I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2481
To require online dating service providers to provide fraud ban notifications
to online dating service members, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH31, 2025
Mr. V
ALADAO(for himself, Ms. PETTERSEN, Mr. GOLDMANof Texas, and Mr.
S
UOZZI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To require online dating service providers to provide fraud
ban notifications to online dating service members, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Romance Scam Pre-4
vention Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ROMANCE SCAM PREVENTION. 6
(a) F
RAUDBANNOTIFICATION.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—An online dating service pro-8
vider shall provide to a member of the online dating 9
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service a fraud ban notification if the member has 1
received a message through the online dating service 2
from a banned member of the online dating service. 3
(2) R
EQUIRED CONTENTS .—A fraud ban notifi-4
cation under paragraph (1) shall include the fol-5
lowing: 6
(A) The username or other profile identi-7
fier of the banned member, as well as the most 8
recent time when the member to whom the noti-9
fication is being provided sent or received a 10
message through the online dating service to or 11
from the banned member. 12
(B) A statement, as applicable, that the 13
banned member identified in subparagraph (A) 14
may have been using a false identity or at-15
tempting to defraud members. 16
(C) A statement that a member should not 17
send cash or another form of currency or per-18
sonal financial information to another member. 19
(D) Information regarding best practices 20
to avoid online fraud or being defrauded by a 21
member of an online dating service, which may 22
be provided through a link to another web page 23
or disclosure. 24
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(E) Contact information to reach the cus-1
tomer service department of the online dating 2
service provider. 3
(3) M
ANNER AND TIMING.— 4
(A) M
ANNER.—A fraud ban notification 5
under paragraph (1) shall be— 6
(i) clear and conspicuous; and 7
(ii) provided by email, text message, 8
or, if consented to by the member receiving 9
the fraud ban notification, other appro-10
priate means of communication. 11
(B) T
IMING.— 12
(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 13
in clauses (ii) and (iii), an online dating 14
service provider shall provide a fraud ban 15
notification under paragraph (1) not later 16
than 24 hours after the fraud ban is initi-17
ated against the banned member. 18
(ii) D
ELAY BASED ON JUDGMENT OF 19
PROVIDER.—If, in the judgment of the on-20
line dating service provider, the cir-21
cumstances require a fraud ban notifica-22
tion under paragraph (1) to be provided 23
after the 24-hour period described in 24
clause (i), the online dating service pro-25
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vider shall, except as provided in clause 1
(iii), provide the notification not later than 2
3 days after the day on which the fraud 3
ban is initiated against the banned mem-4
ber. 5
(iii) D
ELAY UPON REQUEST OF LAW 6
ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL .—If, due to an 7
ongoing investigation, a law enforcement 8
official requests an online dating service 9
provider to delay providing a fraud ban no-10
tification under paragraph (1) beyond the 11
time when the notification is required to be 12
provided under clause (i) or (ii), the online 13
dating service provider— 14
(I) may not provide the notifica-15
tion before the end of the period of 16
delay (including any extension of such 17
period) requested by the law enforce-18
ment official; and 19
(II) shall provide the notification 20
not later than 3 days after the last 21
day of the period of delay (including 22
any extension of such period) re-23
quested by the law enforcement offi-24
cial. 25
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(4) SAFE HARBOR APPLICABILITY .—An online 1
dating service provider is not liable to a member, a 2
banned member, or a former member for a claim 3
based on an online dating service provider’s action 4
to comply with the requirements for providing a 5
fraud ban notification under this subsection. 6
(b) E
NFORCEMENT.— 7
(1) E
NFORCEMENT BY THE COMMISSION .— 8
(A) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -9
TICES.—A violation of this section or a regula-10
tion promulgated under this section shall be 11
treated as a violation of a rule defining an un-12
fair or deceptive act or practice under section 13
18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission 14
Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 15
(B) P
OWERS OF COMMISSION .— 16
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Commission 17
shall enforce this section in the same man-18
ner, by the same means, and with the 19
same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as 20
though all applicable terms and provisions 21
of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 22
U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into 23
and made a part of this section. 24
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(ii) PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .— 1
Any person who violates this section shall 2
be subject to the penalties and entitled to 3
the privileges and immunities provided in 4
the Federal Trade Commission Act. 5
(iii) A
UTHORITY PRESERVED .—Noth-6
ing in this section may be construed to 7
limit the authority of the Commission 8
under any other provision of law. 9
(2) E
NFORCEMENT BY STATES .— 10
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-11
graph (B), in any case in which the attorney 12
general of a State has reason to believe that an 13
interest of the residents of the State has been 14
or is threatened or adversely affected by the en-15
gagement of any person in an act or practice 16
