Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2481 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2481
55 To require online dating service providers to provide fraud ban notifications
66 to online dating service members, and for other purposes.
77 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
88 MARCH31, 2025
99 Mr. V
1010 ALADAO(for himself, Ms. PETTERSEN, Mr. GOLDMANof Texas, and Mr.
1111 S
1212 UOZZI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
1313 mittee on Energy and Commerce
1414 A BILL
1515 To require online dating service providers to provide fraud
1616 ban notifications to online dating service members, and
1717 for other purposes.
1818 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1919 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2020 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2121 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Romance Scam Pre-4
2222 vention Act’’. 5
2323 SEC. 2. ROMANCE SCAM PREVENTION. 6
2424 (a) F
2525 RAUDBANNOTIFICATION.— 7
2626 (1) I
2727 N GENERAL.—An online dating service pro-8
2828 vider shall provide to a member of the online dating 9
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3232 service a fraud ban notification if the member has 1
3333 received a message through the online dating service 2
3434 from a banned member of the online dating service. 3
3535 (2) R
3636 EQUIRED CONTENTS .—A fraud ban notifi-4
3737 cation under paragraph (1) shall include the fol-5
3838 lowing: 6
3939 (A) The username or other profile identi-7
4040 fier of the banned member, as well as the most 8
4141 recent time when the member to whom the noti-9
4242 fication is being provided sent or received a 10
4343 message through the online dating service to or 11
4444 from the banned member. 12
4545 (B) A statement, as applicable, that the 13
4646 banned member identified in subparagraph (A) 14
4747 may have been using a false identity or at-15
4848 tempting to defraud members. 16
4949 (C) A statement that a member should not 17
5050 send cash or another form of currency or per-18
5151 sonal financial information to another member. 19
5252 (D) Information regarding best practices 20
5353 to avoid online fraud or being defrauded by a 21
5454 member of an online dating service, which may 22
5555 be provided through a link to another web page 23
5656 or disclosure. 24
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6060 (E) Contact information to reach the cus-1
6161 tomer service department of the online dating 2
6262 service provider. 3
6363 (3) M
6464 ANNER AND TIMING.— 4
6565 (A) M
6666 ANNER.—A fraud ban notification 5
6767 under paragraph (1) shall be— 6
6868 (i) clear and conspicuous; and 7
6969 (ii) provided by email, text message, 8
7070 or, if consented to by the member receiving 9
7171 the fraud ban notification, other appro-10
7272 priate means of communication. 11
7373 (B) T
7474 IMING.— 12
7575 (i) I
7676 N GENERAL.—Except as provided 13
7777 in clauses (ii) and (iii), an online dating 14
7878 service provider shall provide a fraud ban 15
7979 notification under paragraph (1) not later 16
8080 than 24 hours after the fraud ban is initi-17
8181 ated against the banned member. 18
8282 (ii) D
8383 ELAY BASED ON JUDGMENT OF 19
8484 PROVIDER.—If, in the judgment of the on-20
8585 line dating service provider, the cir-21
8686 cumstances require a fraud ban notifica-22
8787 tion under paragraph (1) to be provided 23
8888 after the 24-hour period described in 24
8989 clause (i), the online dating service pro-25
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9393 vider shall, except as provided in clause 1
9494 (iii), provide the notification not later than 2
9595 3 days after the day on which the fraud 3
9696 ban is initiated against the banned mem-4
9797 ber. 5
9898 (iii) D
9999 ELAY UPON REQUEST OF LAW 6
100100 ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL .—If, due to an 7
101101 ongoing investigation, a law enforcement 8
102102 official requests an online dating service 9
103103 provider to delay providing a fraud ban no-10
104104 tification under paragraph (1) beyond the 11
105105 time when the notification is required to be 12
106106 provided under clause (i) or (ii), the online 13
107107 dating service provider— 14
108108 (I) may not provide the notifica-15
109109 tion before the end of the period of 16
110110 delay (including any extension of such 17
111111 period) requested by the law enforce-18
112112 ment official; and 19
113113 (II) shall provide the notification 20
114114 not later than 3 days after the last 21
115115 day of the period of delay (including 22
116116 any extension of such period) re-23
