Although most transactions can be arranged from the comfort (and anonymity) of one’s own home, it pays to remember that not everything online is as it seems.
A Michigan woman accused of trying to bump off her ex-husband may soon have plenty of time to reflect on that lesson after seemingly taking the world in her web browser at face value.
Wendy Wein, 51, allegedly filled in a consultation form on fake website rentahitman.com to hire someone to kill her former spouse.
She is then said to have met with an undercover state trooper whom she offered $5,000 to do the deed, following a tip-off to police from the website’s owner.
Wein, from South Rockwood, was arrested Friday and charged with solicitation to commit murder and using a computer to commit a crime.
Police say the woman paid the undercover officer in advance for travel expenses to murder her ex, who has not been named but lives in a different state.
The meeting was set up after Wein allegedly completed a service request form on the website identifying her erstwhile marriage partner as the target.
“An undercover state trooper posing as a hitman met with Wein in a parking lot in South Rockwood,” police said in a statement.
The investigation is said to be ongoing and a motive for the planned contract killing is not yet clear.
According to the website owner, rentahitman.com has helped prevent more than 130 murders since it was set up in 2005.
The site refers anyone who tries to use its bogus services to police.
The owner said he had been contacted numerous times by people requesting murders and school shootings, WXYZ reports.
Wein is being held at Monroe County Jail on $500,000 bond.
She is due in court July 29.