American consumers are wide open to some of the most sophisticated scam artists ever as vast troves of their personal information are collected by data brokers and sometimes sold with no questions asked, according to the Federal Trade Commission's consumer protection chief. Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, also told Reuters the commission was looking closely at the mobile device market, and especially at scams involving mobile payments and apps, but would continue to investigate data breaches and bread-and-butter ploys such as fraudulent credit repair and mortgage foreclosure relief schemes. In these areas and others, lead generators and data brokers give the scam artists needed information that help them target vulnerable populations, including the elderly, young people or people who don't speak English well. "You've got ubiquitous data collection. Everywhere people go, basically their data is collected. You have ever-present mobile and connected
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