117117 quested by the law enforcement offi-24
118118 cial. 25
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122122 (4) SAFE HARBOR APPLICABILITY .—An online 1
123123 dating service provider is not liable to a member, a 2
124124 banned member, or a former member for a claim 3
125125 based on an online dating service provider’s action 4
126126 to comply with the requirements for providing a 5
127127 fraud ban notification under this subsection. 6
128128 (b) E
129129 NFORCEMENT.— 7
130130 (1) E
131131 NFORCEMENT BY THE COMMISSION .— 8
132132 (A) U
133133 NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -9
134134 TICES.—A violation of this section or a regula-10
135135 tion promulgated under this section shall be 11
136136 treated as a violation of a rule defining an un-12
137137 fair or deceptive act or practice under section 13
138138 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission 14
139139 Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 15
140140 (B) P
141141 OWERS OF COMMISSION .— 16
142142 (i) I
143143 N GENERAL.—The Commission 17
144144 shall enforce this section in the same man-18
145145 ner, by the same means, and with the 19
146146 same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as 20
147147 though all applicable terms and provisions 21
148148 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 22
149149 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into 23
150150 and made a part of this section. 24
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154154 (ii) PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .— 1
155155 Any person who violates this section shall 2
156156 be subject to the penalties and entitled to 3
157157 the privileges and immunities provided in 4
158158 the Federal Trade Commission Act. 5
159159 (iii) A
160160 UTHORITY PRESERVED .—Noth-6
161161 ing in this section may be construed to 7
162162 limit the authority of the Commission 8
163163 under any other provision of law. 9
164164 (2) E
165165 NFORCEMENT BY STATES .— 10
166166 (A) I
167167 N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-11
168168 graph (B), in any case in which the attorney 12
169169 general of a State has reason to believe that an 13
170170 interest of the residents of the State has been 14
171171 or is threatened or adversely affected by the en-15
172172 gagement of any person in an act or practice 16
173173 that violates this section, the attorney general 17
174174 of the State may, as parens patriae, bring a 18
175175 civil action on behalf of the residents of the 19
176176 State in an appropriate district court of the 20
177177 United States to obtain appropriate relief. 21
178178 (B) R
179179 IGHTS OF THE COMMISSION .— 22
180180 (i) N
181181 OTICE TO THE COMMISSION .— 23
182182 (I) I
183183 N GENERAL.—Except as pro-24
184184 vided in subclause (III), before initi-25
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188188 ating a civil action under subpara-1
189189 graph (A), the attorney general of a 2
190190 State shall notify the Commission in 3
191191 writing that the attorney general in-4
192192 tends to bring such civil action. 5
193193 (II) C
194194 ONTENTS.—The notifica-6
195195 tion required by subclause (I) shall in-7
196196 clude a copy of the complaint to be 8
197197 filed to initiate the civil action. 9
198198 (III) E
199199 XCEPTION.—If it is not 10
200200 feasible for the attorney general of a 11
201201 State to provide the notification re-12
202202 quired by subclause (I) before initi-13
203203 ating a civil action under subpara-14
204204 graph (A), the attorney general shall 15
205205 notify the Commission immediately 16
206206 upon instituting the civil action. 17
207207 (ii) I
208208 NTERVENTION BY THE COMMIS -18
209209 SION.—Upon receiving the notice required 19
210210 by clause (i)(I), the Commission may inter-20
211211 vene in the civil action and, upon inter-21
212212 vening— 22
213213 (I) be heard on all matters aris-23
214214 ing in the civil action; and 24
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218218 (II) file petitions for appeal of a 1
219219 decision in the civil action. 2
220220 (C) L
221221 IMITATION ON STATE ACTION WHILE 3
222222 FEDERAL ACTION IS PENDING .—If the Commis-4
223223 sion has instituted a civil action for a violation 5
224224 of this section or a regulation promulgated 6
225225 under this section, no attorney general of a 7
226226 State may bring an action under subparagraph 8
227227 (A) during the pendency of that action against 9
228228 any defendant named in the complaint of the 10
229229 Commission for any violation of this section or 11
230230 a regulation promulgated under this section al-12
231231 leged in the complaint. 13
