Hackerville: Romania’s Hackers Paradise

Imagine yourself living inside of your little cozy town, knowing that your beloved town is actually the global center of most major cyber crimes. Sounds scary?

A small town located within Romanian borders is completely full of hackers, as well as different types of scammers, in which have become popularly known as the global center of cyber-crime.

This little town, known to the locals as Ramnicua Valcea, has gained the worldly nickname “Hackerville.” This town had risen to the world of fame for the overwhelming population of eBay and Craigslist scammers. Hackerville rests just three hours from Bucharest, which is the Romanian capital and is gaining more reputation than the capital itself.

While this may appear to be a run-of-the-mill town from the Eastern side of Europe, the idea is completely the opposite. In fact, the town is lined with expensive cars such as BMW’s and Audi’s. The locals to “Hackerville” have been known to make a killing, while they indulge in cyber scamming activities. Also, judging by the news group Wired, an article about expensive cars  is choking the streets of Ramnicua Valcea’s bustling city center. The top of the line BMW’s, Mercedes’ amongst others, are being driven by twenty-year-old and thirty-year-old men.

While the town only has a handful of real hackers, the majority of the citizens are advanced cyber scammers. These citizens steals thousands upon thousands of dollars each day by cyber transactions, mostly from foreign buyers.

While the town has gained it’s population, one of the biggest questions remains unsolved, “How did the first cybercrime start in Ramnicua Valcea?” Most of the commoners believe that just after the revolution of 1989, the world began to have access to highly advanced and sophisticated tools, as well as personal computers. This may be the main cause in the cyber crime business, which grew at a fast pace in 2002. Then Cybercafés began offering cheap, if not free, public Internet access, and of course the cyber criminals of Ramnicua Valcea had started using those services to post false advertising on popular eBay and Craigslist sites, luring their victims into providing payments by wire transfer.

Although the police are keeping tabs on the larger of the cyber criminals, the activities are still continuing. While these cyber terrorists continue to scam people out of thousands of dollars, and phishing for information, most authorities still continue to turn their heads.

Sources: Techworm, Wired.

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