Internet baddies

Don't come too close. My computer has been infected by a nasty. I managed to get rid of most of it by cleaning the infected files from my registry and system32 folder and running sweeps with every manner of anti virus/spyware/malware tool. Why do people make these nasties? It's just pure vandalism. One theory is that these things are made by the people who then sell the cure. Or fraudsters looking for personal details. Anyway, I have got rid of the nasties but to be sure I now have to do a full backup and then shred my harddrive and reinstall Windows. On Easter weekend. What I wouldn't give to meet the swine who made the spyware/trojan/malware that got me.