Trump EO on Cybercrime and Fraud Could Result in New Regulation
On March 6, 2026, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, and Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens” (the “Executive Order”). The Executive Order is in response to increased instances of cybercrime and fraud schemes targeting Americans, particularly the elderly.
While the Executive Order is primarily directed at law enforcement activities, it does direct several cabinet members, most notably the Secretary of the Treasury, to review and report to within 60 days of the Executive Order, on the operational and regulatory frameworks in place to combat cyber and predatory schemes targeting the United States’ financial and digital systems. It further directs the various agencies to determine and report on how such frameworks could be improved.
Financial fraud, particularly financial fraud targeting the elderly, is a major and growing issue for Americans. From 2020-2025 the number of reports of older individuals who lost $10,000 or more to such schemes grew more than fourfold.[1] Depending on the nature and structure of these schemes, there may be very little, if any, remediation available to the victims under the law. In particular, the error resolution and limited liability protections of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (“EFTA”) and Regulation E may not apply where the scam relied on authorized payments from the victim to the fraudster or non-EFT payments such as wire transfers or checks. In those cases, the victims may well be left holding the bag for fraud losses suffered as a result of these schemes.
While it is too early to tell what may come of this new Executive Order, it is worth monitoring what recommendations for updates to regulatory schemes may come from agency heads, particularly the Secretary of the Treasury, and whether potential updates to EFTA and Regulation E may be on the table.
A copy of the Executive Order can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/combating-cybercrime-fraud-and-predatory-schemes-against-american-citizens/
[1] Federal Trade Commission, False alarm, real scam: how scammers are stealing older adults’ life savings, available at https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2025/08/false-alarm-real-scam-how-scammers-are-stealing-older-adults-life-savings.
