Little Hoover Commission hears victims and experts urge platform accountability, data fusion and better law‑enforcement tools to curb rising scams

Pedro Nava, chair of the Little Hoover Commission, opened the Sept. 25 hearing by framing the problem in stark terms: "This is the Little Hoover Commission hearing on financial scams part 1," and by noting staff estimates that Californians have suffered billions in losses since 2020.

Two Californians described how the scams work and why victims often cannot get help. "I was convinced I was helping the federal government," Lynn told the commission, describing an imposter scheme that led her to make repeated withdrawals, buy gold and exhaust retirement accounts. She said fraudsters used remote‑access software and convincing callers claiming to be from banks and the Federal Reserve to extract cash and valuables, and asked the commission to require banks to add and notify trusted contacts, to allow three‑day holds on suspicious transfers and to require gold dealers to check ID.

Karina described a ‘‘pig‑butchering’’ scheme that began on a dating app and moved to private messaging and a fraudulent crypto trading platform. "By the time I realized what had happened, I lost $152,000," she said. Karina traced funds on the blockchain and identified a Thai exchange — but said U.S. law enforcement and platforms largely failed to help because of legal limits and lack of coordination. She urged carve‑outs to Section 230 for platform cooperation, specialist cyber‑fraud units, proactive chain‑analysis…