My wife couldn't be bothered to renew the antivirus on her laptop, and now she bitterly regrets it. The operating system boots, but when she tries to open Explorer, a pop-up appears saying that the computer is infected with dangerous viruses. It says the viruses can be removed. But to do that, "please send an SMS to the following four-digit number." The SMS costs 10 rubles (about $0.30 at the time). A Google search for "virus demands that you send an SMS" shows that this problem is quite widespread.
Here's what I don't get: where is Directorate "K" (the Russian Interior Ministry's cybercrime unit) and all the other cybercrime fighters? On TV they regularly show some idiots with black rectangles over their eyes. The idiots talk about cutting-edge technology and how they're fighting hackers. The reports are, of course, always accompanied by clips from *The Matrix*. So why is it impossible to track down these SMS scammers? The number is only four digits, which means the SMS aggregator is in Russia. And even if it isn't, there are still formal money transfers involved, and tracing those is hardly a problem. People often say that with cybercrime it's hard to establish the elements of the offense and prove intent. But it seems to me that in this case the intent, the offense—everything—is right there. They just don't have the time to deal with it. Really, someone ought to file a report, hand over the hard drive as evidence, and make the guys do some work. Let them catch crooks instead of monitoring who insults officials on internet forums.