This already exists: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/posing-as-ransomware...
> "Once it executes it, it pops up a ransom message looking like any other ransomware," Earl Carter, security research engineer at Cisco Talos, told Ars. "But then what happens is it forces a reboot, and it just deletes all the files. It doesn't try to encrypt anything—it just deletes them all."
Bribing one policeman or a department, or a national level LE body, and so on?
Due to the nature of the internet and social media there is an ever decreasing chance of flying under the radar.
Even if a country's entire infrastructure is corrupt, you would still have to deal with a never ending list of 'beaks to wet'.
> Due to the nature of the internet and social media there is an ever decreasing chance of flying under the radar.
I disagree with this statement though. I think that Internet as it is now only makes it easier to fly under the radar - simply because people generate such a huge amount of noise that it's barely possible to handle. As long as you don't get too greedy, you can get away with a lot, simply because nobody is going to bother looking for you (hence e.g. spam).
If there's no police protection for the victims there's also little police protection for the criminal.
If I were a ransomware scammer I'd rather be caught and jailed than killed by irate victims or competing criminals.
Or that some criminal group/mafia would use it to try and 'sink' their rivals. After all, a gang in competition with whoever makes these malware programs would probably love to shut down their revenue from ransomware. With say, their rivals name attached to the cruel hoax.
Still, I suspect something like this will happen at one point.
"Hi there! Your computer has been infected with a virus which will encrypt one file on your computer at random each day. You can stop this, and decrypt all the files by paying X to bitcoin wallet Y. Don't wait too long, because if you wait too long, we might encrypt some system file and it won't boot any more."
and which did nothing else whatsoever
...then you'd probably actually get some income.
It'd be an interesting (if ethically awful) sociological experiment to find out exactly how much. Returning people's money afterwards, of course.
Please don't do this. People (some would call them victims of cyber crime but not me) are EVIL and if they can trace it back to you, they will sue you. Doing this is not a good idea except as a thought experiment.
It is probably obvious to a lot of people but there are still good people out there who believe in the goodness of people so I thought I should spell it out.