Following the incident, she began receiving unpleasant untraceable phone calls from someone using an electronic device to disguise a voice, court documents said. “Sasser responded to this news by stating, ‘I hope you both fall off a cliff and die,’” court documents said. Some of these scams use real crime scene photos to appear legitimate. There is evidence that some murders were committed independently by the scam operators just to make their site look authentic. “The threat posed by so-called assassination markets is going to be pretty small in comparison to other things we deal with,” an NCA spokesperson told me. “We aren’t monitoring the website and there have been no arrests. However, we work closely with our international law enforcement partners to share information and intelligence,” a second spokesperson later added.
What’s Being Done About ‘murder-for-hire’ Sites On The Dark Web, And How Dangerous Are They?
However, the FBI successfully intercepted Ilg’s communications on the dark web and thwarted his plans. As the initial investigation began, he falsely claimed to have been instructing the hitmen to kill him, instead of his victims. During our investigation, we came across several websites providing a vast array of violent services, charging fees that varied from 5,000 to 200,000 dollars. Two months after the San Luis Obispo police got their tip from Chris Monteiro and “48 Hours,” cops finally have Laurie’s suspected tormentor in their sights. And just like in the Allwine case, the digital currency bitcoin is critical to proving a crime was committed.
THE KILL ORDER
Christopher, who was 41 and worked for Microsoft as a systems engineer, wanted to hire a hit man to kill a young couple he had met on only a handful of occasions. RentAHitman.com is a satirical1 website purporting to offer contract killers for hire. Upon checking the site’s email inbox in 2008, he found hundreds of messages requesting contract killing services, but he considered none to be serious.
Allwine was arrested Tuesday, and his bail was set at $1 million without conditions, or $500,000 if he is monitored by GPS, doesn’t travel, and does not visit his 9-year-old son. The FBI protected his girlfriend and Wan was later questioned. The doctor confessed to ordering the hitman and later canceled the order. The gun was also found to the left of her although she was right-handed, officials said. The home’s surveillance video did not show anybody but Stephen Allwine coming and going from the residence. Minnesota was swept by a blizzard the weekend I went to meet Stern and her then boyfriend, Robbie Olsen.
The Unbelievable Tale Of A Fake Hitman, A Kill List, A Darknet Vigilante And A Murder
To pay for the murder, Zhou contracted with a Bitcoin exchange service in Ukraine to make a $5,000 payment in Bitcoin on her behalf. She provided approximately $5,000 in cash to a middleman in Brooklyn and then communicated with the website administrator to confirm payment. After sending payment, Zhou provided a detailed description of the woman and her home, her work schedule, and the best times to target her, so the woman’s husband would have an alibi for the murder. According to court documents, Felkins sent 12 bitcoin (valued at approximately $5,000 at the time) to a dark web hitman website, known as Besa Mafia, to have her ex-husband murdered. From February to May 2016, Felkins regularly communicated with the administrator of the site to pay and arrange for the murder of her ex-husband. Felkins gave the administrator the specific location of her husband in an attempt to have him murdered.
- With the hit against Amy bought and paid for, the FBI had decided to tell her and Stephen the frightening news.
- “Most customers order from reliable hit men sites that have been proven as legitimate,” the site says.
- The dark web is a paradoxical corner of the internet where intrigue and danger coexist.
- To prove they had the wherewithal to pay, they were required to make an advance bitcoin transfer to a digital wallet – from which, the website assured, its clients would be able to withdraw their funds any time.
In April, however, the Corderos got a brief glimpse at Christopher’s sentencing. Their kids were seated with Michelle as if in support of the man who’d tried to have their biological parents killed. It is not entirely clear why Christopher Pence wanted the Corderos dead. In Utah, he quickly convinced the family’s new pastor, Jeffcott, that both Christina and Cisco loomed over their household like specters. “They really were creating problems for the children,” Jeffcott told me. “I mean, wetting the bed — just really bad consequences from exposure to the birth parents.” But the Pences’ concern was vague. Christopher considered Cisco a Lothario but did not think his behavior in that regard involved the children.
What Do Dark Web Hitman Services Typically Cost?
