strategy that includes: (i) a multi-agency cyber-fraud working group; (ii) legislative and regulatory reform; (iii) collaboration with the private sector; and (iv) seeking additional funding. However, the FBI disagreed with recommendations related to developing a government-wide scam estimate and a common definition, citing concerns about diverting law enforcement resources and the difficulty of imposing a singular definition across agencies with differing statutory frameworks. GAO stated that the FTC neither agreed nor disagreed with its recommendations and that the agency said that harmonizing data “can be difficult,” noting its importance, but expressed concerns about uniform adoption of the Fed’s scam definition. The testimony further provided that the CFPB stated in October 2025 that it would monitor the FBI’s and FTC’s actions before determining whether any action on its part was warranted. The testimony concluded by acknowledging the challenges in furthering GAO’s recommendations, but maintained the importance of doing so, calling for their recommendations to be implemented “expeditiously.”