9 ms·
A man who accidentally started an assassin hiring website
- thysultan 5y agoAccidentally started an honeypot for amateur assassins and assassin connoisseurs.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mlcrypto 5y agoWhy is he not locked up like Ross Ulbricht then?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- KindOne 5y agoThe owner of the website does not provide actual services. Better article: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/rent-a-hitman-wendy-wein-murder-for-hire-sting-operation-1066756/ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/rent-a...
- gumby 5y agoSo you’re saying he’s committing fraud?
- CaptainJustin 5y agoIt's a grey area
- sterlind 5y agoIt's only fraud if it leads to money changing hands. Also, contracts for illegal goods and services aren't enforceable at least in civil court - you can't take your dealer to small claims for selling you baby powder, for example. The best you can do is shatter their kneecaps.
- olliej 5y agobecause he wasn’t trying to run&profit from hitmen? because he wasn’t laundering money? Etc Also this guy just forwards details to police.
- duxup 5y ago> Now, Bob Innes hands people over to the police for trying to have their enemies killed
- dijonman2 5y agoHe is an expert navigator of the legal system
- Stratoscope 5y agoI recently submitted a request on this site for a small service. Reformatted for readability here, and a few details redacted to preserve my illusion of privacy: Rent-A-Hitman Service Request (HIPPA Compliant) Your Name: Michael Geary I certify I'm an: Adult - Over 18 Years Old Your eMail Address: mg@ok.mg Your Phone Number: [redacted] Your Address (For Field Operative Use Only): [redacted] Field Operative Contact Preference: Email Enter Your Desired CODE/SAFE Word or Phrase (Optional): Tony Relation to Intended Target: Fan Target's Name: James Gandolfini Address Where Service Requested: Holsten's Brookdale Confectionery 1063 Broad Street Bloomfield, New Jersey 07003 What is the reason for contacting us? James Gandolfini is dead. Describe what services you would like performed: James died tragically at the age of 51. I want you to bring him back to life. I last saw him at the address listed above. I sent a modest donation to your PayPal account to help you consider my request. Guido, if you can perform this small service, there is a hundred boxes of ziti in it for you. How did you hear about Rent-A-Hitman (Paste Link - For Marketing Purposes Only): https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/12/us/hireahitman-website-cracks-crimes-cec/index.html References for anyone unfamiliar with two coded messages in my request... "a hundred boxes of ziti": In The Sopranos, a "box of ziti" is a code word for $1000. "Tony tells Christopher to get “five boxes of ziti” for David Scatino. In the morning, Christopher tells Tony that David is down “forty-five boxes of ziti”." --The Sopranos Wiki "a small service": "Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom everybody came for help, and never were they disappointed. He made no empty promises, nor the craven excuse that his hands were tied by more powerful forces in the world than himself. It was not necessary that he be your friend, it was not even important that you had no means with which to repay him. Only one thing was required. That you, you yourself, proclaim your friendship. And then, no matter how poor or powerless the supplicant, Don Corleone would take that man’s troubles to his heart. And he would let nothing stand in the way to a solution of that man’s woe. His reward? Friendship, the respectful title of “Don,” and sometimes the more affectionate salutation of “Godfather.” And perhaps, to show respect only, never for profit, some humble gift—a gallon of homemade wine or a basket of peppered taralles specially baked to grace his Christmas table. It was understood, it was mere good manners, to proclaim that you were in his debt and that he had the right to call upon you at any time to redeem your debt by some small service." --Mario Puzo, The Godfather
- gregw134 5y agoThe problem with making it sarcastic is I can imagine someone them just to run with the joke.
- ant6n 5y agoI guess then it's up to the judiciary to judge the joke?
- throaway46546 5y agohttps://archive.ph/XcX7e https://archive.ph/XcX7e
- ipsin 5y ago“So far, nearly 150 lives have been saved as a direct result of the site and my actions.” I get that those 150 lives were all at risk, because a not-too-bright someone wanted them killed, but... I'm also curious how many of those would manage to kill their targets if they weren't intercepted? This isn't an argument against intervention, since they demonstrated an intent to kill. But I'm legitimately wondering how often people with grudges connect with actual contract killers.
- BrianHenryIE 5y agoClearly we need a double-blind study.
- CaptainJustin 5y agoI feel sorry for the control group
- hawk_ 5y agoIt's ok the study will be conducted with mice.
- littlestymaar 5y agoBeing part of the control group often sucks: what if you're bing given a placebo instead of a revolutionary cancer drug.
