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Cybercrime More Lucrative Than Drugs

prostoalex writes "Yahoo is reporting that global cybercrime overtook global drug trafficking in terms of revenue this past year. In related news, only 4% of Internet users can flag 100% of phishing e-mails as fraudulent, and Americans filed 207,000 reports on cybercrime to FBI."

3 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. dotCrime Bubbles by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah sure, they'd better party like it is twenty-zero-five, sooner or later they'll run out of idiots like dotcoms ran out of VCs.

    Cybercrime requires constant training, otherwise your hacking skills can be out of date in just a few months. On the contrary, a crowbar-trained criminal can still make a living in today's high-tech security world.

    I foresee in 5-10 years' time, traditional crimes will go mainstream again as many cyber-criminals will be out of jobs^H^H^H^Hcrimes by then.

  2. Oil by Seumas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yet, I bet both of them combined aren't as lucrative when it comes to funding terrorism as hitting your local gas station for a fill-up.

  3. No new law needed by dada21 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cybercrime pisses off U.S. black market businesses because it outsources a huge income potential to other countries.

    All kidding aside, I don't personally believe in cybercrime. Some cybercrime victims are merely stupid users, and no law can fix them. Other cybercrimes that do disturb one's property should be covered by laws already in place.

    My fear is that defending the cybercrime idea will only help make more wealthy lawyers and give politicians more abusive power.