The aspiring horror book author had read about the dark web – a hidden online marketplace, where criminality ranging from human trafficking to illegal weapons is advertised for sale — even murder. 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. That was the case for Elena, a woman in her 60s in Switzerland, who was ‘actually not really surprised’ by the news that someone with the username ‘Nordwand’ had paid £5,360 in Bitcoin to have her killed. At the same time, Christopher was looking into an extrajudicial approach.
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.
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As I spoke to them, and the first perpetrators were arrested, I began to understand the types of crime we were dealing with. By day, Chris is an IT professional, but by night he’s a dark web researcher and hacker, and wears his long hair in a ponytail. Chris had been looking into a network of dark web sites that claimed to offer hitmen for hire. They branded themselves as a branch of the mafia, and promised murder for sale, at the click of a button.
“There has never been a murder definitively attributed to dark-web hitmen.” He then passes the information on to law enforcement agencies in the UK and abroad. Sky News contacted several of these websites to see if they would put someone forward for interview to discuss their operations. Camorra Hitman is no longer running but dozens of sites claiming to offer the same services are still operating on the dark web. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History, followed by an NCTJ accredited masters in Journalism.
He learned about Tails while reading about Edward Snowden, who used the operating system to hide his activities from the National Security Agency. In July 2021, with the software running, Christopher called up Ahmia, a darknet search engine, and looked for a website offering to connect customers with assassins. At the center of Merchant’s article is a young woman who faced a likely threat on her life based on information found on the dark web; actually pursuing the case, however, proved more difficult. “Murder marketplaces may force us to reexamine — and redefine — what constitutes criminal intent,” Merchant writes.
There had been warning signs for a while, at least since the point at which Yura had threatened to expose him as a cop. In June 2016, when Monteiro hacked into Yura’s Gmail account, he had noticed that the scammer had created email addresses under the name of Chris Monteiro and Eileen Ormsby, an Australian journalist who had also written about Besa Mafia. At the station, an NCA officer told him he had been arrested for incitement to murder, in connection with Besa Mafia. He says he tried to get the police involved – again, with little success.
- He calls himself Yura — a man who says he’s behind an international murder empire named Besa Mafia.
- In her advertisement, she sought a “random” or “accident” killing to get rid of the woman who was later identified as the wife of the man she claimed to have met on Match.com, an online dating platform.
- She was just 15 when a friend introduced her to an older man online.
- These individuals typically operate anonymously and use sophisticated encryption and other security measures to avoid detection.
- Blockchain analysis showed that Ms. Murphy used an ATM to convert cash into cryptocurrency on at least three occasions.
- 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’.
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Dark web forums are online platforms that can only be accessed using anonymous networks, mainly Tor…. Besides security, VPNs employ several measures to improve your privacy. For example, they use RAM-based servers that wipe all information after every session. The provider adheres to a strict no-logs policy, which means it doesn’t log your data. Finally, the company is based in Panama, a privacy-friendly jurisdiction.
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“48 Hours” has been working this story for several months now and a tinge of suspicion has crept into our minds. Chris Monterio has had access to Yura’s database — he knows everything about Yura — and it’s time we ask him an important question. Yura was finished with Sydney, but not with “48 Hours.” He tipped us to yet another plot. This time, the person who allegedly hired the hit man is a woman living near Chicago.
Another site, which appears to be operated by different people, and claims to serve the Russian region primarily, is fully operational. I downloaded a Tor browser and logged on, found a link to the Telegram chat of the “Jabba Syndicate” and inquired into getting a hitman in Los Angeles. It is a fertile ground for intelligence on all types of crime. If you are in the business of cyber threat intelligence, yes. There is multiple techniques, tactics, and procedural information to be found as well as braggadocios accounts of hacks. If you are a journalist or whistleblower in an oppressive country, perhaps-if you really have that as the only option to pass information.
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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. As it was, he was simply a conman who scammed would-be murderers out of their bitcoin and never carried out any hits. According to Dr. Holt, it’s also possible that some of these advertisements could be sting operations – meaning that law enforcement agencies are putting out ads in the hopes of catching someone attempting to solicit contracted violence. This sends a clear message to those who believe they can escape justice by relying on cryptocurrency transactions — they are in for a harsh reality check. Mark Riddell’s technology podcast “Techcess” is an m3 Networks production.
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His articles have appeared in many respected technology publications. Ruheni explains complicated technical concepts clearly and simply. He advocates digital freedom and online privacy at every level. The New York Times explored these services on the dark web and found they were all scams.
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He passed her details to the police, and she was convicted for soliciting murder. Let’s put on our detective hats and investigate the hitman-for-hire myth further. Many cybersecurity and law enforcement experts have been tracking the Dark Web for years. While the Dark Web hosts some illegal marketplaces peddling drugs, stolen data, and other shady stuff, hitman services are less widespread than you might think. According to the investigation, between March 25, 2019, and April 4, 2019, Zhou sought to hire a hitman through a murder-for-hire website on the dark web to murder her then-romantic partner’s wife.
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He published a number of blog posts exposing the operation, which angered Yura enough to hire someone to threaten him personally. Since its inception in the 2010s, the operation has funneled users searching for ways to hire an assassin online to a site on the dark web. That site has gone by a series of different names; Besa Mafia, Camorra Hitman, and, most recently, the #1 Hitman Marketplace.
In a Wednesday press release, officials with Romania’s Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) announced the arrest of five men alleged to be the administrators of the site formerly known as Besa Mafia. Alternately called “Camorra Hitman” and “#1 Hitman Marketplace,” Besa has long offered to connect paying dark web patrons to capable contract killers. Reports can be made to local law enforcement, or specific cybercrime units that focus on monitoring illegal activities online. We were already there to interview a self-styled cybercrime researcher named Chris Monteiro, who’d been monitoring Yura and his hitman sites for more than three years. Although many dark web sites are scams, Alexis knew someone out there wanted her dead. A woman in Tennessee in the United States was sentenced to 100 months in prison after she hired a contract killer to murder the wife of a man she met on an online dating app.
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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. 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.
