Hitman for hire?

It's never going to be a VC's darling unicorn. And it's not really a disrupter - that is, except for those who get caught by it - but Rent-A-Hitman (RAH) sure is an interesting business.

In 2005, Californian Bob Innes was starting up an internet security business, and thought that he'd come

up with a catchy name for it

"'Rent' as in hire us, 'hit man' as in website traffic and analytics," he says. (Source: CNN)

The business went nowhere. He tried unsuccessfully to sell the domain name, with nada interest. Then he more or less forgot about it for a few years. Until one day he took a look at the site's email box and what to his wondering eyes did appear than people looking for an actual hit man.

So Innes decided to have some fun with it, building out a website that's a pretty fair parody of a business site, even offering "Got a problem that needs resolving?...We have customizable solutions for every situation", testimonials from satisfied customers, requests for consultation forms, and solid positioning against the competitors:

Everyone should know by now that the Dark & Deep webs are not safe places to shop for your nefarious deeds. There are lots of potentially dangerous sites, ripe with viruses, and fraud runs rampant there. Your privacy is NOT guaranteed and your information could be leaked to thousands of less than stellar sites, including law enforcement, and that’s no fun!

Rent-A-Hitman is safe, secure, and available right here on the World Wide Web. 

Our clients confidentiality is important to us, so rest assured that your information will remain private as required under HIPPA, the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964. 

All of our competitors websites cannot say that and shouldn’t be trusted — Capisce!

The HIPPA bit is a particularly fine touch, but I think the Capisce! is a bit over the top. It's a nod to Guido Fanelli, the persona Innes concocted to front RAH, which in a further Godfatherly nod supposedly opened in 1920. Not all that funny, but apparently enough to the credulous maroons who have tried to sign up for RAH's "point and click solution."

These inclulde a Michigan woman who was willing to pay $5K to see her ex-husband dead.

"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."

Wendy Wein might "prefer not going to jail", but  she's heading to the slammer, facing up to 9 years, as she ended up meeting not with one of RAH's nearly 18,000 US-based operatives, but with a Michigan state trooper. There are several other who've been convicted of trying to "solicit a murder."

Since launching his site, over 400 folks have filled in a service request form. Most are doing it on a lark, but some have inquired about becoming am RAH field agent. And Innes estimates that about one-tenth of those who fill in the form are actually people who are honestly (if that's the right word) looking for a hit man. 

That's when Innes whistles in the cops.

"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..."

His first case was a woman looking to have three people killed over an inheritance. 

Innes was astounded. His "$9.20 website" might have saved three lives.

He does offer a cooling off period of 24 hours. But once the prospective client has pointed, clicked, and pulled the metaphorical trigger, he contacts the police.

Just amazing that there are people who'd fall for this, but then I think of the Q conspiracists. 

I guess the internet really does change everything.