On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a new “Task Force to Eliminate Fraud” to be led by Vice President J.D. Vance, whom Trump has unofficially dubbed his “Fraud Czar.”
“The very big thing that we’re doing — it’s about fraud, having to do with all of the fraud that’s taking place in our country,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Monday. “You’ve been seeing it, and seeing it pretty big, in Minnesota: $19 billion dollars, but that’s only for one little aspect of the fraud.” (In fact, federal prosecutors have suggested that the fraud in Minnesota, while staggering, was less than half that figure, estimating that roughly $9 billion in money earmarked for Medicaid-funded programs has been stolen since 2018.)
Trump’s announcement this week came after the president declared during his State of the Union address his intention to wage a “War on Fraud.”
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These frauds exploit emotional vulnerability and trust rather than technical weaknesses.
- Romance Scams: Scammers build long-term online relationships with victims, eventually fabricating a “crisis” (medical emergency, legal trouble, or travel costs) that requires the victim to send money.
- Pig Butchering: A hybrid scam where the criminal builds a romantic or platonic relationship to eventually “tutor” the victim in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment.