Five men believed to be behind the web’s most notorious murder for hire scheme were arrested in Romania this week, in part of an operation aimed at putting an end to the infamous dark web scam. “If they were real assassins, they were the most incompetent assassins you would ever come across,” Miller added. The tale of Dark Web hitmen is more fantasy than fact — a chilling blend of fear, fiction, and fragmented truth. While the Dark Web does host illicit activity, the hitman-for-hire market is almost entirely composed of scams and law enforcement traps.

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We simply list these links and don’t host, control, or endorse any content found on them. Our investigation has spanned more than 11 countries, and involved the FBI, Interpol, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Crime Agency, and local police forces all over the world. It’s now the subject of a podcast series, Kill List, from Wondery and Novel. The reason I ended up on that call with Elena is because, for the last few years, I’ve been part of a small team working in secret to try to prevent people like her from being murdered.
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The kill switch feature is also essential when accessing the dark web. It cuts off your traffic in case the VPN connection drops, preventing the leak of your IP and other sensitive information. Our list may include horrifying stories, so if you are faint-hearted or suffer from any anxiety or stress disorder, you can skip the number. There are some dangerous yet interesting stories that you can find on this dark part of the internet. In this guide, we will look at the 10 most notorious dark web cases to help you understand dark web activities.
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In conclusion, while the dark web hitman may be a real figure, their existence is shrouded in mystery and controversy. Those who are considering hiring a hitman on the dark web should be aware of the risks involved and explore alternative methods of resolving disputes and seeking justice. Darknet Marketplaces are underground black markets on the dark web!
Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan James Wan, 54 used cryptocurrency to pay for the murder-for-hire plot. 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.
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- And payments in bitcoin for the hits—many in the tens of thousands of dollars.
- The saga began in 2020 when Chris Monteiro, an IT technician and hacker, was browsing the site and found a security vulnerability that gave him complete access to it, The Guardian reported.
- Christopher considered Cisco a Lothario but did not think his behavior in that regard involved the children.
- Those who are considering hiring a hitman on the dark web should be aware of the risks involved and explore alternative methods of resolving disputes and seeking justice.
- Some say they are elaborate scams designed to dupe unsuspecting users of their hard-earned cash.
And according to new research from social scientist Dr. Thomas Holt, the current Director of the MSU School of Criminal Justice, hiring a hitman doesn’t seem to be an exception. While some marketplaces claim to offer these services, most are scams. Genuine hits are highly rare and often lead to legal troubles. The dark web is a part of the internet that is not indexed by traditional search engines.
- Interested in learning more about the Dark Web’s hidden realities?
- When Miller and his team felt they weren’t being taken seriously by police, they reached out to the targets themselves in hopes of warning them.
- Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes.
- Jolie had episodes of depression and planned to commit suicide twice—at age 19 and again at 22, when she attempted to hire a hitman to kill her.
- They were also willing to provide the targets with whatever they needed to inform law enforcement.
- He pretended to be the hacker, hoping to stop Dogdaygod from badgering him, and make some money on the side.
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A few months ago, a middle-aged executive in Singapore was sent to jail for five years after paying the Camorra Hitman site to kill the boyfriend of his young ex-lover in a staged car accident that, not surprisingly, didn’t happen. “Investigations are ongoing, and the NCA will continue to work with international law enforcement partners to identify users of sites like these,” said Lucy Sneddon, a spokeswoman for the agency. The most prolific research on these sites has been conducted by Chris Monteiro, a systems administrator in London who has pursued his investigations as a morbid passion project on top of his regular job. The site 18th Street Mafia includes a page with links to news stories about real killings it says it helped commit. None of the articles, however, indicate that the site, or even a hit man, was responsible.
Can You Really Hire Assassins On The Dark Web?
Additionally, if the target is murdered, your identity will remain hidden. Furthermore, law enforcement can’t close hire-a-killer websites because they’re hosted on anonymous servers. Buchanan said court documents showed Wan accessed a dark web marketplace from his cell phone on April 18, 2022, while in the Northern District of Georgia.
As a law student, I edited the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, and worked at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. In February 2020, the anonymous scammer told the FBI in Washington state about a $5,000 order, saying, “I feel that all targets that have been paid for are in danger. Customers that pay to kill someone show that they are serious about killing that person,” according to a just-unsealed search warrant reviewed by Forbes. The tipster was not identified and it’s unclear if the FBI knows their real identity. Stephen Allwine was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Then, detectives discover something about the bitcoin used to pay for the hit in this case.
Wilson said these sites took attention from the real crime being committed on the dark net, like the drug markets and the sites selling the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans. “Why would you set up a dedicated site online when you know absolutely that law enforcement are going to be flooding that site trying to find you?” Wilson said. But there has still not been a killing commissioned on one of the dedicated hit-man-for-hire sites. The British National Crime Agency did monitor and — working with police in Bulgaria — take down one of the sites that Monteiro had targeted, Crime Bay.

He was open-minded about the method – initially pushing for a hit-and-run, or a deliberate traffic collision, but later suggesting rasher systems, such as shooting the target and burning her house down. For more than an hour, Monteiro told the officers about the material he had come across after penetrating the website’s messaging system – wannabe organ harvesters, mutilation requests, people aspiring to commit matricide. He suggested that the targets should be told what was going on and flagged up that Yura, undeterred by the Besa fiasco, was now operating a new assassination market, called Crime Bay.
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Brandon States eventually pleaded guilty to attempted premeditated murder. In March 2019, the Army specialist was sentenced by a military court to 15 years in Fort Leavenworth. He told law enforcement officials that Sasser had helped him on a hike along the Appalachian Trail. The two had even hiked together in the Knoxville area before he moved to Alabama.
While most of us may agree that not having dark mode activated is a crime in itself – it seems like we all need to remember to not blindly believe everything we read. ‘Pizzabagel’ explained that one of the biggest positives of the dark web is that it allows journalists and individuals in heavily censored countries to safely access and share otherwise restricted information. To those who are not aware, a red room refers a completely red room where you can see horrific acts of violence (think murder, torture, mutilation).

“People are going to these sites and providing details of the person they want killed, such as where they work, where they live and how much they’re willing to pay.” When people hear the words ‘dark web’ they automatically presume it’s the cyber equivalent of the wild-west where you can hire a hitman or watch someone have their leg sawed off in real-time. Monteiro has identified nine cases in which people he exposed were arrested in connection with commissioning hits. “I need you to help me do some videos to prove the Besa Mafia legit, but WITHOUT killing anyone,” the operator wrote in one email, trying to get a contractor to produce lifelike videos. That doesn’t mean the sites aren’t involved in a very dark trade. They have become catch points for real people who are looking to pay to have someone murdered.