This article provides an overview of this special issue of Economic Perspectives, which presents selected papers based on the proceedings of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's eighth annual Payments Conference, Payments Fraud: Perception Versus Reality, held on June 5–6, 2008.

This article examines the governance structure of retail payments in the United States, provides an overview of payment fraud, and discusses in depth the liability frameworks for fraud involving specific payment methods. It also presents a series of recommendations that describe how the public...