{
  "id": 4957685,
  "title": "US Congress seeks to identify foreign countries behind scam calls",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/us-congress-seeks-to-identify-foreign-countries-behind-scam-calls-4957685",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-01T22:30:49.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Reuters Business via SCMP",
    "slug": "reuters-business-via-scmp",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/news/us/diplomacy/article/3366036/us-congress-seeks-identify-foreign-countries-behind-scam-calls"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "US lawmakers are working to identify which foreign countries are the primary sources of unlawful robocalls targeting Americans, as Congress intensifies efforts to tackle a surge in phone scams. The inquiry is based on several US government reports linking the majority of scam-related financial damage to Chinese criminal networks operating in Southeast Asia. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee approved the bipartisan \"Foreign Robocall Elimination Act\" on Tuesday. According to Rep. Tom Kean Jr, a Republican from New Jersey, robocalls originating from overseas present a particularly nefarious threat. The bill aims to direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish an inter-agency task force to focus on unlawful robocalls originating overseas. This task force would analyze the volume of unlawful robocalls coming from within and outside the US, identify which foreign countries serve as the main sources for calls entering the country, assess the financial losses and identity theft associated with foreign-originating robocalls, and explore ways for countries to collaborate on authenticating international calls. The legislation also proposes requiring some voice service providers to post a bond before being certified in the agency's Robocall Mitigation Database and providing legal immunity for an industry consortium conducting traceback investigations. While the legislation does not explicitly mention China or individual Southeast Asian countries, major scam operations are concentrated in countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, with US officials and international investigators linking many operations to Chinese transnational criminal groups. These criminal organizations often exploit trafficked workers who are coerced through threats of violence into carrying out online scams. According to a March report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Americans lost at least $10 billion to scams originating from Southeast Asia in 2024, with losses expected to rise in 2025. The commission also stated that Chinese criminal organizations were the primary force behind industrial-scale scam centers in the region. A May 2026 investigation by the House Select Committee on China reached a similar conclusion, linking Chinese-linked scam centers in Cambodia and Myanmar to a broader criminal ecosystem involving fraud, human trafficking, and money laundering, estimating fraud losses for Americans at around $10 billion annually. Fraudsters are increasingly using artificial intelligence to create convincing voices, messages, and online personas, enabling them to impersonate relatives, employers, or government officials. This technology has been employed in romance scams, fake job offers, investment fraud, and sextortion. A Chinese embassy spokesperson told the South China Morning Post that China and the United States have been collaborating to combat transnational scam crime, describing it as a \"common responsibility\" and reporting tangible results, though providing few details. On Tuesday, the committee's Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee approved the Strategic Task Force on Scam Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill that would direct the US Federal Trade Commission, in cooperation with the US Department of Justice, to create an inter-agency task force to develop a national strategy for combating scams.",
  "summary": "US lawmakers are trying to identify which foreign countries are the biggest sources of unlawful robocalls targeting Americans, as Congress steps up efforts to combat a surge in phone scams. The inquiry follows a string of US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "South China Morning Post",
        "title": "US Congress seeks to identify foreign countries behind scam calls",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/us-congress-seeks-to-identify-foreign-countries-behind-scam-calls",
        "published": "2026-09-01T22:30:49.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}