2020
年 7 月，这位密歇根州妇女访问了一个名为 Rent-A-Hitman 的网站，该网站承诺私下及时地“处理您的微妙情况”。
该网站拥有近 18,000 名可以在美国任何地方工作的现场工作人员。它以满意客户的推荐为特色，其中一个人写道，RentAHitman“在我外出度假时及时处理了我心怀不满的员工问题”。
于是韦恩在网站上填写了一张表格，就她的问题寻求咨询。
“这有点奇怪，你的公司不在深网或暗网上，”她在给她认为是该网站首席顾问 Guido Fanelli 的男人的一封邮件中写道。 CNN 获得了该消息的副本。 “我不想进监狱，”她补充道。 “谢谢你的时间。”
这并没有阻止 Wein 后来提出支付 5,000 美元杀死她的丈夫。
但有一个问题。
Guido Fanelli 实际上是 Bob Innes，他是该网站的运营商。 Rent-A-Hitman 的“特工”从未真正杀死过任何人。相反，该网站的存在是为了欺骗正在寻找雇佣杀手的人。
而韦恩现在正被送进监狱——他是几名 Rent-A-Hitman“客户”之一，他们因利用该网站谋求谋杀而被判有罪。
该网站的所有者将凶残的“客户”交给警察
最初作为互联网安全业务的网站，意外地变成了人们想要杀死敌人的在线诱饵。他们的服务请求交给了 Innes，后者将认真的调查交给了执法部门。
住在加利福尼亚州费尔菲尔德的 Innes 说，他的网站上到处都是危险信号，暗示这是一个陷阱。首先，该网站公开暗示其提供非法服务。它的虚假证词包括一名妇女在发现丈夫与保姆出轨后“准备好交往”的证词。
其 18,000 名“外勤人员”是全国执法机构的估计数量。在网站底部，有一个链接可以检查您的信用卡是否被盗，将用户带到 FBI 的互联网犯罪投诉中心。
该网站根据“1964 年杀手信息隐私和保护法案”承诺保密，这是对 HIPAA 的半开玩笑的点头，这是现实生活中的健康保险流通和责任法案，于 1996 年通过并保护患者的医疗信息。
但有些人仍然上当了，用他们的真实姓名、联系方式和他们想要“处理”的人的详细信息填写在线表格。
Innes 说，自该网站推出以来，已有 400 多人在该网站上填写了服务请求表，其中一些人表示有兴趣成为杀手和恶作剧，试图与朋友开玩笑。他说，其中大约 10% 变成了警方介入的合法案件。
54 岁的 Innes 说：“我认为没有人会那么愚蠢，但事实证明我是错的。这些人……不管他们是谁，他们看到 HIPAA，他们认为隐私。所以他们觉得有必要留下他们的真实信息——姓名、地址、预定目标所在……”
在他向当局发出警报之前，他让人们有 24 小时的时间冷静下来
如果有人在其网站上填写表格并明确寻求杀害某人，Innes 将等待 24 小时，然后再联系警方。
“这有点像冷静期，让你恢复理智。我想让人们有机会走开，”他说。 “一天后，我问他们两个问题。你还需要我们的服务吗？你想和外勤特工联系吗？”
如果他们对两者都回答是，Innes 会将他们与他们所在地区的执法机构联系起来，后者接管与嫌疑人的沟通。 Innes 从不讨论费用——他把这留给“外勤人员”。
“我只是和警察玩媒人，”他说。 “我宁愿做州证人，也不愿做州共谋者。”
当密歇根州妇女韦恩在 24 小时后确认她仍想雇用一名杀手时，英尼斯将她的信息交给了密歇根州警方。他们派了一名身着便衣扮成杀手的州警在底特律南部南罗克伍德的一个停车场与她会面。
警方称，Wein 提出要付给这名士兵 5,000 美元以杀死她的前夫，并提供了他的家庭住址、工作地点和日程安排。州警察告诉 CNN，由于她的前夫住在另一个州，她给了这名士兵 200 美元的旅费首付。
Wein 上个月被捕并承认犯有谋杀罪和使用计算机犯罪的指控。中士说，在定于 1 月宣判时，她将面临长达 9 年的监禁。领导此案的密歇根州警察局的迈克尔·彼得森 (Michael Peterson)。
“这起案件最引人注目的是嫌疑人的愚蠢……试图从网站上雇佣杀手，”彼得森说。
A Michigan woman faces prison after trying to hire an assassin through a fake website
Wendy Wein wanted her ex-husband dead.
