H.R. 2481 · 119th Congress

Romance Scam Prevention Act

Introduced on Mar 31, 2025 by David G. Valadao (R-CA-22). 9 cosponsors, 4 of them from another party. Latest action (Sep 24, 2026): Message on Senate action sent to the House.

Stage
Passed both chambers
Introduced
Mar 31, 2025
Cosponsors
9
4 from the other party
Policy area
Commerce
Open in the Congress explorerCongress.govAlert me

Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. Reported by committee
  3. Passed one chamber
  4. Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

To require online dating service providers to provide fraud ban notifications to online dating service members, and for other purposes.

Subjects

  • Civil actions and liability
  • Consumer affairs
  • Fraud offenses and financial crimes
  • Internet, web applications, social media
  • Licensing and registrations

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in House, Mar 31, 2025). Public domain.

Romance Scam Prevention Act

This bill requires online dating service providers (i.e., mobile applications or websites) to provide users with a fraud ban notification if the user has established an account with the service and received a message through the service from a banned user of the service.

The fraud ban notification must include (1) the username or other profile identifier of the banned user and the most recent time when the user who is receiving the notification sent or received a message through the service to or from the banned user, (2) a statement that the banned user may have been using a false identity or attempting to defraud other users, (3) a statement that the user should not send cash (or another form of currency) or personal financial information to another user, (4) information about avoiding online fraud (e.g., a link to another website or a disclosure) and (5) contact information for the provider's customer service department.

The bill provides for enforcement of these requirements by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

David G. ValadaoR-CA-22Sponsor

Democrats · 4

Republicans · 5

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Mar 31, 2025Introduced in House
  2. Mar 31, 2025Introduced in House
  3. Mar 31, 2025 · HouseReferred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
  4. Apr 8, 2025 · HouseCommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
  5. Apr 8, 2025 · HouseOrdered to be Reported by Voice Vote.
  6. Jun 12, 2025Reported by the Committee on Energy and Commerce. H. Rept. 119-153.
  7. Jun 12, 2025 · HouseReported by the Committee on Energy and Commerce. H. Rept. 119-153.
  8. Jun 12, 2025 · HousePlaced on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 119.
  9. Jun 23, 2025 · HouseMr. Bilirakis moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill.
  10. Jun 23, 2025 · HouseConsidered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H2848-2850)
  11. Jun 23, 2025 · HouseDEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 2481.
  12. Jun 23, 2025Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H2848-2849)
  13. Jun 23, 2025 · HouseOn motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H2848-2849)
  14. Jun 23, 2025 · HouseMotion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  15. Jun 24, 2025 · SenateReceived in the Senate.
  16. Jun 17, 2026 · SenateRead twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 438.
  17. Sep 23, 2026Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S4902)
  18. Sep 23, 2026 · SenatePassed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S4902)
  19. Sep 24, 2026 · SenateMessage on Senate action sent to the House.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. American Association for Justice6 reports
    $9.2M reported (all issues)
  2. Gen Digital Inc (formerly NortonLifeLock Inc.)3 reports
    $460K reported (all issues)
  3. Bumble Trading LLC2 reports
    $100K reported (all issues)
  4. ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL ADVERTISERS, INC.1 report
  5. MATCH GROUP, INC.1 report

Reports filed in 2025, 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 10, 2026 · loaded Oct 10, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 10, 2026 · loaded Oct 10, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.