There are now about 411 million mobile lines in the U.S., plus millions more landlines. It is estimated telemarketers make 166 million sales calls each day. In order to identify potential customers, telemarketers often purchase consumer profiles from merchants and other information brokers. In 2024, Americans lost nearly $1 billion to telemarketing scams. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that while online scams had the highest total dollar losses, victims lost more money per person ($1,500 median) from phone-based scams compared to other contact methods. That same year the FTC received over 2 million Do Not Call complaints related to telemarketing and unwanted calls, which are used to identify and combat fraud. Within this, there were about 1.1 million robocall complaints. The demographic of telemarketing fraud victims is complex. Adults over 65 years old lost the most money overall, but were less likely to be victims of phone scams. A large percentage of this group doesn't answer unfamiliar calls and uses caller ID or the "Do Not Call" registry. Younger adults (18-44) were three times more likely than older adults to be successfully targeted by scams and reported being victims more than once. They also experienced a higher frequency of being scammed.

Telemarketing trade groups claim their industry creates millions of jobs and pumps more than $21 billion into our economy. Even so, at least 70% of Americans have added their telephone numbers to the FTC’s do-not-call registry which prohibits commercial telemarketers from calling residences on this list. Telemarketers claim the do-not-call list is unconstitutional because it limits speech based on its content and because it only bans marketing calls - not calls from politicians, charities and others.

Pending Legislation: S.2019 - Taskforce for Recognizing and Averting Payment Scams (TRAPS) Act
Sponsor: Sen. Mike Crapo (ID)
Status: Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Chair: Sen. Tim Scott (SC)

• I oppose reforming current telemarketing fraud policy and wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Leader John Thune (SD).
• I support establishing a task force to combat payment fraud led by the Secretary of the Treasury, would include representatives from various government agencies, financial institutions, and consumer groups to examine scams, coordinate prevention efforts, and recommend solutions by:
  
  1.) Addressing the lack of a unified approach to payment scams by bringing together key players to share information and develop prevention measures.
  
  2.) Making the task force responsible for examining the latest fraud trends, including schemes that use new technologies and emotionally manipulative tactics to trick victims into voluntarily sending money.
  
  3.) Proposing legislative and regulatory changes to better combat scams and improve support for victims.
  
  4.) Issuing an initial report and annual updates for three years to guide federal action.
  
  And wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Sen. Tim Scott (SC) and/or to an advocate group currently working with this issue.