Viral scam-busting duo Ashton Bingham and Art Kulik traded call-center takedowns for congressional backdrops on National Scam Survivor Day, joining Rep. George Whitesides on Capitol Hill to push a federal plan to centralize the government's response to fraud. The event mixed raw, emotional testimony from victims with the pair's sting-style videos as lawmakers argued for a national coordinating office that could move faster to stop scams and help those already hit.
Whitesides cast the effort as a way to turn viral outrage and painful personal losses into a real federal game plan instead of scattered responses. At the Thursday press conference, he unveiled the National Scam Prevention Coordination Act and spotlighted survivors, including Rockville retiree Judith Boivin, who told lawmakers she lost roughly $600,000 in an elaborate scam.
As reported by Spectrum News, Whitesides said, “we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people who have been victimized,” and urged Congress to build the capacity to respond to the scale of the crisis. The session doubled as both a listening tour and a policy pitch, pairing survivor accounts with concrete ideas on prevention and reporting.
What the Bill Would Create
The National Scam Prevention Coordination Act (H.R. 6681) would set up an Office of the National Fraud and Scam Prevention inside the Executive Office of the President. A director, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, would be tasked with coordinating the work of federal departments, advising the White House, and bringing in private-sector partners.
According to the bill text on Congress.gov, the new office would also be responsible for creating a "fraud data shield" to allow sharing of non-personally identifiable scam data and for producing an annual report to the President and Congress on how well the strategy is working. In plain terms, supporters want a central hub that tracks what scammers are doing and whether federal responses are actually helping.
Why Lawmakers Say a Central Office Is Needed
Federal numbers underscore the concern. The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report found that cyber-enabled crimes defrauded Americans of nearly $21 billion in the previous year, with investment and cryptocurrency schemes ranking among the most expensive losses. Supporters say those figures are likely a floor, not a ceiling, since many victims never report what happened.
The FBI stresses that filing complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center helps law enforcement spot patterns and coordinate investigations across jurisdictions. Lawmakers backing the bill leaned on that logic, arguing that a single coordinating office could reduce duplicated efforts, close gaps between agencies, and speed up how the federal government reacts when scams hit on a large scale.
From Online Stings to the Halls of Power
For Bingham and Kulik, founders of Los Angeles-based Trilogy Media, the Capitol Hill spotlight was a natural extension of their online work. They told lawmakers that their sting videos are designed not just to humiliate scammers, but to chip away at the shame that keeps many victims quiet and isolated.
The pair recently took that approach to television with a Fox Nation series that the network promoted as a way to expose real-world scammers and the tactics they use, according to Fox News. Supporters at the event said that combining survivors' voices with high-profile public education campaigns can push more people to come forward and report crimes instead of staying silent.
What Victims Should Know
Consumer-protection groups and federal officials say the first steps after a scam are straightforward but critical. Victims are urged to contact their bank or financial institution, save emails, texts, and any other communications with the scammer, and place a freeze or fraud alert on their credit.
The FBI recommends filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov, which feeds information to law enforcement and helps build a clearer national picture of scam activity. The Better Business Bureau's Scam Survivor Day campaign similarly encourages people to share their experiences so others can learn the warning signs, according to the BBB Institute.
Whitesides and his allies are betting that if victims speak up, advocates amplify their stories, and the federal government pulls its tools into a single strategy, scammers will have a much harder time treating Americans' bank accounts like an open bar.
