The dark web‘s image as a lawless online marketplace where anything from narcotics to firearms to hit men may be purchased has become a modern urban legend. According to newly disclosed court records, one dark web broker purporting to provide murder-for-hire services was actually a fraudster posing as an FBI informant.
In February 2020, an unnamed scammer reported a $5,000 order to the FBI in Washington State, claiming, “I believe that all targets that have been paid for are in danger.” According to a recently released search warrant reviewed by Forbes, customers who pay to murder someone demonstrate that they are serious about killing that person.They then promised to give target data, payment proof, and other information in order to track down the consumers. Customers could still be followed even if they didn’t disclose their true name or information and concealed their IP address, according to the source. The anonymous tipper was not named, and it’s unknown whether the FBI knows who they are.
The site administrator informed the agents about one purchase for which he’d been given the target’s location in Bellevue, Washington, and had gotten a message from the buyer saying, “Just murder her ASAP.” I don’t care how you do it as long as she’s dead.I’d rather you kill her with a bullet to the head. I believe she works for [company] in Bellevue, but I’m not sure where. I’m not sure whether that helps in any way. She has a three-year-old kid whom she picks up at 5 p.m., so she is generally home about 5 p.m. Please don’t harm the boy in any way. When the task is finished, send me a proof.” On February 4, 2020, a payment of 0.53 bitcoin (about $5,000 at the time) was made to the tipster’s wallet, according to law enforcement.
The FBI questioned the target, who has not been identified, to establish who could have wanted her killed, according to the agency’s warrant.Her spouse had an adulterous romance with a lady he met at a seminar, according to the agency. He’d not only been having an affair with the lady, but he’d also been giving her money, and she’d requested for $5,000 on one occasion.
The new partner of husband was named as the primary suspect in the search warrant issued for Microsoft and Gmail email accounts, and she acknowledged to investigators which she had engaged the dark web hit. Because no charges have been filed, Forbes will not publish the suspect’s identity.
According to the search warrant, the suspect stated she solicited the hit using a “ancient phone” and had hidden her identity by downloading a programme on her phone, believed to be the Tor browser. She said she tried to halt the hit but was unable to do so because she couldn’t access the site after placing the order, according to the FBI.
Prior to being interrogated, the suspect paid a visit to the victim’s house in December 2019 and told the husband she had intended to murder the wife with a knife, but she later told investigators she didn’t mean it and wasn’t armed, according to the FBI.According to the search warrant, the wife had also received photographs on Facebook of her husband and the suspect kissing, which the suspect is thought to have staged.
The suspect said she used a bitcoin ATM and searched different dark web hit-for-hire sites after deciding to hire a hit man, picking one that didn’t need identifying information such as a driver’s licence, according to the authorities. According to the warrant, she complained to the dark web broker about why the hit hadn’t happened, to which the informant replied that the hit guy who had been hired had been arrested and they were looking for someone else to perform the job.
The FBI stated that the informant had alerted them to another assassination order, but offered no other specifics.
Murder-for-hire dark web sites are frequently exposed as frauds. However, Europol reported last year that an Italian man hired a dark web hit man $12,000 in cryptocurrencies to attack and put his ex-girlfriend in a wheelchair. After initiating “an immediate, sophisticated crypto-analysis to allow the tracking and identification of the supplier,” it was able to trace the payment and thwart the attack.
Source : forebs
