U.S. Takes Action Against Cyber Fraud and Sextortion Schemes
Executive Order Targets Global Scam Networks
On March 6, 2026, an executive directive was issued by American President to confront the expanding menace of cybercrime and organized digital fraud targeting citizens of the United States. The order recognizes that cyber-enabled criminal enterprises have evolved into sophisticated global operations capable of siphoning billions of dollars from unsuspecting victims while undermining national security, financial stability, and public confidence in digital infrastructure.
In the modern digital economy, cybercriminals employ a vast arsenal of malicious techniques designed to deceive, manipulate, and exploit vulnerable individuals. These schemes range from ransomware attacks that paralyze computer systems to elaborate phishing campaigns that lure victims into revealing sensitive financial information. Other tactics include malware infiltration, identity theft, impersonation scams, financial fraud, and the disturbing practice known as sextortionโwhere perpetrators coerce victims into paying money under threats of releasing compromising material.
These crimes are rarely the work of isolated hackers. Instead, they are frequently orchestrated by transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) operating across borders with advanced technological capabilities. Many of these groups maintain sophisticated scam centers that function like digital sweatshops, exploiting forced labor and trafficking victims to carry out fraudulent operations around the clock. In some instances, foreign regimes tolerate or covertly support these operations, enabling a shadow economy fueled by stolen identities, coercion, and illicit financial flows.
The executive order asserts that protecting American citizens from these predatory schemes is a fundamental national priority. It emphasizes strengthening both the nationโs financial systems and digital infrastructure while delivering a coordinated response that combines law enforcement action, diplomatic engagement, andโwhen necessaryโoffensive countermeasures against malicious cyber actors.
To dismantle these criminal networks, the directive calls for a comprehensive review of existing operational, technical, and regulatory frameworks used to combat cyber-enabled crime. Key federal agenciesโincluding the Departments of State, Treasury, War, Homeland Security, and Justiceโare tasked with evaluating how current strategies can be improved to more effectively detect, disrupt, and neutralize transnational cybercrime syndicates.
Within 120 days, these agencies must produce a strategic action plan identifying the criminal organizations responsible for operating scam centers and other cyber-fraud enterprises. The plan will outline new mechanisms to prevent, investigate, and dismantle such networks.
Central to this effort is the creation of a specialized operational cell within the National Coordination Center (NCC). This unit will serve as the nerve center for federal cybercrime response, integrating intelligence, law enforcement capabilities, and private-sector expertise to counter foreign cybercriminal infrastructure targeting American individuals, businesses, and critical services.
The executive order underscores the importance of collaboration between government agencies and commercial cybersecurity firms. Private cybersecurity companies possess advanced threat-monitoring technologies and analytical expertise that can help identify the origin of cyberattacks, track criminal networks, and dismantle malicious digital infrastructure.
By integrating commercial threat intelligence with federal investigative resources, authorities aim to enhance attribution capabilitiesโaccurately identifying the perpetrators behind cyberattacksโand accelerate disruption operations against criminal networks operating abroad.
In addition, improved information-sharing systems will ensure that agencies can rapidly coordinate responses to emerging threats. Enhanced cooperation between intelligence services, federal law enforcement, and cybersecurity specialists is intended to reduce response times and prevent cybercriminals from exploiting gaps in jurisdiction or communication.
The Department of Justice is directed to intensify prosecutions of individuals involved in cyber-enabled fraud schemes. This includes perpetrators connected to scam centers, sextortion networks, and large-scale financial fraud operations.
Federal prosecutors will focus on pursuing the most serious and provable criminal offenses linked to these schemes. By aggressively pursuing indictments and convictions, authorities aim to dismantle criminal networks, deter future offenders, and reinforce the principle that digital crimes carry severe legal consequences.
Another critical aspect of the directive involves empowering state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to better defend themselves against cyber threats. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will work with the NCC to deliver training programs, technical guidance, and resilience-building initiatives.
These efforts will help local governments strengthen cybersecurity defenses, protect essential infrastructure systems, and develop improved mechanisms for sharing threat intelligence. By expanding defensive capacity at every level of government, the United States hopes to create a nationwide shield against cybercrime infiltration.
Beyond enforcement and prevention, the executive order also emphasizes restorative justice for victims. Cyber fraud often leaves individuals financially devastated, with life savings stolen through deception.
To address this harm, the Attorney General has been directed to propose a Victim Restoration Program. This initiative would use funds seized, forfeited, or recovered from criminal organizations to compensate victims of cyber-enabled fraud schemes. The goal is to return stolen assets wherever possible and provide relief to those whose financial security has been shattered by digital predators.
Cybercrime is inherently global, often originating in foreign jurisdictions where enforcement may be weak or nonexistent. To confront this challenge, the directive mandates intensified diplomatic engagement with other nations.
The United States will demand stronger enforcement actions against criminal organizations operating within foreign borders and greater cooperation with American law enforcement agencies. Countries that knowingly permit or tolerate cybercrime operations may face serious consequences, including reductions in foreign assistance, targeted economic sanctions, visa restrictions, trade penalties, and diplomatic expulsions.
