It is worth noting that this is mostly no longer true, as the size of the "underground economy" (lol) has skyrocketed and the sums of money being discussed are

It is worth noting that this is mostly no longer true, as the size of the "underground economy" (lol) has skyrocketed and the sums of money being discussed are far bigger. And contrary to what some may think, the risk reward ratio has certainly gone in the hackers favor. The article mentions some hacker selling 8 million credit cards for $200000, nowadays it'd be at least 10 times that. There simply does not exist many comparable "jobs" for those capable of pulling this off, where can you maintain such an income working couple of hours a day from a FS hotel in the Maldives?