“International False Claims Recovery Act of 2026.”
One hundred nineteenth Congress of the United States of America—At the second session.
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the ___ day of ___, two thousand twenty-six.
An Act to reclaim American money lost to overseas telephone fraud through penalty-tariffs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives—
Preamble:
Whereas the scourge of foreign tele-fraud drains American households of billions every single year, and whereas the current patchwork of international agreements amounts to nothing more than polite finger-pointing—let it therefore be resolved that the Congress of the United States shall, with clarity, speed, and zero mercy, impose upon the sovereign duty of every nation to cleanse its own garden. Let them not whine about sovereignty when their citizens prey on our grandmothers, let them not cry fair trade when the exchange is rigged from caller-ID spoof to wire transfer. Let this Act stand as both ledger and whip, and let every scam ringtone ringing across the Pacific be answered not with confusion, but with a tariff slip.
Section 1. Short Title.
This Act may be cited as the: "False Claims Act" or the "FCA"
Section 2. Definitions.
a) “Verified scam call” means any voice communication—originating outside the continental U.S.—containing audio markers of deception plus reported loss or attempted loss by the victim(s).
b) “Commerce Ledger” means the quarterly compilation of verified claims maintained by the Secretary of Commerce.
c) “Baseline tariff rate” means the existing statutory duty on imports from the nation whose citizens originate the call.
Section 3. Reporting Mechanism.
a) Within ninety days of enactment the Department of Commerce shall establish a secure online portal.
b) On said "portal", any U.S. citizen may submit a scam call. In this report they must include the phone number used to call the victim, an accurate time-stamp of when the call occurred and two what number, the loss amount, and—if captured—sixty-second timestamped audio. (What makes this successful, is the cooperation of "call origination" software. If the call originated via a anonymizer, then the country where the anonymizer is hosted, will suffer the tariff bill. If the anonymizer is hosted in the United States, then they will be restricted to accepting only US based non-anonymous customers for 30 days, verified with a credit card tied to a real person.)
c) Automated AI shall validate authenticity within thirty days; no human hearing required unless flagged borderline.
Section 4. Penalty Computation.
a) No loss: If it was an attempted scam call, a twenty-five dollar additional tariff per claim to that nation’s tariff ledger, reconciled quarterly.
b) Loss occurs: If any financial loss occurred, the base multiplier is ten times the dollar amount lost. (Eg. if $150, then the compensation to the victim is $1500 tax free dollars paid to the victim through an additional quarterly tariff increase.)
c) Tiered multipliers—
- Victim sixty-five or older—times five. (Eg. If the victim was scammed for $150, then it would be $150x10x5, for a total of $7,500.00, paid on the following quarter reconciliation report.)
- Victim a veteran—times two. (Eg. If the victim was a Veteran, scammed for $150, then it would be $150x10x2, for a total of $3000.00)
- Loss over five hundred dollars—times two. (Eg. If the victim lost over $500, then it would be $500x10x2, for a total of $10,000.)
- Loss over ten thousand dollars—times five. (Eg. If the victim lost $12,000, then it would be $12,000x10x5, for a total of $600,000.)
- Loss over twenty thousand dollars—times ten. (Eg. If the victim lost $22,500, then it would be $22.5Kx10x10, for a total of $2.2M.)
- Caller threatens arrest, foreclosure, or bodily harm—times five. (Eg. If the victim lost $200, then it would be $200x10x5, for a total of $10,000.00)
Worst Case: A scam caller defrauds an old lady of her life savings, $120,540, and her house $225,000, and she's over 65 and a veteran. Then the country originating that scammer call would have to pay ($120,540+$225,000)x10x5x2, for a total of $34,554,000.00 to be paid from increased tariff's, in the following new quarter.
Section 5. Quarterly Tariff Adjustment.
a) The Secretary of Commerce submits the ledger to Treasury and State.
b) Treasury adjusts the baseline tariff rate upward by the exact sum needed—collected on all imports—to reimburse victims at the multiplied rate, tax-free.
c) Nations reducing their quarterly scam-call index by five percent or more receive a proportional tariff rebate—maximum two percentage points per quarter.
d) All claims over $1000 must be vetted by a treasury agent. When acting on suspicion that someone is defrauding the targeted country, any US Citizen can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined $2000 to $1.350M.
Section 6. Domestic Enforcement.
a) Foreign nationals operating scam centers on U.S. soil—documented or not—face ten-year mandatory minimum, one-million-dollar fine, followed by immediate deportation
b) Funds seized stay in the Treasury Victims Pool—no foreign tariff levy required.
Section 7. Transparency Dashboard.
a) Live public index of scam calls, tariff levels, and reimbursement totals—updated weekly on Commerce dot gov.
Section 8. Effective Date.
Provisions take force one hundred and eighty days after enactment.