The Members Forum

What Happens to Stolen Personal Data?

Q. What happens to the personal information that's stolen by online scammers? Do the same people who steal it then turn around and try to drain the accounts of each victim?

A. The people who run those info-theft operations sometimes do go after the money of the victims. But more often their mass-mailings — such as recent emails that tricked people into downloading data-stealing software by promising photos of the Osama bin Laden raid — are aimed at gathering information for sale on a huge cyber-crime black market.