All posts by catherinetownsend

08 Apr 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Love Fraud Permalink

Don’t do your own detective work

Sticky Post By On April 8, 2014

As a PI, I hear the phrase “I could totally be a detective,’ every day from my female friends. Even though I know that many of them could give FBI agents a run for their money, I always give them the same advice: ‘Don’t do your own detective work. Because no matter how much money you have lost, your time is priceless’.

Case in point: According to the Daily Mail, 52-year-old Katherine Underwood has spent the past 20 years trying to collect the $1.6 million her conman boyfriend stole from her. After winning her judgement back in 1994, her ex claimed that he was broke. So Katherine busted out her wigs like Jennifer Garner in Alias (pictured) and has been hot on his trail ever since.

While I totally understand her obsession, I still believe that investigating your own case is a bad idea for many reasons – the two biggest problems being:

1) It’s probably illegal.

Several states have strict anti-stalking laws, so driving by your ex-boyfriend’s house and parking outside his door could lead to criminal charges. A licensed private investigator is allowed to do surveillance, provided that he/she has an active case file.

2) You are too emotionally involved.

In the same way that a therapist provides a neutral third party when you are having relationship issues, a private investigator can follow the facts of the case without getting over-emotional and, for example, driving a car through an ex-boyfriend’s hedges.

If you are like Katherine and need an objective third party, call or email me today.

04 Apr 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Love Fraud, Social Media Permalink

Love Scams: The CSI Effect

Sticky Post By On April 4, 2014

In his awesome book Practical Homicide Investigation, Vernon Geberth describes a phenomenon he labels ‘the CSI effect’. Basically, as more information about forensics becomes available to the general public via shows like CSI, criminals get smarter. They may wear gloves, or stage scenes to look like bizarre sex crimes they have seen in movies. I have found that the same thing is true of love scams.

You may be a Google armchair expert, know how to Facebook stalk and even master the art of putting on sunglasses after uttering the perfect one-liner, but love scammers are getting more sophisticated every day. This is why a licensed investigator who is up-to-date on the latest technology can help make sure that you don’t get fooled again (see what I did there?)

By now, many people are familiar with ‘catfish’, or people who pretend to be someone else online. They know to avoid Facebook pages that have few posts or friends, or have found websites that will tell them if Twitter users are real or fake. But at the same time, criminals are getting better at spreading digital disinformation. A number of services now allow people to buy ‘verified’ Twitter followers, and Facebook fakes have begun to craft much more elaborate pages with hundreds of friends. LinkedIn pages, which many people look at to verify employment – are actually self-reported, and totally open to fraud.

This month, I worked a case where the man I was attempting to serve papers to had crafted an elaborate – and completely fake – life on Facebook and Instagram. He ‘tagged’ himself at various locations hours or days after he left. Eventually we were able to geo-tag a photo and find him through old-fashioned surveillance, but by leaving a trail of false leads, he was able to confuse investigators for several days.

They also work to foil online background checks. For example, many criminals know that the starting point of identity is a social security number. Since they have bad credit or a criminal record, they may try to beat the system by stealing social security numbers from other people or the Death Master Index. Since it’s hard for a dead guy to get arrested for assault, the scammer uses the ‘clean’ social security number to build credit, get jobs and avoid judgements and child support payments.

It pays to remember that – even in a technological age – over-sharing is NOT the same thing as intimacy. A licensed private investigator with experience in love fraud can help you figure out who the person on the other end of the computer really is, and what they really want.

31 Mar 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Public Information Permalink

Is the Death Master File on life support?

Sticky Post By On March 31, 2014

The Social Security Death Master File may be maintained by the government, not the Grim Reaper – but it remains a valuable investigative tool. When a person dies, funeral homes, hospitals and /or families report the data to the Social Security Administration. In 1980, a court ruling ordered the government to make the DMF data publicly available – and until last week, anyone who paid the fee could access the 86 million names.

Now Congress has approved a provision that will limit access to ‘certified’ users for the three years following a person’s death. Supporters say that this ruling will help avoid cases of fraud – and identity thieves swiping social security numbers of recently deceased individuals.

The Social Security Administration site reads: ‘Subscribers must have a legitimate fraud prevention interest, or have a legitimate business purpose pursuant to a law, governmental rule, regulation, or fiduciary duty in order to be certified under the program.’

I’ve spent a huge part of my career detecting fraud, and I completely sympathize with families who have had sensitive data stolen. But as an investigator, I know how invaluable the Death Master File can be to cases.

In the past month alone, I have used it to confirm that a client’s long-lost relative was deceased, help with a probate case and help to determine the identity of a criminal who was using multiple social security numbers.

The site now says that in order to register, ‘certified users’ must pay a $200 certification fee and sign a user agreement. If they are approved, they can then pay per number of online searches. The amount ranges from $600 for up to 1,000 searches to over $7,000 for the entire file on CD Rom.

I personally feel that the ruling is short-sighted. The Death Master File helps researchers complete family trees, PIs solve criminal cases and journalists write accurate stories. Perhaps if the IRS wants to crack down on identity fraud, they should focus on protecting the living victims of identity fraud rather than limiting information about dead people.

The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is creating a temporary certification program, so this is a developing story.

 

26 Mar 2014
Sticky Post By Posted in Journalism, Lie Detection Permalink

Botox and Body Language

Sticky Post By On March 26, 2014

Many detectives are trained to identify micro-expressions and body language, but being a ‘human lie detector’  can be complicated – especially in cities like LA, where Botox is everywhere. I recently wrote a piece for PI Magazine in which I posed the question: “How can investigators read expressions when everyone’s face is frozen?”

BOTOX PAGE 2 MARCH

botox page 3

 

 

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