Senate clears Blackburn-backed bill requiring dating app fraud alerts
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The U.S. Senate has passed a bipartisan bill backed by Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn that would require dating apps to alert some users when an account that messaged them is banned for suspected financial fraud.
The Senate passed H.R. 2481, known as the Romance Scam Prevention Act, without amendment by unanimous consent on Sept. 23. The House passed the measure in June 2025, meaning the bill now heads to President Donald Trump.
Blackburn, a Republican, introduced Senate companion legislation with Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado. The measure that cleared Congress was introduced in the House by Republican Rep. David Valadao of California.
If signed, the law would take effect one year after enactment.
Under the bill, an online dating service would have to send a fraud-ban notification to a user who received a message from an account that was later banned because the service determined there was a significant risk the account holder would try to fraudulently obtain money.
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The requirement would not apply to every person who may have interacted with the account. The bill specifically refers to users who received a message from the banned account through the dating service.
The notice would need to identify the banned account and tell the recipient when they most recently sent or received a message with that user. It also would need to warn that the person may have used a false identity or attempted to defraud users, advise people not to send cash or financial information and provide fraud-prevention resources and customer-service contact information.
Dating apps generally would have 24 hours after issuing a fraud ban to send the notice. The bill allows an app to take up to three days in some circumstances and permits longer delays if requested by law enforcement during an active investigation.
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The Federal Trade Commission would enforce the law, while state attorneys general and other authorized state consumer-protection officials could bring civil actions.
The legislation focuses on a common way romance scammers try to build trust before seeking money. The FTC reported that nearly 70,000 people reported romance scams in 2022, with reported losses reaching $1.3 billion.
But dating apps are only one route scammers use. Among 2022 romance-scam loss reports that identified a contact method, the FTC said 40% began on social media and 19% began on a website or app.
In Tennessee, the FBI reported that people 60 and older filed 1,577 fraud complaints in 2023 and reported losing about $43.75 million. That was up from about $36.57 million in reported losses in 2022 — an increase of roughly 19.6%.
Those Tennessee figures include all reported fraud types involving people 60 and older, not romance scams alone.
The FTC advises people not to send cash, gift cards, wire transfers or cryptocurrency to someone they know only online. Suspicious profiles or messages can be reported to the dating app and to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.