Additionally, the United States intends to coordinate these measures with international allies to amplify pressure on nations that enable cybercriminal activity. By building a coalition of partners committed to combating digital crime, policymakers hope to isolate and dismantle global cyber-fraud ecosystems.
Ultimately, the March 6, 2026 executive order represents a multifaceted strategy designed to confront one of the most pervasive threats of the digital era. Cybercrime not only drains financial resources from victims but also erodes trust in technology and institutions.
Through enhanced law enforcement cooperation, strengthened cybersecurity infrastructure, international diplomacy, and victim restoration efforts, the United States seeks to disrupt the criminal networks that profit from digital deception.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, this policy initiative reflects a broader commitment to ensuring that technological progress is not overshadowed by exploitation. Protecting citizens from cyber-enabled fraud and predatory schemes has become an essential component of national securityโand a defining challenge of the modern age.
Original Text
2026 Executive Order Targeting Global Cybercrime Networks
Executive Orders
March 6, 2026
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes are draining American families of their life savings, stealing the benefits of years of work, and destroying the lives of our youth. These activities โ which include deploying ransomware and malware, phishing, financial fraud, โsextortionโ and other extortion schemes, impersonation, and more โ are often coordinated campaigns carried out by Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) aimed at the most vulnerable among us. In many cases, foreign regimes provide willing or tacit state support to cybercrime and predatory schemes, creating a shadow economy fueled by stolen identities, coercion, forced labor, and human trafficking.
It is the policy of the United States to protect Americans from, and harden our financial and digital systems against, these threats. The United States shall counter attacks on Americans with a commensurate response that includes law enforcement, diplomacy, and potential offensive actions. It is further the policy of the United States to provide support to victims of these crimes, expand public alerts, and prioritize protection for those most at risk to end the exploitation and victimization of Americans.
Sec. 2. Combating Scam Centers and Cybercrime. (a) The Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Office of the National Cyber Director, and in coordination with the Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor (APHSA), shall:
(i) within 60 days of the date of this order, review the relevant operational, technical, diplomatic, and regulatory frameworks in place to determine how each can be improved to best combat TCOs engaged in cyber-enabled crime and similar predatory schemes against Americans; and
(ii) within 120 days of the date of this order, using the results of the review directed in subsection (a)(i) of this section, submit to the President, through the APHSA, an action plan that identifies the TCOs responsible for scam centers and cybercrime and proposes solutions to prevent, disrupt, investigate, and dismantle these TCOs. This action plan shall provide for the creation of an operational cell within the National Coordination Center (NCC) established pursuant to section 6(d) of Executive Order 14159 of January 20, 2025 (Protecting the American People Against Invasion), which will be responsible for coordinating Federal efforts to detect, disrupt, dismantle, and deter โ including by involving the private sector as appropriate โ cyber-enabled criminal activity conducted by foreign TCOs and associated networks that target United States persons, businesses, critical infrastructure, or public services.
(b) The action plan shall describe how, consistent with applicable law, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, supported by the Secretary of War, shall use relevant technical capabilities, threat intelligence, and operational insights from commercial cybersecurity firms and other non-Federal entities, as appropriate, to enhance attribution, tracking, and disruption of malicious cyber actors and enabling infrastructure engaged in cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes.
(c) The action plan and NCC operational cell shall include mechanisms to improve information sharing, operational coordination, and rapid response across the Federal Government, and shall align with existing law enforcement frameworks and efforts to counter cyber-enabled threats emanating from foreign jurisdictions.
(d) The Attorney General shall continue to prioritize prosecutions of defendants engaged in cyber-enabled fraud, including scam centers and sextortion schemes, and, consistent with the principles of Federal prosecution, shall pursue the most serious, provable offenses encompassed by such fraudulent schemes.
(e) To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Secretary of Homeland Security, acting through the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, shall partner with the NCC to provide training, technical assistance, and resilience building to support State, local, Tribal, and territorial (SLTT) partners, including to expand defensive capacity, share threat intelligence, and harden SLTT partnersโ critical infrastructure systems against cybercrime exploitation by TCOs.
Sec. 3. Victim Restoration Program. Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall submit a recommendation to the President, through the APHSA, regarding the establishment of a Victims Restoration Program designed to provide, to the greatest extent authorized by law and in consideration of the Department of Justiceโs goal of serving all victims of crime, restoration or remission to victims of cyber-enabled fraud schemes from funds clawed back, forfeited, or seized from the TCOs that perpetrate such schemes.
Sec. 4. International Engagement. The Secretary of State, in coordination with the NCC, shall engage with foreign governments to demand enforcement actions against TCOs operating within their borders and greater cooperation with United States law enforcement. The Secretary of State shall take all necessary and appropriate steps to ensure that nations that tolerate such predatory activity shall face consequences consistent with United States law and policy, such as the limitation of foreign assistance, the application of targeted sanctions, visa restrictions, trade penalties, and, where appropriate, the immediate expulsion from the United States of foreign officials and diplomats complicit in these schemes. The Secretary of State shall also coordinate these actions with allies and partners to enhance the consequences of actions taken against nations that tolerate predatory activity.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise effect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Homeland Security.
DONALD J. TRUMP
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