Your Complete Infosource…

There’s an old saying about a fool and his money. The saying doesn’t indicate, however, just how many fools there are, or how many of them use the Internet. According to the Dutch investigation firm Ultrascan, there’s a lot: 8,503 across 152 countries, who collectively lost $9.3 billion in 2009 alone.

And this is just sad–the figure doesn’t capture all fraud on the Internet, just that associated with Advance-Fee Frauds (AFFs), better known as the 419 or Nigerian scam. This fraud has been running since there’s been an Internet, and despite being well publicized (with victims rightfully ridiculed for their foolishness), it persists. It’s estimated that $41 billion has been lost to date. Even more shocking–its a growth industry, expanding some five percent per year. (From 2008 to 2009 it jumped an astonishing 48 percent: from $6.3 billion to $9.3 billion.)

Ultrascan says the scam continues to work because its good at finding fresh fools. The U.S. and Europe fool markets are (almost) tapped out, so scammers are moving into virgin fool markets, in countries such as India, China, South Korea, and Vietnam.

Ultrascan isn’t hopeful the scam will go away anytime soon. Law enforcement, it concludes, is too “feeble” to effectively combat it. And, it appears, there’s no limit to the number of fools signing up for Internet access.