Senate Judiciary hearing spotlights transnational scams targeting older Americans, flags crypto ATM and AI risks

A Senate Judiciary hearing led by Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Durbin examined what witnesses and senators called an expanding, transnational fraud crisis that is disproportionately harming older Americans and using new tools such as cryptocurrency ATMs and artificial intelligence.

Witnesses and senators framed the issue as both a consumer-protection and law-enforcement problem: federal and industry witnesses cited national statistics on monetary losses, described how scam operations cross telecom, social-media and financial networks, and urged a coordinated federal response and new industry guardrails to stop scams before victims lose their savings.

Chairman Grassley opened the hearing by warning about the scale and organization of modern scammers and their use of technology. “The scam threat is real,” he said. He and other senators cited Federal Trade Commission and FBI figures offered in testimony: the FTC estimate that scammers stole $158,000,000,000 from Americans in 2023, with about $62,000,000,000 taken from senior citizens, and FBI figures presented that people age 60 and older reported $4,900,000,000 stolen last year with an average loss of $83,000.

The hearing included first-person testimony from a victim advocate and several industry and law-enforcement witnesses. April Helms, introduced as a founding board member of Advocating Against Romance Scammers, recounted her mother’s loss and the human toll of scams: “My…