The Federal Trade Commission’s rule prohibiting government and business impersonations went into effect Monday, enabling the agency to seek monetary relief from scammers in an illicit billion-dollar-a-year industry that has become more difficult to combat amid improvements in artificial intelligence and related technologies. 

The new rule allows the FTC to seek financial penalties from scammers that “use government seals or business logos,” “spoof government and business emails and web addresses” and “falsely imply government or business affiliation” to fool consumers.