Insurance For Cybercriminals, or Giant Sting? 72
tsu doh nimh writes "Brian Krebs follows up on a recent Slashdot discussion about a cybercrime gang that is recruiting botmasters to help with concerted heists against U.S. financial institutions. The story looks at the underground's skeptical response to this campaign, which is being led by a criminal hacker named vorVzakone ('thief in law'), who has released a series of videos about himself. vorVzakone also is offering a service called 'insurance from criminal prosecution,' in which miscreants can purchase protection from goons who specialize in bribing or intimidating Russian/Eastern European police into scuttling cybercrime investigations. For $100,000, the service also claims to have people willing to go to jail in place of the insured. Many in the criminal underground view the entire scheme as an elaborate police sting operation."
Re:Pay someone to go to jail for you? (Score:2, Insightful)
Nothing new here. This is just what some of the more reputable gangs have done for YEARS now. A FOAF was recently actually talking with someone in one of these gangs (the more traditional kind, mexican actually).
If what the person told him was true, his business is garaunteed. if he gets busted, other gang members take over, and pay his family dividends from the business, when he gets out, the business is his again.
Of course, this is a form of insurance, but, it makes sense, because its also insurance for the rest of the gang... what is the real difference between being paid to go to jail for someone... and well... being taken care of for not rolling over on others who would get much longer sentances than you?
I don't see much difference, this guy is, as delusional as he may be, just trying to bring to a new field the same sort of gang infrastructure that other kinds of gangs have had for a long time now.