Reading the leaks, it seems more like the site programmers are trolls doing it for the lulz who happen to also hand over all their info to law enforcement.
> surreal/bizzare that the site admins asked wannabe hitmen to set their cars on fire
Proves you're not a troll or "looky-loo", and that you may actually commit other crimes if given the opportunity?
It does give proof of an actual crime, and intent to commit more crimes (namely, murder, since that's in writing as the intention and goal).
So, if they're a honeypot, they now have cause to arrest you based on your kindly submitted evidence. If they're not a honeypot, they have "dirt" on you if you try to turn on them.
> their cars on fire
From the article, it seems they are not setting their own cars on fire, but someone's random car in a remote ___location.
What I don't get at all is that they specifically tell the person to conceal their identity.
If you're running this service for real, you want them to expose their identity to you. This means that you can trap the dude in the service ("do this task or we will send the cops on you").
If this is fake, you still want them to expose their identity. Otherwise the honeypot is useless or would take a long time to reap rewards. Maybe a long con could be better, but I don't see how.
Which is why they set it up on Tor and don't tell the police their names. They're like crackers who might quietly email the FBI a tip if they happen to find child porn on a server they've exploited.
There's multiple comments from people claiming to have used the site successfully. I have a hard time believing they're not trolls, or some kind of weird advertising.
Those Reddit comments, wow. Every single user that endorses the service writes with the same broken English.
Totally legit, astroturfing.
That said, anyone dumb enough to buy a hitman online would probably trust those comments. I mean, just look at all of the satisfied Redditors that have come forward to talk about the murders they helped commit. It must be true! Did you see the videos? Here, look at the videos. LOOK AT THEM!
No -- ANY car. Where exactly did people on HN get this idea that it should be the "admins cars"?
From the actual article: "Besa has a unique way of putting users who apply to be a hitman-for-hire to the test by asking them to perform a criminal task. That task generally involves activity such as stealing and crashing a car, setting it on fire along with a unique personal message – all while being filmed for evidence."
And from the posting on the admin's board, as quoted right after this in the article:
>You need to get some hooded jacked, and set fire to a car. Select a car from any place you want, make sure is somehow in a place to avoid the fire extent to other places, we don’t want to burn the hole city down.
The idea is that when you want to hire them, you send your Bitcoin to a third-party like Bitescrow, who then arbitrates if the hitman doesn't come through. Usually in the hitmen scams, the third-party turns out to be the hitman site in disguise, and they just keep the bitcoins.
