Comment by michaelt

To run an effective extortion racket you don't just have to convince your victims that they will be hurt if they don't pay - you also have to prove that they won't be hurt if they do pay.

There wouldn't be any point in paying a $1m ransom for a $50m boat if it was going to get caught by 49 other pirate groups on its way to safety. So when a ransom has been paid, pirates escort a boat to safety.

DDOSers can't offer any such guarantee; it's not like one DDOSer can stop another going after the same victim. And to my knowledge there aren't any websites where victims can post reviews saying whether the same DDOSer targeted them again later on.