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Han Li

US lawmakers are trying to identify which foreign countries are the biggest sources of unlawful robocalls targeting Americans, as Congress steps up efforts to combat a surge in phone scams.
The inquiry follows a string of US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee passed the bipartisan “Foreign Robocall Elimination Act” on Tuesday, which would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish an inter-agency task force focused on unlawful robocalls originating overseas.
“Everyone with a phone has received a robocall or scam call,” said Representative Tom Kean Jnr, a Republican from New Jersey. “Robocalls originating from overseas pose an especially nefarious threat. Congress has taken strides to identify and to trace back illegal robocalls.”
Under the House bill, the task force would study the volume of unlawful robocalls originating inside and outside the US and determine which foreign countries serve as the main departure points for the most calls entering the country.


It would also assess the financial losses and identity theft associated with foreign-originating robocalls, examine how countries could work together to authenticate international calls, and consider incentives for foreign governments to cooperate with US law enforcement.
Tracing fraudulent robocalls remains nearly impossible as scammers routinely spoof caller ID data and route automated traffic through an untraceable web of global telecom networks.
The legislation would allow the FCC to require that some voice service providers post a bond before certifying themselves in the agency’s Robocall Mitigation Database.
It would also provide legal immunity for an industry consortium conducting traceback investigations, shielding it from lawsuits over sharing or publishing the information it gathers on suspected unlawful robocalls.
A companion bill has already passed the US Senate.
China is not mentioned, but …
The legislation does not mention China or any Southeast Asian country by name. However, major scam compounds are concentrated in Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, with US officials and international investigators linking many operations to Chinese transnational criminal groups.
The compounds often rely on trafficked workers who are lured by fake job offers and then forced, under threats of violence, to carry out online scams.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a March report that the US government estimated Americans lost at least US$10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams in 2024, with higher losses projected in 2025. The commission said Chinese criminal organisations were the major force behind industrial-scale scam centres in the region.
The House Select Committee on China released a May 2026 investigation, similarly saying China-linked scam centres concentrated particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar are part of a broader criminal ecosystem involving fraud, human trafficking and money laundering, also estimating the fraud losses by Americans at around US$10 billion annually.
Fraudsters are increasingly using artificial intelligence to generate convincing voices, messages and online personas, enabling them to pose as relatives, employers or government officials. The technology has been used in romance scams, fake job offers, investment fraud and sextortion.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington previously told the South China Morning Post that China and the United States have been cooperating to combat transnational scam crime, describing it as a “common responsibility” and saying the efforts had produced positive results without providing significant detail.
The spokesperson said the two countries had engaged in practical cooperation in areas including combating telecommunications fraud and online gambling, repatriating and pursuing fugitives, and that the efforts had produced “many tangible results”.
Separately, on Tuesday, the committee’s Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee advanced H.R. 5967, the Strategic Task Force on Scam Prevention Act. The bipartisan bill would direct the US Federal Trade Commission, working with the US Department of Justice, to convene an inter-agency task force to develop a national strategy for combating scams.


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Inquiry comes as US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia


Inquiry comes as US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia.


US Congress seeks to identify foreign countries behind scam calls

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Inquiry comes as US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia

Inquiry comes as US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia