We’ve written before about scammers who trick people into paying with iTunes gift cards. The latest? They’re asking people to pay for big online purchases — like cars, motorcycles, boats, RVs and tractors — with Amazon gift cards.

Over the last few years, we’ve warned about a lot of imposter scams. In one of the most common types, callers pretending to be from the IRS demand payments and threaten to arrest people.

Last fall, we mentioned raids on illegal telemarketing operations by the police in India. After that, the US Department of Justice indicted dozens of scammers who also were impersonating the IRS. After those actions, the number of IRS imposter scams reported to the FTC plummeted. On Tuesday, the New York Times ran a behind-the-scenes look at the call centers and the raids that took them down. It’s a great reminder that scammers are organized, and they’re really good liars.

If you’re paying back your federal student loans, you might be interested in online ads saying things like, “Erase Default Statuses in 4–6 Weeks!” or – for the next few weeks – “Obama Wants to Forgive Your Student Loans!” Erasing default and loan forgiveness – sounds great to someone who owes a bundle, right?

The Federal Trade Commission recently held “The Changing Consumer Demographics” workshop to examine demographic shifts.As the U.S. population ages and gets more diverse, consumer protection strategies must evolve to make sure we’re protecting all communities. Workshop participants, including expert demographers and leaders in marketing, consumer advocacy, and law enforcement, discussed what the population will look like in the future – and what that means for consumer protection.