In July of 2020 the Michigan woman came across a website, Rent-A-Hitman, that promised to "handle your delicate situation" privately and in a timely manner.
The site boasts having almost 18,000 field operatives who can do a job anywhere in the United States. It features testimonials from satisfied clients, including a man who wrote that RentAHitman "handled my disgruntled employee issue promptly while I was out of town on vacation."
So Wein filled out a form on the site, seeking consultation for her issue.
"This is kind of weird that your company is not on the deep or dark web," she wrote in a message to a man she believed was the site's chief consultant, Guido Fanelli. CNN obtained a copy of the message. "I prefer not going to jail," she added. "Thanks for your time."
That didn't stop Wein from offering later to pay $5,000 to have her husband killed.
But there was a problem.
Guido Fanelli is actually Bob Innes, a California man who runs the website. Rent-A-Hitman's "operatives" have never actually killed anybody. Instead, the site exists to dupe people who are looking for hired killers.
And Wein is now headed to prison -- one of several Rent-A-Hitman "clients" who've been found guilty of using the site to solicit a murder.
The site's owner turns murderous 'clients' over to police
What started as a website for an internet security business has turned, by accident, into online bait for people looking to get their enemies killed. Their service requests go to Innes, who hands serious inquiries over to law enforcement.
Innes, who lives in Fairfield, California, says he's left red flags all over his site hinting that it's a trap. For starters, the website openly suggests that it offers illegal services. Its phony testimonials include one from a woman who's "ready to mingle" after she caught her husband cheating with a babysitter.
Its 18,000 "field operatives" are the estimated number of law enforcement agencies nationwide. At the bottom of the site, a link to check if your credit card has been stolen takes users to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
And the site promises confidentiality under the "Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964," a tongue-in-cheek nod to HIPAA, the real-life Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act which passed in 1996 and protects patients' medical information.
But some people still fall for it, filling out online forms with their real name, contact information and details about who they want "handled."
Innes says more than 400 people have filled service request forms on the site since it launched, including some who have expressed interest in becoming hit men and pranksters trying to play jokes on friends. Of those, roughly 10% turned into legitimate cases where police became involved, he says.
"I thought nobody can be that stupid, and boy have I been proven wrong," says Innes, 54. "These people ... whoever they are, they see HIPAA, they think privacy. So they feel compelled to leave their real information -- names, address, where the intended target is..."
He gives people 24 hours to cool off before he alerts authorities
If a person fills out a form on his site and explicitly seeks to have someone killed, Innes will wait 24 hours before contacting police.
"It's kind of like a cooling-off period, to come back to your senses. I want to give people the opportunity to walk away," he says. "After a day, I ask them two questions. Do you still require our services? Do you want to be connected with a field operative?"
If they respond yes to both, Innes connects them with a law enforcement agency in their area, which takes over communications with the suspect. Innes never discusses a fee -- he leaves that to the "field operatives."
"I just play matchmaker with the police," he says. "I'd rather be a state witness than a state conspirator."
When Wein, the Michigan woman, confirmed after 24 hours that she still wanted to hire a killer, Innes turned her information over to Michigan State Police. They sent a state trooper, posing in plainclothes as a hit man, to meet her in a parking lot in South Rockwood, south of Detroit.
Police said Wein offered to pay the trooper $5,000 to kill her ex-husband and provided his home address, place of work and his schedule. State police told CNN she gave the trooper a $200 down payment for travel expenses because her ex-husband lived in another state.
Wein was arrested and pleaded guilty last month to charges of solicitation for murder and use of a computer to commit a crime. She faces up to nine years in prison at her sentencing, scheduled for January, says Sgt. Michael Peterson of Michigan State Police, who led the case.
"What stood out the most about this case was the foolishness of the suspect ... attempting to hire a hit man from a website," Peterson says.
