Freelance Site Fiverr Offers Illegal Private Spying Services

Freelancer site Fiverr is where a company can hire a short term app developer, a logo designer, or someone to help with their social media accounts. Fiverr is also a site where you can buy malware to illegally spy on your spouse, pay someone to place a GPS tracker on a car, or hire an unlicensed private investigator, Motherboard reported Monday, citing public listings on Fiverr. From the report: The news highlights how the struggle to moderate content is not limited to large social networks and platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Other sites, like Fiverr, also have trouble policing their platforms. Motherboard has covered extensively the harm that malware used in abusive relationships, sometimes known as spouseware, or how technology can enable stalking. "I have undetectable spyware to monitor your cheating spouse, staffs [sic] and kids gadgets," one listing on Fiverr found by Motherboard reads. For $5, customers can apparently buy malware that will record keystrokes and websites visited, and for $400 can buy software that will allegedly steal a target's passwords and email contents. The quality of the malware on offer is unclear. Another listing offers to "covertly deploy [a] tracking device to a vehicle."

Fiverr removed the listings offering malware and GPS tracking after Motherboard contacted the company for comment. "Any gigs that fall under our 'Illegal or fraudulent services' violate our terms of service by doing so. Two of the gigs you shared did violate our terms of service in this way and have been taken down, as a result," a Fiverr spokesperson told Motherboard in an email. It appears Fiverr also deleted the user accounts offering those two services.