that violates this section, the attorney general 17
of the State may, as parens patriae, bring a 18
civil action on behalf of the residents of the 19
State in an appropriate district court of the 20
United States to obtain appropriate relief. 21
(B) R
IGHTS OF THE COMMISSION .— 22
(i) N
OTICE TO THE COMMISSION .— 23
(I) I
N GENERAL.—Except as pro-24
vided in subclause (III), before initi-25
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ating a civil action under subpara-1
graph (A), the attorney general of a 2
State shall notify the Commission in 3
writing that the attorney general in-4
tends to bring such civil action. 5
(II) C
ONTENTS.—The notifica-6
tion required by subclause (I) shall in-7
clude a copy of the complaint to be 8
filed to initiate the civil action. 9
(III) E
XCEPTION.—If it is not 10
feasible for the attorney general of a 11
State to provide the notification re-12
quired by subclause (I) before initi-13
ating a civil action under subpara-14
graph (A), the attorney general shall 15
notify the Commission immediately 16
upon instituting the civil action. 17
(ii) I
NTERVENTION BY THE COMMIS -18
SION.—Upon receiving the notice required 19
by clause (i)(I), the Commission may inter-20
vene in the civil action and, upon inter-21
vening— 22
(I) be heard on all matters aris-23
ing in the civil action; and 24
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(II) file petitions for appeal of a 1
decision in the civil action. 2
(C) L
IMITATION ON STATE ACTION WHILE 3
FEDERAL ACTION IS PENDING .—If the Commis-4
sion has instituted a civil action for a violation 5
of this section or a regulation promulgated 6
under this section, no attorney general of a 7
State may bring an action under subparagraph 8
(A) during the pendency of that action against 9
any defendant named in the complaint of the 10
Commission for any violation of this section or 11
a regulation promulgated under this section al-12
leged in the complaint. 13
(D) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—For pur-14
poses of bringing a civil action under this sub-15
section, nothing in this subsection may be con-16
strued to prevent the attorney general of a 17
State from exercising the powers conferred on 18
the attorney general by the laws of the State to 19
conduct investigations, to administer oaths or 20
affirmations, or to compel the attendance of 21
witnesses or the production of documentary or 22
other evidence. 23
(E) A
CTIONS BY OTHER STATE OFFI -24
CIALS.—In addition to a civil action brought by 25
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an attorney general under subparagraph (A), 1
any other consumer protection officer of a State 2
who is authorized by the State to do so may 3
bring a civil action under subparagraph (A), 4
subject to the same requirements and limita-5
tions that apply under this paragraph to a civil 6
action brought by an attorney general. 7
(c) O
NENATIONALSTANDARD.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A State, or political subdivi-9
sion thereof, may not maintain, enforce, prescribe, 10
or continue in effect a provision of any law, rule, 11
regulation, requirement, or standard having the 12
force and effect of law of the State, or political sub-13
division of the State, that requires an online dating 14
service provider to notify, prohibits an online dating 15
service provider from notifying, or otherwise affects 16
the manner in which an online dating service pro-17
vider is required or permitted to notify, a member 18
of the online dating service that the member has re-19
ceived a message from or sent a message to a mem-20
ber whose account or profile on the online dating 21
service is the subject of a fraud ban through the on-22
line dating service. 23
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—This subsection 24
may not be construed to preempt any law of a State 25
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or political subdivision of a State relating to con-1
tracts or torts. 2
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) B
ANNED MEMBER .—The term ‘‘banned 4
member’’ means a member of an online dating serv-5
ice whose account or profile on the online dating 6
service is the subject of a fraud ban. 7
(2) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 8
means the Federal Trade Commission. 9
(3) F
RAUD BAN.—The term ‘‘fraud ban’’ means 10
the termination or suspension of the account or pro-11
file of a member of an online dating service because, 12
in the judgment of the online dating service pro-13
vider, there is a significant risk the member will at-14
tempt to obtain cash or another form of currency 15
from another member through fraudulent means. 16
(4) M
EMBER.—The term ‘‘member’’ means an 17
individual who— 18
(A) submits to an online dating service 19
provider the information required by the pro-20
vider to establish an account or profile on the 21
online dating service; and 22
(B) is allowed by the provider to establish 23
such an account or profile. 24
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(5) ONLINE DATING SERVICE .—The term ‘‘on-1
line dating service’’ means a service that— 2
(A) is provided through a website or a mo-3
bile application; and 4
(B) offers members access to dating or ro-5
mantic relationships with other members by ar-6
ranging or facilitating the social introduction of 7
members. 8
(6) O
NLINE DATING SERVICE PROVIDER .—The 9
term ‘‘online dating service provider’’ means a per-10
son engaged in the business of offering an online 11
dating service. 12
(7) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 13
State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 14
each commonwealth, territory, or possession of the 15
United States, and each federally recognized Indian 16
Tribe. 17
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall take effect 18
on the date that is 1 year after the date of the enactment 19
of this Act. 20
Æ
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