How identity thieves are exploiting your trust

Con artists themselves are disguising as well-known brands to steal your money and personal information.

- By Sandra Block

You’ve been on the front line of fighting fraud for more than 30 years. What has changed in that time? Have we become any better at protecting consumers?

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that over that 30-year period, fraud has gotten precipitously worse. It’s the new crime of the century. The good news is that there are a lot of people focusing on fraud prevention. As recently as 10 years ago, it was hard to get law enforcement interested. Now, stopping hackers, phishing and other scams is all anybody is talking about, and a lot of people are paying attention.

One of the most recent trends is imitating trusted brands, such as banks and major retailers, to trick consumers into giving up personal information. Why is that effective?