Banks must watch senior accounts for fraud and report it.
H.R. 10495 — CATFISH Act of 2026 · Filed by Abraham Hamadeh (R-AZ) · Introduced Sep 17, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill makes romance fraud against seniors a federal crime. Penalties are up to 10 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Banks and credit unions must watch senior accounts for fraud red flags. They must report activity to the Treasury. Banks and big retailers with 500 or more workers must train staff. They must warn seniors about fraud, especially for large gift cards. Retailers must try to stop seniors from buying gift cards over $500. Retailers must give seniors hotline numbers.
Who it affects
Seniors get new protections from banks and stores. Banks and big retailers must spend money to train workers and watch accounts. People who commit romance fraud face harsher punishments.
One thing to notice
Banks will report senior customer details to the Treasury. This creates a new database of senior financial activity. Retailers with fewer than 500 workers do not have to follow the gift card rules.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 17, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 17, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture and House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- romance fraud — A scam where someone pretends to love a person to steal their money.
- red flags — Warning signs that something might be wrong or illegal.
- Treasury — The federal agency that handles the government's money and finances.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (16,916 characters) on Sep 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,985 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-25.
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