232232 (D) R
233233 ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—For pur-14
234234 poses of bringing a civil action under this sub-15
235235 section, nothing in this subsection may be con-16
236236 strued to prevent the attorney general of a 17
237237 State from exercising the powers conferred on 18
238238 the attorney general by the laws of the State to 19
239239 conduct investigations, to administer oaths or 20
240240 affirmations, or to compel the attendance of 21
241241 witnesses or the production of documentary or 22
242242 other evidence. 23
243243 (E) A
244244 CTIONS BY OTHER STATE OFFI -24
245245 CIALS.—In addition to a civil action brought by 25
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249249 an attorney general under subparagraph (A), 1
250250 any other consumer protection officer of a State 2
251251 who is authorized by the State to do so may 3
252252 bring a civil action under subparagraph (A), 4
253253 subject to the same requirements and limita-5
254254 tions that apply under this paragraph to a civil 6
255255 action brought by an attorney general. 7
256256 (c) O
257257 NENATIONALSTANDARD.— 8
258258 (1) I
259259 N GENERAL.—A State, or political subdivi-9
260260 sion thereof, may not maintain, enforce, prescribe, 10
261261 or continue in effect a provision of any law, rule, 11
262262 regulation, requirement, or standard having the 12
263263 force and effect of law of the State, or political sub-13
264264 division of the State, that requires an online dating 14
265265 service provider to notify, prohibits an online dating 15
266266 service provider from notifying, or otherwise affects 16
267267 the manner in which an online dating service pro-17
268268 vider is required or permitted to notify, a member 18
269269 of the online dating service that the member has re-19
270270 ceived a message from or sent a message to a mem-20
271271 ber whose account or profile on the online dating 21
272272 service is the subject of a fraud ban through the on-22
273273 line dating service. 23
274274 (2) R
275275 ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—This subsection 24
276276 may not be construed to preempt any law of a State 25
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280280 or political subdivision of a State relating to con-1
281281 tracts or torts. 2
282282 (d) D
283283 EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
284284 (1) B
285285 ANNED MEMBER .—The term ‘‘banned 4
286286 member’’ means a member of an online dating serv-5
287287 ice whose account or profile on the online dating 6
288288 service is the subject of a fraud ban. 7
289289 (2) C
290290 OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 8
291291 means the Federal Trade Commission. 9
292292 (3) F
293293 RAUD BAN.—The term ‘‘fraud ban’’ means 10
294294 the termination or suspension of the account or pro-11
295295 file of a member of an online dating service because, 12
296296 in the judgment of the online dating service pro-13
297297 vider, there is a significant risk the member will at-14
298298 tempt to obtain cash or another form of currency 15
299299 from another member through fraudulent means. 16
300300 (4) M
301301 EMBER.—The term ‘‘member’’ means an 17
302302 individual who— 18
303303 (A) submits to an online dating service 19
304304 provider the information required by the pro-20
305305 vider to establish an account or profile on the 21
306306 online dating service; and 22
307307 (B) is allowed by the provider to establish 23
308308 such an account or profile. 24
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312312 (5) ONLINE DATING SERVICE .—The term ‘‘on-1
313313 line dating service’’ means a service that— 2
314314 (A) is provided through a website or a mo-3
315315 bile application; and 4
316316 (B) offers members access to dating or ro-5
317317 mantic relationships with other members by ar-6
318318 ranging or facilitating the social introduction of 7
319319 members. 8
320320 (6) O
321321 NLINE DATING SERVICE PROVIDER .—The 9
322322 term ‘‘online dating service provider’’ means a per-10
323323 son engaged in the business of offering an online 11
324324 dating service. 12
325325 (7) S
326326 TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 13
327327 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 14
328328 each commonwealth, territory, or possession of the 15
329329 United States, and each federally recognized Indian 16
330330 Tribe. 17
331331 (e) E
332332 FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall take effect 18
333333 on the date that is 1 year after the date of the enactment 19
334334 of this Act. 20
335335 Æ
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