At least seven Dutch citizens have been targeted in murder-for-hire plots on a dark web website, according to hacked data obtained by RTL Nieuws. The intended victims include ordinary people such as a teacher, a nurse and a civil servant and in four cases, money was actually paid to have them killed, RTL said.

The murder orders were placed between 2016 and 2022, and although none of the attacks are known to have been carried out, Dutch police are treating the threats as serious crimes.

The hitman website, still active under various names like Besa Mafia and Camorra Hitmen, appears to be a scam run by fraudsters who accept bitcoin payments but do not carry out the killings, RTL said.

One of the targets, identified as Jerom*, spoke to RTL Nieuws after learning he had been marked for death. “I’m scared. I don’t like going outside,” he said. The person who ordered his killing wrote: “I don’t care what happens to the mother. The only thing I want is for him to die.”

Police are now trying to track down the people behind the orders, using bitcoin transactions and chat logs to trace identities.

One man, 42-year-old Imran M. from The Hague, has already been convicted. After a difficult divorce, he twice attempted to have his ex-wife murdered, paying $2,000 in advance. He provided detailed personal information, including her workplace and car registration.

The intended victims have no ties to organised crime and live what appear to be normal lives in residential neighbourhoods. Some have young children. The authorities stress that the danger is real, even if the website was never meant to deliver actual contract killings.

The investigation was made possible by British hacker Chris Monteiro, who infiltrated the website in 2016 and gathered data on hundreds of murder plots worldwide. He has since passed evidence to authorities in multiple countries, leading to dozens of convictions, according to RTL.

RTL Nieuws shared the data with the Dutch police’s national serious crime unit in April, breaking with journalistic convention due to the ongoing risk to lives. Police say several of the targets have been informed and that they are continuing to investigate both the perpetrators and clients.