The Uber app for assassins and hitmen

This is probably just a brainfart and I'm not sure if this belongs here or in World Building.

Basically in this setting there is an app like Uber. Only instead of calling a car, it allows one to place a bounty on a person, as well providing a means to dox the target. People can also use the app to search for a bounty/target if they want to have a go at being murder for hire.

Who would make such a terrible tool? No one knows. Perhaps, it could be like the Death Note; an artifact of otherworldly origin.

If you want to use it in your story go ahead.

edited 9th Oct '15 2:42:05 PM by Worlder

I see several problems with this.

1) Dumb hitmen - if there's an app for hiring a murder, you're going to end up with a lot of absolute idiots who think they're utter badasses (despite the shitty knees, beer belly, bad eyesight, etc), who are more likely to cause collateral damage than they are a clean kill. Or get caught before they can complete the hit. Or immediately implicate you when they get arrested.

2) Traceability - seems like it would be really obvious for law enforcement to check a corpse against this app and see who hired Bubba to shoot up a coffee shop and kill the barista. One warrant later, and you get hauled in on a federal arrest for trial.

3) Counter-offers - anyone expecting there's a good chance of them being murdered^note politicians, celebrities, anyone who ends up in a viral video could trawl the ad, and when they see someone trying to put a hit on them promptly either accept the hit on themselves^note with, obviously, no intent to perform it, thus stymying the would-be plotter; unless the app allows multiple people to compete at the same job, or has a way for the original hirer to cancel a job and re-start it, or offer more money to whoever accepts the hit not to take it^note which might get expensive, and could certainly be used for nefarious purposes to defund someone if they get a reputation for paying more, or they could find out who accepted the hit and put an immediate hit on them^note having an assassin assassinate their assassin, as it were.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

2a) LE could check the list regularly, see who's being targeted and put things in place to thwart the attempt and arrest the would-be assassin.

It also sounds like a great way to prove conspiracy to murder.

edited 10th Oct '15 2:45:34 AM by Wolf1066

But what if the app really was supernatural in nature?

That it is only viewable and usable to those with sufficiently sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies. Also, it deletes itself once the user is caught.

Things would get into Death Note territory.

edited 10th Oct '15 9:19:21 AM by Worlder

Then you still may get utter idiots who are a threat to anyone except the target themselves. Not all murderous psychopaths are hypercompentent, you know.

edited 10th Oct '15 10:40:10 AM by handlere

Seen in the profile picture: the Gundam Flauros Rebake Full City, piloted by McGillis Itsuka, captain of the Turbines

I can see it working as a very advanced sort of app. The users would never provide their names, only alias and when it comes to payment, some bank account numbers. You can only download the app if someone who already has it passes the file to you somehow, and there's an administrator of sorts who oversees the app's working so as to remotelly delete the app if a user is caught.

Establish some ground rules:

A) If a Hitman fails at his job or is captured by the police, the Administrator deletes the app from his cellphone.

B) Once a hit's arrangements are made, all the messages delete themselves.

C) All must remain anonymus.

D) A hitman may not pursue contradictory contracts at the same time (i.e reversing a hit is a no-no, you could hire another hitman to take you the hitman after you or his employer, though). Doing so will result in termination.

edited 10th Oct '15 10:59:26 AM by Gaon

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

So does that mean I can play the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane trope?

You could have a fairly interesting story with that, yes. Perhaps leave the question if the Administrator in question is really just a very resourceful criminal or something more sinister (after all, an app for hitmen is not very far from a death cult, is it?).

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

With hesistation I suggest doing some VERY cursory study into Rent-a-Hitman. Yes, its a real website with rules like no hits under 16 or top 10 politicians.

It even has a breakdown of prices and services like "Natural Causes", "Unfortunate Accident" and "Classic Hit".

Do you read Sutter Cane?

Then you've only eliminated point #2.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

There is a website with such a URL but the page seems like placeholder.

Also, how the hell do you know this thing exists?

Looking at it, I'm quite confident this was a joke. And if not, do we... want to know how J.G.Crowne got to know about it?

Rejoice!

"For the purposes of research and verisimilitude". The same reason why a lot of respectable authors know how to make explosives and other "shady" things - they don't want to make them, they want to be able to realistically convey that their characters know how...

Its a deep website and it was for research...yeah

Do you read Sutter Cane?

Anyways, if such a service already exists, then wouldn't take away some of the mystique of this fictional app?

I want my audience to be spooked not disgusted.

Well Ra H is deep-web. That means if you were to really want someone dead you have to go out of your way to access that part of the internet.

Your app could be bundled with another, very innocuous one like a game or even a productivity app. It could be untraceable and could even delete itself after a number of uses or should a job go bad.

Do you read Sutter Cane?