Consider 419 scams. They have nearly zero credibility, and also lack the kind of leverage you can get out of threatening that someone will never see their kid's

Consider 419 scams. They have nearly zero credibility, and also lack the kind of leverage you can get out of threatening that someone will never see their kid's baby photos again. Yet even they are still profitable enough that many people think they're a worthwhile operation to run. Ransomware might have a higher bottom line, owing to the greater technical skill involved in operating such a racket, but still, in a world where 419 scams persist, it's hard for me to believe that you can damage ransomware's credibility to the point where it's no longer profitable. More likely, such an endeavor would end up destroying more people's data than it saves.