from www.gawker.com – America has a terrible health insurance system and crippling shame about sex. On the bright side, our problems are helping some Eastern Europeans make thousands of dollars per week, one fraudulent internet transaction at a time.

The antivirus company Sophos sicced the Russian head of its Canadian antivirus lab on various scammy sites (original report) and discovered that entry-level scammers can do pretty well for themselves. Sophos snuck into the admin panel for the affiliate of one scam site , which offered free porn if you installed a nefarious video codec (really spyware).

The affiliate in question made $6,500 for Aug. 2008, probably using templates and software provided by the scam network.

Another common scam involves using affiliates to sell fake prescription drugs, ostensibly from Canada. Since actual drugs aren’t involved, the seller can afford to give the affiliate a 40 percent kickback; Sophos believes a single spam campaign could net $16,000 per day.

It’s unclear whether Eastern Europeans can continue to con Americans into spending tons of money on completely ineffective health care “solutions,” with internet propaganda, now that so many American scammers have jumped into that same game.

The Independent has a massive piece today on YouTube and how, despite having close to 350 million users worldwide per month, it’s set to lose almost half a billion dollars this year. And it’s all your fault, naturally.