From Today's 'Good Morning Silicon Valley'

[furrbear]

Q  U  O  T  E  D

"Far from being a path to riches, phishing appears to be a low-skill low-reward business. The enormous amount of phishing activity is evidence of its failure to deliver riches rather than its success, as phishers send more and more email hoping for their share of the bounty that eludes them. Repetition of questionable survey results and unsubstantiated anecdotes makes things worse by ensuring a steady supply of new entrants. ... The picture that we end up with is very different from the 'easy money' that is conventional wisdom. ... The average revenue for a given phisher is the same (or slightly lower) than he would have made at another available occupation for his skill level. The easier phishing gets the worse the economic picture for phishers. As phishers put more and more effort into the endeavor, the total revenue falls rather than rises."

-- An analysis by Microsoft researchers concludes that in terms of open access to a finite resource that has limited ability to regenerate, the economics of phishing and fishing are surprisingly similar

Comments

[popebuck1.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, the people who rely on mugging people at subway stations for their income aren't doing all that great either.