On 13 August 2026, Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Colin McDonald issued a memorandum (the Memo) outlining the enforcement priorities and organizational structure of the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Fraud Enforcement Division (the Fraud Division). The Fraud Division is not new—DOJ leadership first announced its creation in April 2026—but the Memo is the first detailed roadmap of how it intends to operate. Five days later, the DOJ released a final rule officially transferring enforcement jurisdiction to the head of the Fraud Division (the Rule).
The Memo provides the clearest indication to date of how the Fraud Division intends to exercise its broad mandate to investigate and prosecute fraud “no matter its size or complexity.” The Memo identifies five principal enforcement priorities: (1) public trust and financial integrity; (2) healthcare; (3) internal revenue; (4)…
Cyber fraud uses technology as the primary weapon. It is highly scalable and can be conducted from anywhere in the world.
- Phishing/Smishing/Vishing: Using deceptive emails (phishing), text messages (smishing), or phone calls (vishing) to trick victims into clicking malicious links or revealing sensitive data.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): A high-value scam where a criminal impersonates a CEO or high-level executive via a “spoofed” email address to trick a staff member into making an urgent, unauthorized wire transfer.