Op-Ed: LOCAL PROSECUTORS NEED FEDERAL SUPPORT TO STOP INTERNATIONAL FRAUD

My office handles a wide range of misdemeanor cases throughout the year, from theft and fraud to assault and more. When someone in Muscogee County is victimized, we work to hold the person responsible accountable.

One area where bringing justice has become increasingly difficult, however, is cybercrime, which includes crimes involving computers, phones, networks, or the internet. These crimes are now among the most common ways Georgians lose money, yet the people behind them are often far beyond the reach of local prosecutors.

In 2024, Georgia ranked seventh in the nation for cybercrime losses, which increased by 40 percent to more than $420 million stolen. Nationally, Americans lost more than $10 billion to scams and online fraud.

These schemes are happening across nearly every corner of the internet as criminals exploit every financial and online platform available to them. Social media scams alone account for more than $2 billion in losses, while cryptocurrency scams, romance scams, imposter schemes, and even retirement related fraud continue to grow.

The challenge in combating this rise in cybercrime is not just the scale of the problem, but where it originates. Modern fraud has become a highly organized and profitable global industry. Over the past year, investigators and journalists have documented the growth of large scale scam operations in Cambodia. Chinese crime syndicates have built sprawling compounds, some as large as small towns, where trafficked workers are forced to run fraud operations around the clock targeting Americans.

Residents of Muscogee County were likely among those targeted by these networks. Earlier this year, people across the community began receiving calls from individuals posing as law enforcement officers. The callers claimed residents had missed jury duty and would be arrested unless they paid immediately. In reality, the “officers” were scammers, likely sitting thousands of miles away and reading from a prepared script.

That reality makes the job of local officials and law enforcement especially difficult. My office can issue public warnings, work with investigators to identify patterns, and prosecute scammers who operate locally and are caught. What we cannot do is hold accountable someone committing crimes from nearly 10,000 miles away. Addressing that threat requires a coordinated federal response.

So far, some of the proposals coming out of Congress have missed the mark, with certain lawmakers only suggesting forcing financial platforms to reimburse every victim of a scam conducted on their networks. While that may sound appealing, it does little to stop the criminals themselves. Scammers use every financial channel available, and shifting losses onto one category of platform will not deter overseas criminal organizations or help victims targeted elsewhere. Instead, those costs are likely to be passed on to consumers and small businesses that rely on those services.

Congress needs a broader and more effective strategy to fight back against this complicated problem. A good place to start would be passing the bipartisan TRAPS Act, which would establish a coordinated public private task force focused on combating transnational scam operations.

Beyond coordination, federal lawmakers must ensure law enforcement agencies have the resources necessary to investigate these networks. Tracking international criminal organizations requires advanced technology, trained personnel, and the ability to work across borders. The United States must also increase pressure on foreign governments to shut down scam compounds operating within their borders.

The jury duty scam that targeted Muscogee County last month was not unique. It is part of a playbook that has worked in communities across the country, and the people behind it will continue using it elsewhere tomorrow. I have consulted with state officials like Representative Teddy Reese, local officials, and community leaders to strategize about educating the public and coming up with policy solutions to minimize harm to the public. My office will keep doing everything it can locally, but truly stopping these crimes requires targeting the organizations running them, so Georgia’s leaders in Washington should make that effort a priority.