The price fluctuates based on the method used, the experience level of the hitman and the person targeted (often depending on the target’s social status). Dr. Holt’s research, which was completed in collaboration with doctoral student Ariel Roddy, found that hitmen advertise their services on both the open web and the dark web – and their services are less expensive than one might think. The price for these grisly but fake services has run between $5,000-20,000, in Bitcoin, Motherboard reports.
Data Leak Checker: Has Your Email Been Hacked?
- Either way, the most dangerous thing about him may be his customers — some so driven to kill that if Yura doesn’t get the job done, they might do it themselves … like prosecutors allege about Steven Allwine.
- The wife had also been sent photos over Facebook showing the husband and the suspect kissing, believed to have been orchestrated by the suspect, according to the search warrant.
- But Lisa says finding Yura may partly depend on exposing and flipping the people who work with him.
- This time, the person who allegedly hired the hit man is a woman living near Chicago.
- This anonymity has contributed to its reputation as a haven for illegal activities.
A law enforcement source told “48 Hours,” “there is no evidence at this time that Mrs. Alexis States was involved.” But just hours after notifying Sydney, Clarksville, Tenn., police informed the Army about “48 Hours”‘ tip. The next day, in Korea, Brandon States was charged with several military violations, including an attempt of premeditated murder. But in a shocking turn of events, Yura began sending “48 Hours” the names of targets — turning on his own customers. Some days, Jane Sharpe mourns the loss of her friend, Amy Allwine, by blowing off steam at the gym.
How Dark Web Hitman Services Operate
Christopher was an unlikely client in the murder-for-hire trade. When he wasn’t logging ten-to-12-hour days working, often while listening to one of his favorite Christian rock bands, he was helping his wife, Michelle, raise their 11 biological and five adopted children. The entire family, along with Christopher’s retired parents, lived in a 5,800-square-foot home on the northern edge of the Mojave Desert, surrounded by wind-raked brushland and snow-capped mountains in all directions. They were building greenhouses on the property and had plans to buy cows. The more involved we became in the lives of all of these people around the world, the more it heightened my anxieties about their safety. It was impossible to keep an emotional distance, because the Kill List had connected us.
According to the warrant, the site administrator told the agents about one order for which he’d been sent the target’s address in Bellevue, Washington, and had received a message from the buyer, which read, “Just kill her ASAP. She works in corporation in Bellevue but I don’t know where exactly. She has a three-years-old son that she picks him up at 5 P.M. Send me a proof when the job’s done.” A payment of 0.53 bitcoin (worth around $5,000 at the time) was made to the tipster’s wallet on February 4, 2020, law enforcement said.
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Normally, as journalists, we report the news and do our best to get out of the way. We found ourselves in the middle of an apparent live marketplace for murder – and there was only one thing we could do. Chris Monteiro found scores of messages between Dogdaygod and Yura discussing how, where and when the hit would take place. Although Stephen Allwine’s behavior seemed fishy in the 911 call and police interviews, McAlister said there was no apparent motive for him to kill his wife. And there was no definitive evidence linking him to the death scene. In conclusion, the allure of the dark web hitman may be compelling, but it is laden with peril for those who consider such paths.
Furthermore, there are still thousands of people who have contacted Yura about hiring a hitman, and submitting the name of a person they want dead. They are real websites, but they are not delivering real hits. Customers submitted the details of the person they wanted killed and the method they preferred – for instance, a hit that looked like an accident would be more expensive.
But, elsewhere, someone called Chris Monteiro has been disrupting the website’s operations for years, triggering its admin’s wrath. However, over the years Mr Monteiro discovered the websites he had been hacking into were not what they seemed to be. Chris Monteiro is a UK-based hacker and dark web vigilante who gains access to transactions between buyers and sellers on these sites. The officer told her to come to the station immediately for a conversation that would change her life forever.
The best way to avoid a hitman service is to contact them before the murder takes place. And, if the murderer is a hitman for hire, you won’t even know. Some people who are considering hiring a hitman service on the dark web have concerns about the security of the service. In recent years, the term dark web hitman has gained notoriety across various media platforms. With the increased accessibility of the internet, many individuals are now curious about what the dark web entails and its associations with criminal activities, including hiring hitmen.
