The Guardian has published a curious story that illustrates a line from a children’s song, “As you name the boat, so it shall float.” In 2005, US citizen Bob Innes registered the domain name Rentahitman.com. When Bob was young, he dreamed of a career in law enforcement and even did a course at a police school. Then he turned his sights to IT and web traffic analysis. He registered the domain hoping to create his own business in this area: the “hit” was a nod to clicks coming in on a client’s website. “Rent a hitman” was supposed to be an invitation to hire a web traffic analyst rather than to hire an assassin. Innes knew that it was a play on words, and believed that it would attract clients.
Unfortunately, the business failed. Bob Innes put the domain up for sale and did not pay much attention to it, automatically renewing the registration. Three years later, he checked its inbox and was shocked to find over 200 requests for assassin services.
He would never believe that someone could take the domain name seriously. However, he recalled his dreams of being a policeman and decided to investigate one of the requests. He picked an email from a woman named Helen in Canada. She wrote that her UK relatives screwed her out of her father’s inheritance, and she wanted to murder them. Innes responded, asking her whether her intentions were serious. Helen sent another email with names, addresses and other corroborating information, including her own contact details. Bob Innes handed over this information to the police, and Helen was arrested. Her intentions were serious indeed; moreover, she was wanted in the UK for a series of crimes.
The Rentahitman.com domain now has a website. While not stating directly what type of job he has, Bob Innes (on the site, he goes by the mafia-inspired pseudonym Guido Fanelli) cites a phony law that protects the information of hitmen and offers discounts for pensioners. It is hard to not recognize a joke. But it is a fact: over the past several years, Bob Innes has saved the lives of at least 150 people who had bounties placed on their heads.
