Ruheni Mathenge specializes in writing long-form content dedicated to helping individuals and businesses navigate and understand the constantly evolving online security and web freedom worlds. His articles have appeared in many respected technology publications. Ruheni explains complicated technical concepts clearly and simply.

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- There is even a captivating story of how a person hired a hitman to have fun.
- The prominent positioning of the link looks like another confidence trick.”
- The only document they consulted was an A3 printout on which Monteiro had summarised the intricacies of Besa Mafia’s operation.
- The details of who they wanted killed and how, with smiling photos of each target.
- Even if a hitman-for-hire website turns out to be fake, the consequences for attempting to use it are very real.
- The first person we deployed that strategy with was Elena, the woman in Switzerland.
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. The reason the hitman never delivered was because the entire site was a ruse to con money out of people buying hits, as Carl Miller, host of the ‘Kill List’ podcast, discovered. Stephen Allwine had grown tired of waiting for a hired killer to murder his wife Amy, a 43-year-old dog trainer and mother to a nine-year-old boy. When the five adopted children sent mail to their birth parents, the Pences wrote in a post-office box for a return address. The Corderos had made three cross-country trips to visit their children — twice in Washington, once in Texas — and knew they could not afford to keep doing so.
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. 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. This is why Monteiro is ambivalent about the news of Yura’s apparent apprehension, despite years of working to shed light on the operation and its victims. “It’s great an international law enforcement operation took down these criminals, but when will they ever proactively investigate the thousands of names on the kill list? 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. And whether it’s enough to shut down the operation for good is an open matter; it is easy enough for another to keep running the scam.

Woman Who Claims She’s A ‘witch’ Shares Incredibly Disturbing Moment From ‘cult Ritual’
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. One gray afternoon in November 2020, I’m on a video chat with my colleague Carl Miller, a technology researcher and author. We’re speaking to a woman from Switzerland, who I’ll call “Elena.” She’s middle-aged, with brown hair and glasses. But we’ve called to deliver some news that’s about to change her life.
“If you met them and saw the way that their house was run, it was a joyous, happy atmosphere,” says Tom Jeffcott, the senior pastor of the congregation. It was a structured home, a model of learning, of support, of understanding.” The eldest Pence daughters sometimes harmonized while they washed the dishes. If you believed he was who he said he was — the owner of a site that arranged murders using a network of operatives all over the world — he would be pretty scary.
Operations Hub

He said they’re not in touch at all anymore and that he doesn’t know Yura’s real name or location, but wishes he did because Yura scammed him, too. “48 Hours” uncovered information about an important thread in Yura’s web — a thread stretching all the way to the sprawling city of Kolkata, India, and a computer contractor named Santosh Sharma. The man who took the kill order Adrian allegedly made is still at large, too. But Lisa says finding Yura may partly depend on exposing and flipping the people who work with him. After nearly three weeks of testimony, it takes the jury seven hours to find Brigham guilty of solicitation of murder. And a month later, he was sentenced to three years in state prison.
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One of the “most wanted” users on Monteiro’s A3 was someone who went by the name of Dogdaygod. Evidence of the first murder linked to Besa Mafia emerged shortly after Monteiro met up with two police officers and seven months after Besa Mafia’s takedown. Monteiro gleefully bombarded Yura with questions, punching holes in the site’s business model, security and technical makeup.
The Risks Of Hiring A Dark Web Hitman
Of course hitmen do exist and there are reports of dark-web related murders, it’s just that these murder-for-hire eCommerce style sites smell so much like scams. The message appeared on the so-called dark web — part of the internet with hidden websites and secret messages that are only accessible with specialized software, such as the Tor browser. You’re not going to stumble upon the dark web via Google or Facebook. Criminal services include the purchase of firearms, illegal drugs, counterfeit money, stolen data, cyber attack software, and the hiring of hitmen. Policing involves targeting specific activities of the private web deemed illegal or subject to internet censorship.
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Be extremely cautious of potential financial scams, phishing attempts, or fraudulent schemes. We are not responsible for any financial loss, data breaches, or other damages you may incur from interacting with linked content. The digital world is full of pitfalls, from data breaches and ransomware attacks to identity theft and hacking. Keep your software up-to-date, use strong and unique passwords, and be cautious about clicking on suspicious links or downloading sketchy attachments. Scammers, cybercriminals, identity thieves – you name it, they’re out there. You’ll need that special Tor browser even to get a peek inside.
Mark and the team have created this podcast to help you and their clients understand how technology can help them in their industry and business, including helping them with cyber security solutions. To find out more about Mark Riddell and the rest of the m3 team, visit them here and follow them on Linkedin. The Tor network, while offering anonymity, also harbors significant dangers.
- They were in the kind of high spirits unique to teenagers on summer vacation with nothing much to do and nowhere in particular to go.
- A California-based person going by name Thcjohn2 had written to the website offering his services as an assassin.
- The dark web’s reputation as the lawless corner of the internet where anything from drugs, guns and even hit men can be bought has become modern urban legend.
- During his investigation, Miller also reached out to potential victims to tell them their private information — including workplace addresses and photographs — had been posted online.
- 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.
- Known as the internet’s evil twin, the dark web is a place where services offering hit men-for-hire are just a computer click away.
The websites don’t actually look like they were written by serious people, but rather teenagers trying to look tough with a shopping list of violent acts. What’s more, the eCommerce style setup, complete with shopping baskets, just makes things far too convenient for a would-be murder conspirator. The investigation, carried out by data-privacy and cybersecurity think-tank PrivacyAffairs, took a close look at a range of dark-web hitmen sites to compare the language, promises, and costs involved. On a sunny July day in 2018, Alexis Stern was sitting behind the wheel of the red Ford Fusion her parents had given her the previous year when she’d learned to drive.
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For many, the dark web seems like a mysterious place on the internet only the most experienced hackers and technologically savvy users can access. However, according to Dr. Holt, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Motivations may include revenge, personal grievances, or criminal intent, but such actions are illegal and unethical.
‘Hitmen’ For Hire Invade The Dark Web — But Researchers Say They’re Frauds
The small visible part above the water is the surface web that we use every day and is easily accessible with regular web browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome. Although we’ll highlight thrilling and fascinating stories, sensitive topics are investable as this is a shadowy realm. This is an estimated reading time to let you know how long it will take you to read all the content on this particular PrivacySavvy.com page. However, it has a sneak peek, easy guide steps, and/or a quick list providing quick in-page navigations and easily-found answers if desired. A federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday against Stanislav Yelizarov, 35, an inmate in the United States Penitentiary, Atwater, charging him with threatening the family of a federal official.
Can WiFi Owners See Your Internet History?
We were a couple of journalists stuck at home during the pandemic, and we’d just been handed a list of people with a price on their heads. So we started trying to figure out what to do with the information Chris had handed over—what we’d started to refer to as the ‘kill list’. I don’t work at an NGO, a private detective agency, or in law enforcement. I’m a podcast producer, and earlier in 2020 I’d started work on a new series about the dark web.