- niekmaas 5y agoThere is no way for us to know if the drug is a "revulotionary cancer drug" if we don't test it in a double blinded randomized controlled trial (RCT). Indeed it would be disappointing the later find out you were treated with the placebo, but so many drugs or other interventions have to potential to be revolutionary but fail to really change the clinical decision making later on.
- 5y ago
- rootusrootus 5y agoIf he's never going to use it for anything legitimate, perhaps just give it over to the FBI and they could take away the satire from the page and make it look convincing. Forward the information directly to the local field office automatically, without having to rely on a private citizen to make the connection.
- trompetenaccoun 5y agoBut it's all about saving lives (and catching mentally challenged/ill people while filtering out serious would be murderers, apparently).
- jliptzin 5y agoIf anyone is wondering why criminals always seem so dumb it’s because the smart ones are getting away with it.
- yeetaccount4 5y agoLast I heard, about half of homicide cases in the US go unsolved. It’s probably not the smart half getting caught, usually.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y agoEven that is the wrong statistic to look at. The number of homicides that go undetected in the first place is at least as important, if not more. In Germany, police claim that they solve 94% of homicides, but there are estimates that around half don't get discovered...
- watwut 5y agoSmart criminals are sitting in boardrooms and generally doing economical crime.
- rocqua 5y agoIf the FBI is running it, the defense 'it was entrapment' becomes quite a bit easier.
- czhu12 5y agoDoesn't the publication of this article kinda mess up this scheme?
- sundvor 5y agoI somehow get the feeling the cross section of Guardian/HN readers and the kind of people likely to jump into a site like this isn't exceedingly large.
- mdavis6890 5y agoI feel that there are nearly 150 frustrated law enforcement officers who attempted to bust a hit man by pretending to hire one.
- teh_infallible 5y agoIf you think about it for even a little bit, it becomes obvious that no one would open a legit assassin-for-hire service online. Think of logistics of this: Your assassin has to travel to some random city somewhere and take all the risks involved with killing someone, OR.. They rip you off. What recourse would you have against a real paid killer? And what help would you get from law enforcement?
- notimetorelax 5y agoWell… you’d be ripping off somebody who was ready to kill someone. Might not end well in the long run.
- Hjfrf 5y agoAll you need is a security deposit from the assassins before they start taking jobs. Plumbers already have a bond system like that, for example. If there are enough hitmen, they can just pick up jobs near them. It's not impossible logistically.
- jeroenhd 5y agoMeal delivery services seem to do quite fine online. What you need for a hitman-for-hire scheme is a broad network of assassins, preferably paid as little as they will possibly work for, and certain availability areas. You enter an address and it comes up with a list of hitmen and their preferred murdering solution, sort by price, or show a page that your service is not available at the specified location yet. It can be done, though for obvious reasons law enforcement would end your operation in days if not hours.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tsol 5y agoWhat you need to do is connect assassins with angry people, just charge to connect people
- abricot 5y agoHe should add a "career" section, then he would help catch a new group of people.
- JulianMorrison 5y agoIt's there!
- new_guy 5y agoOpenly doxxing himself to people actively trying to hire killers doesn't seem too smart.
- framecowbird 5y agoIs this entrapment? He isn't coercing people to commit a crime, but he is encouraging it
- nl 5y agoNo. A) he's not law enforcement. B) entrapment laws vary by jurisdiction, but I'm unaware of any where a private citizen sending in information about someone contacting them to commit a crime is problematic.
- pessimizer 5y agoWhat if you have a longstanding relationship with law enforcement, and you run a site called "Contact Me, I Will Commit A Crime For You"?
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y agoMy understanding is that even if police were running that site it would still be fine, unless the site is actively reaching out to people encouraging them. Standing on the corner selling drugs to people who ask: ok Standing on the corner, asking people "hey, wanna buy some weed": borderline but probably still not entrapment Standing on the corner, asking people "hey, wanna buy some weed", then pestering those who say "no thanks": Entrapment. An undercover agent becoming a friend with someone, then pressuring them to buy weed for him even though that person really doesn't want to: very clearly entrapment.
- varajelle 5y agoThis reminds me of another story about fake hitmen https://www.wired.co.uk/article/kill-list-dark-web-hitmen https://www.wired.co.uk/article/kill-list-dark-web-hitmen
- LeonB 5y agoGood site, but something of a so-called “taxation on stupidity”.
- avaika 5y agoWhat if I submit a request on behalf of someone else? Will this someone else get jailed?
- yob28 5y agoLol “ he had just saved the lives of three people” typical crap from the guardian. No doubt almost none of these people would have come to harm from these keyboard warriors. It’s amazing that anyone reads this rag for anything other than a joke
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]