China cages game Trojan hackers Chinese authorities have sentenced 11 members of a malware gang to long stretches behind bars, after the group was convicted of creating and distributing Trojans designed to steal the login credentials of online gamers. The malware slingers were sentenced to up to three years behind bars and fined a total of $120,000. More …
A WoW account often has more resale value than the average credit card number, in the wrong circles. Harvesting them via trojans delivered as banner ads (through careless but innocent ad networks) is a very popular vector.
This has the obvious advantage of catching people who'd never install dodgy binaries from a torrent or other stereotypically risky activity- and thus whose defenses might not be up to scratch, too.
you have to consider the 3 years behind bars too...
hours in a work year (aprox.) 2085
work hours in jail: 2085*3=6255
profit 4,400,000 - 120000 = 4280000
devided equallly between them: 4280000/11 = 389090.91
now break that down to an hourly wage: 389090.91/6255=$62.20/hr
This assumes that the time spent manageing the scam it value-equivelent to the cost of food/shelter/etc while in prison)
In 2004, the average chinese wage in urban areas was 7947 USD / 2085 hr = $7.75/hr
(http://www.worldsalaries.org/china.shtml)
Not too bad. Bussness sense says crime pays!
(the accountant)
Obviously people who pay to play the WoW grindfest will pay extra to avoid all the grinding. They would not fund crime if a legal alternative were available. Perhaps Blizzard should offer a special premium account. For a little extra money each month, a Blizzard employee will play the game for you so you don't have to.
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