And in one chilling instance, as I describe in my new podcast Kill List (co-produced by Wondery and Novel) – now a chart topper in the UK, US and Australia – the target had actually been killed. On the dark web, someone using the alias Mastermind365 had gone to a hit man-for-hire site and paid about $5,000 worth of bitcoin for Alexis to be assassinated, giving chilling details. Van Sant and “48 Hours” investigate the alleged plot to kill and go on a global hunt to track Yura — the so-called mastermind behind murder-for-hire sites, whose identity and location are unknown. The search has led “48 Hours” to England, India, the Eastern European country of Moldova and eventually culminated in a dramatic encounter in Queens, New York. The people targeted in Pence’s failed murder-for-hire plot were residents of Hoosick Falls, a village near Albany.
Recommended Videos
- That someone, perhaps close to you, wants you dead and has paid a lot of money to have you murdered.
- A few months later, when she told him she had a new boyfriend, she says he became angry.
- He claims that the Met referred him to the NCA, which didn’t answer his calls or messages; the National Counter Terrorism Security Office said that the matter was out of its jurisdiction; the FBI suggested that he talk with the NCA.
- The problem is you won’t really be able to search for them, so you’ll need to search yourself.
- I felt completely unqualified to deal with this situation.
- Major takedowns like Silk Road, AlphaBay, and Hansa have shown that even the most “secure” criminal platforms can be infiltrated.
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. While the hitman-for-hire myth might be somewhat overblown, it’s essential to maintain sight of the real dangers on the Dark Web. Cybercrime is a genuine threat, affecting countless individuals and businesses worldwide.
His co-defendant, Abdoul Azika, previously pleaded guilty to carjacking on July 9, 2025. The next myth ‘Pizzabagel’ busts is that of hitmen for hire being readily available on the dark net. Thanks to stories of hackers finding out your home address from a simple internet search, tales of red rooms and whispers of depraved criminals lurking in every corner, the dark web doesn’t have the best reputation. If you take a minute to browse the web and look for news, you’ll realize quite some people have been caught trying to find hitmen, hence the necessity of watching every step and ensuring a high level of anonymity. No matter why you need a hitman, this is a serious issue. It’s murder, basically, so whoever is doing it must put anonymity first.
For Multiple Readers
Of course, due to the nature of unenforceable contracts, such guarantees are worthless. The sites are full of “trust signals” that are designed to make visitors feel like they are dealing with a legit website. We found that a lot of the sites just don’t feel trustworthy to begin with. There’s a level of desperation to look legit that gives it away.
Kill List Podcast Review — What Happens When A Hacker Uncovers A Hitman’s Website?
Christopher considered Cisco a Lothario but did not think his behavior in that regard involved the children. Christopher had been raised religious, and in his mid-20s he began to lean more on his faith for guidance on life’s biggest questions. He thought less about his career and more about his higher calling. “God changed my thinking about how a man is to be the leader of his family and how children are actually blessings and rewards,” he said in a speech at his church. “There are many biblical examples about how our dreams may not be what God wants for us.
Full List Of Hobbycraft Store Closures With Six Shutting Down Within Weeks
The leak, uploaded in three separate archives, also holds email addresses, hashed passwords, usernames and user IDs belonging to over 300 registered accounts. Two of the leaked files, in .CSV format, contains 38 hit orders and nearly 3,000 personal messages sent between budding customers and the website’s administrators. If you believe the rumours, the dark web is full of nefarious websites that sell everything from drugs to weapons to government leaks. However, one of the most persistent legends of the underground internet is the existence of legitimate hitmen-for-hire services.
One Great Story: A Nightly Newsletter For The Best Of New York
- Attorney’s Office for New York’s northern district said in a news release.
- There are no location-imposed restrictions either, they work worldwide.
- Experts think that pretty much all hit man sites are scams, designed to bilk money out of bloodthirsty clients who think they can order up an assassin with Bitcoin like a normal person might DoorDash a burrito.
- In December 2019, the Pences traveled back to Washington to go before a judge and make it official.
- But finding police too slow to act on his tip, Miller decided to take it upon himself to warn targets on the database a colleague had uncovered through hacking.
- On many of the sites examined by the team at Michigan State, considerable effort was expended trying to prove their legitimacy so customers would feel comfortable making a payment in Bitcoin, the digital currency.
Although many dark web sites are scams, Alexis knew someone out there wanted her dead. Pence admitted that he hired someone to kill the intended victims when they took him into custody. The 43-year-old had arranged for the killings through a site on the dark web that offered murder-for-hire services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New York’s northern district said in a news release. The scheme never actually amounted to an attempt to murder either person. In late 2023, Christopher Pence pleaded guilty to one count of soliciting murder via the internet.
Ex-inmate Guilty Of Murdering Prison Guard Who Exposed Affair With Female Officer
There is a website, though – a succession of websites, to be precise – where all those things are made out to be true. Looking for a hitman, they download Tor, a browser that uses encryption and a complex relaying system to ensure anonymity, and allows them to access the dark web, where the website exists. Under false names, the website’s users complete a form to request a murder. They throw hundreds of bitcoins into the website’s digital purse. The DIICOT says that the damages of the operation are believed to be around 500,000 euros, though if the scammers held onto the bitcoin they collected back in 2016, it would be worth far more than that today.
They met as teenagers in a community just north of Seattle and married in 1999, when Christopher was 19 and Michelle was 20. Christopher’s dream was to make a fortune in finance and real estate and live in a penthouse in downtown Seattle. He imagined Michelle would have her own high-powered career. After she became pregnant with their fourth child, he had a vasectomy. 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.
From guns and illicit drugs to hacker services and even murder for hire services. A Bedford woman who attempted to hire a hitman to kill her boyfriend’s lover was sentenced today to nine years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton. HSI New York leads and directs all operational and administrative activities of the El Dorado Task Force (EDTF). The EDTF is the premier money laundering task force in the nation and is comprised of more than 200 law enforcement personnel representing approximately 35 federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory agencies. The EDTF encompasses a standalone Cyber Division as part of an effort to stay abreast of emerging criminal threats and in keeping with current and future investigative priorities.
The front man, Yura, simply took the fees, then served up excuses as to why the murders hadn’t happened, before demanding more money. Her husband – who we’re calling Bruno – was computer-savvy, she said, and she ‘wouldn’t put it past him’ to know how to access the Dark Web. But she found it hard to believe any professional killer would charge as little as $7,000.
And it worked; we found that the victims were more likely to believe us, and local police forces were more responsive when we approached them alongside the person who’d been targeted. In total, Miller disclosed 175 hits from the list to police, helping to secure 28 convictions and more than 150 years in prison sentences. Rather than dismissing Miller as delusional or a scammer like most of the people he called, Elena had an inkling who was behind the proposed hit. But finding police too slow to act on his tip, Miller decided to take it upon himself to warn targets on the database a colleague had uncovered through hacking.
An armed serial robber and convicted felon who robbed five cash loan businesses across the Fort Worth metroplex was sentenced today to 60 years in federal prison. A Houston, Texas man was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison following his guilty plea to the “jugging” robbery of an ATM technician. Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Bedford, Euless, Grapevine, and Hurst Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Weybrecht prosecuted the case.
Sure, the authorities won’t really bother with a small drug dealer, but a murder leaves a body behind and that’s serious. Agents subsequently confronted Ms. Murphy and the boyfriend in question. After being read her Miranda rights, Ms. Murphy admitted that when she found out her boyfriend was seeing another woman, she attempted to hire a hit man to kill the woman. If you’re lucky they won’t have responded by paying a hitman thousands of pounds to have you killed.
