Michigan woman busted for trying to use fake 'Rent-A-Hitman' website to kill ex-husband

A Michigan woman faces nine years in prison for allegedly trying to kill her ex-husband by using a website called "Rent-A-Hitman."

According to CNN, Wendy Wein found the site in July 2020 and offered $5,000 to have her ex killed. But the website is fake, intended to catch would-be criminals.

Apparently, Wein, 52, of South Rockwood, was skeptical of the site's authenticity. "This is kind of weird that your company is not on the deep or dark web," she wrote in a message obtained by CNN. "I prefer not going to jail."

The message was received by Bob Innes, a California man who set up the website and hands over information to law enforcement.

The Rent-A-Hitman website is bonkers, riddled with jokes meant to deter people, Innes told CNN. Those include The Sopranos-esque mafia cheese ("Capisce!") and fake "testimonials" from satisfied clients, like a woman who said she is "single again and looking to mingle" after using Rent-A-Hitman to kill her husband who was cheating on her with the babysitter. The website even claims that all personal information is protected under HIPPA, the "Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964."

"I thought nobody can be that stupid, and boy have I been proven wrong," Innes, 54, told CNN. "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..."

Innes says he gives people 24 hours to cool off before he sends their information to authorities. In Wein's case, he turned her messages over to the Michigan State Police, who sent an undercover officer to meet her in a parking lot. MSP says there, Wein offered the trooper a $200 down payment for the job.

Wein was arrested and pleaded guilty last month to charges of solicitation for murder and the use of a computer to commit a crime.

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