S. 2544 — GUARD Act

This section establishes definitions for terms used in the Act, including "(1) elder financial fraud," meaning the illegal or improper use of the money, property, or other resources of an elderly individual or adult with a disability for monetary or personal benefit; "(2) eligible Federal grant funds," meaning funds received under specified programs such as the Internet of Things National Training and Technical Assistance Program, Justice Information Sharing Training and Technical Assistance Program, cybercrimes enforcement grants under the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, and COPS Technology and Equipment Program grants under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381) for equipment, technologies, and interoperable communications to respond to and prevent crime; "(3) general financial fraud," meaning specified acts such as intentional misrepresentation or unlawful use of credit cards to obtain money or things of value; "(4) pig butchering," meaning a confidence and investment fraud luring victims into cryptocurrency contributions before the scammer disappears; "(5) scam," meaning a financial crime using social engineering to acquire funds or personal information; and "(6) State," meaning each of the several States, the District of Columbia, and each territory of the United States.

This section permits State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies and grantees receiving eligible federal grant funds to use such funds for investigating elder financial fraud, pig butchering, and general financial fraud, including by (1) hiring and retaining analysts, agents, experts, and other personnel; (2) providing training specific to complex financial investigations, including on coordination among agencies, victim assistance, blockchain intelligence tools and emerging technologies identified in the February 2024 Critical and Emerging Technology List Update of the National Science and Technology Council, and unique aspects of fraud investigations such as transnational cases; (3) obtaining software and technical tools; (4) encouraging improved data collection and reporting; (5) supporting training and tabletop exercises to enhance coordination and communication with financial institutions; and (6) designating a financial sector liaison as a point of contact for sharing fraud-related information. It requires each such agency or grantee to submit a report to the granting federal agency within one year detailing (1) the amount of funds used and specific purposes; (2) jurisdiction-specific statistics on such fraud, along with analysis of the funds' effects; and (3) an assessment of the agency's ability to deter such fraud.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and appropriate federal banking agencies and functional regulators, to jointly submit to Congress, not later than one year after enactment of this Act, a report on efforts and recommendations related to general financial fraud, pig butchering, elder financial fraud, and scams.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the appropriate Federal banking agencies and Federal functional regulators, to submit to Congress, not later than two years after the date of enactment, a report on the state of scams in the United States. The report must (1) estimate the annual number of financial fraud, pig butchering, elder financial fraud, and other scams (including attempted and successful scams via social media, online dating services, email, and impersonation of financial institutions and nonbank financial institutions); the annual number of affected consumers and dollar amount of losses; the percentage of scams attributable to overseas actors and organized crime; the annual number of attempted scams involving impersonation of financial institution phone numbers; and the annual number of synthetic identities impersonating American consumers; (2) provide an overview of Federal civil and criminal enforcement actions against recipients of scam proceeds, including the number of actions, their effectiveness, types of claims and penalties imposed, types of relief obtained, and the number connected to Suspicious Activity Reports; and (3) identify amounts made available and expended to address such scams by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Communications Commission, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Trade Commission, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Social Security Administration. In preparing the report, the Secretary of the Treasury must solicit comments from consumers, social media companies, email providers, telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and nonbank financial institutions.

This section requires each federal agency providing eligible federal grant funds used for purposes specified in section 3(a) to submit an annual report to the Senate Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the Judiciary and the House Committees on Financial Services and the Judiciary containing information received from law enforcement agencies under section 3(b).