A mother in the Netherlands was shocked when an AK-47 was delivered to her home after her 8-year-old son purchased it on the dark web without her knowledge. Barbara Gemen, a human resources professional in the Netherlands, told Euronews about how her son became involved in cybercrime at an early age. She added that her kid began hacking at eight and spent much time behind the computer.
She didn’t comprehend the gravity of the situation until an AK-47 was handed to her door
“He started ordering things on the Internet without paying,” said Gemen. She added that the while the purchases made by her son from the dark web started with small things like “free” pizza, slowly they became more horrifying. According to the media source, the parent revealed that her son used nonsensical code phrases such as “Pitt is coming to our place” whenever she entered his room. She further stated that the hackers used her son to launder money for others. She didn’t comprehend the gravity of the situation until an AK-47 was handed to her door. “I think he spent a month figuring out how to order the gun and have it shipped to our home,” Gemen remembered, adding that her son routed the gun from Poland to Bulgaria to bypass customs.
“He opened it and was really excited that he managed to get a gun delivered to our home. I was completely shocked. I immediately decided to do things differently at home,” she said. Gemen told Euronews that she handed over the gun to the local police department and that the authorities did not conduct any legal action against her child. She also mentioned that her son’s personality had changed. “He started to wake up at night to sit behind a computer and he was really stressed. And that’s when we find out he was working with a group of international hackers,” she stated.
Gemen approached law police for advice, but she claims her fear was rejected as an “exaggeration.” She stated that she then opted to train in cybersecurity and become a Cyber Special Volunteer with the Dutch Police. “It’s so easy these days because a lot of kids have laptops and cell phones and you can basically do a hack with a few clicks. It’s a quite big issue to prevent young people from hacking. They often don’t know what’s legal or what’s illegal,” Gemen said.
