President Trump brought his cabinet into the East Room on Wednesday and put the world’s scammers on notice. “For years our nation has faced a growing menace of cybercrime, perpetrated by fraudsters, hackers, and scammers who try to steal Americans’ money, prey on senior citizens, exploit children and young people through fraud, ransomware, impersonation schemes, and other illegal acts,” the President said at a White House roundtable joined by Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The President laid out how big the threat has become. “Countless American victims have had their life savings, bank accounts, college funds, and more emptied by these thieves. And that’s exactly what they are,” he said. “Almost three-quarters of American adults have been subjected to internet scams, cyberattacks.” Americans reported losing more than $20 billion to cyber-enabled crimes, he said, “and this is just what’s reported.”
Then he delivered the results. Federal law enforcement has prevented at least $1.6 billion in losses this year, frozen nearly $1 billion of cybercurrency tied to foreign scammers, shut down more than 500 fraudulent websites, and worked with technology companies to disrupt millions of online accounts used by foreign criminals. Trump pointed to his March executive order ordering every relevant agency to fight predatory internet schemes and set up a victims’ restoration program, and to the national security memorandum he signed in August unleashing American companies to go on offense against the scam centers.
His team is turning those orders into arrests. Blanche said the Justice Department has moved past handing these cases to single offices. “Because of the magnitude of this issue, it demands a nationwide response,” he said, describing a new cyber-enabled scam initiative that deploys dozens of prosecutors across all 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices so “every case is built to take down not just one scammer, but the whole network.” Patel said the FBI’s Operation Blackout has demolished more than 20 scam compounds overseas, seized more than $17 billion and protected 11,000 Americans. Miller told the President, “You have effectively declared cyber warfare against the cyber criminals, and that is saving the pensions, the life savings, the retirement accounts, the earnings of countless American citizens.”
Trump closed with a promise to every family worried about a parent or grandparent. “To any American who might find themselves a victim of online fraud, extortion, scams, especially young people and our great seniors,” he said, “I want you to know that the Trump administration is here to support you and will bring the perpetrators to justice. We will do it quickly, as quickly as anybody can believe.” His advice to victims: talk to trusted family members and go straight to law enforcement. “So we will work tirelessly to help recover what has been stolen and dismantle the criminal networks that prey on our people.”
