Google is backing three bipartisan bills today designed to combat scams, two of which have advanced on the Hill in recent weeks.
The endorsements, which are aimed at giving the legislation extra momentum, come on the same day Google is suing China-based makers of phishing software in federal court.
The bills include the GUARD Act, the Foreign Robocall Elimination Act and the SCAM Act.
“We encourage Congress to enact these crucial bills and help bring a decisive end to the financial harm and damage wrought by foreign cybercriminals,” Google’s General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado writes in a blog post today.
The GUARD Act is led by Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) on the Senate side and Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) in the House. It would help state and local authorities use federal grants to probe fraud and scams targeting older Americans.
The robocalls bill comes from Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). It “would establish a taskforce focused on how to best block foreign-originated illegal robocalls,” in DeLaine Prado’s words. The proposal advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Oct. 21.
And the SCAM Act would trigger the formation of a national strategy on so-called “scam compounds” — facilities where trafficking victims are forced to carry out fraud. It would also support those trafficking survivors.
Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) sponsored the third bill, which also made it out of committee in October.
Google has been looking for more compromises to appeal to Washington. The tech giant also faces intense pressure from the government, including from federal courts that have concluded it maintained illegal monopolies in search and digital advertising.
Going to court. Google is also suing “bad actors” behind a software suite known as Lighthouse. Scammers use it to send phishing texts and set up fake websites to harvest victims’ information, according to the complaint.
The defendants were behind a scheme that bilked more than a million people, Google said. It has specialized in phony texts about unpaid tolls and tickets.
Google alleged the defendants are “misappropriating Google branding” and causing financial and reputational harm to the company. It sued under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Lanham Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
