IT’S not surprising these days to see people coming up with novel ways on the Internet to do the many ordinary things. Trading is one of the first ventures that developed a presence on the Web.

Knowing that just posting for a request on the Internet for even the most weirdest thing can get you some feedback, people are not only turning to the Internet for speedy answers and suggestions but also for trying their luck. One of the more recent bold requests has to be trying to find an assasin online.

Just last week, an American woman was arrested when she allegedly tried to hire a hitman through the Internet to kill her married lover’s wife. Posting her request via a free ad on the popular Web site, www.craigslist.com, Anne Marie of Grand Rapids, Michigan enquired if anyone would take up a “Freelance” job.

After getting responses from some people thinking that Marie was seeking freelance writers, she gave details of the hit job to one of the respondents in her subsequent e-mails. She offered US$5,000 (RM16,500) for the “freelance” job and even provided information and whereabouts of her lover’s wife.

Although the hit job was not carried out by anyone, the e-mails are now produced in courts as Marie is charged with three counts relating to murder for hiring and using interstate commerce to commit a felony.

Well, although Marie wasn’t smart enough to know that posting an ad on a Web site to kill someone is like telling everyone that you’re going to commit a murder, it goes to show the power of the Internet to reach out. Almost everyone today knows that if you need something, turning to the Internet is a sure way to get some lead or even get things done.

Albeit the many reports that we come across of how weirdos also lurk on the Internet, in Marie’s case, the lover’s wife wasn’t killed because people know to differentiate what’s right or wrong.

Let’s hope things stay that way. Let’s hope people will use the Internet to make the world a better place for all, and not a tool to cause miseries and launch wicked motives.