Info Management

There has been a shift in the info management (IM) of business and organizations in the last few years to become a function of (either superior to or subordinate to) the IT side of things. Indeed, the creation of IM Managers and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) is the new sexy in hiring.

Unfortunately, this has taken a significant bite out of security managers and executives power, and in fact has left them holding the less sexy physical security bag, which has become woefully neglected.

The biggest problem with creating a second and third avenue of security responsibility in an organization is that it creates a fragmented approach where each department (2-3 of them) each try and secure their respective castles, with often only a thread of connectivity in the form of a corporate security policy which was likely not created to effectively coordinate separate departments.

The next biggest problem is that major resources tend to go to the sexy side (IT/IM), and the scraps are left to physical. This means that on top of the IT and IM folks likely enjoying the attention of the executive suite more than the physical guy, they also get the bulk of funds and resources and ignore the significant role physical lapses can result in which make IT and IM irrelevant.

Case in point. Super strong network security and a perfectly synchronized access plan (which never occurs by the way) will be easily outmanoeuvred by someone picking through the garbage, talking to staff after work or digging up some dirt and doing an old fashioned intelligence recruitment.

There has to be more to the IM and IT planning than just having strong capabilities in network security and managed information flows. The old fashioned approach of physical security should be the driving force still in the current security model, as things haven't actually changed, even though the pedlars of these systems may claim otherwise.

The most effective security model then is one which is drawn up by one sole security source (usually being the physical security guy), which then incorporates how information will be managed from physical to electronic and back to physical mediums. This will ensure unity of effort, reduced costs in terms of security staff, better understanding of the overall security picture by personnel and a more effective plan overall.

Blog courtesy of Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, which is a security and investigations agency in Ottawa, Canada. They are located on the web at www.elementalpi.ca 

Security Surveys

Security Surveys are a handy tool to assess the effectiveness of a security plan/system.

Contrary to some perceptions, security needs to be continuously reviewed and adapted to the changing environment, or else it risks becoming out of date and irrelevant.

The security survey should always be performed by a neutral third party, which ensures that corporate group think and egos stay out of the way of properly assessing the effectiveness of your security. The survey will look at things like current practices, how they are understood and are being followed by staff, technology changes, attitudes to the organization, threats to the industry and any other factor which could conceivably impact the security of your organization or operation.

This will allow managers and executives to look at the various weak points in a security plan and determine whether or not they will mitigate the issue or deal with it head on. It will also help assign resources to more effective areas, which can ease resource demands and even save some cash.

The security survey should be performed yearly for security sensitive organizations, and every 3-5 years for other organizations to keep them effective. These should be paired to the Threat Risk Assessments for your organization as well to give the most effective and comprehensive security picture of your organization to keep your staff and assets as secure as possible.

Blog content provided by Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, which is a security and investigations agency operating out of Edmonton Canada.

Threat Risk Assessments

Threat Risk Assessments (TRAs) are a well known function in the security world, but often confused in the real world. Largely, I see TRAs associated to IT functions and information management (IM), and not a part of the whole security ecosystem of a business or organization.

This is unfortunate and is largely representative of the sad state of security planning as the TRA should overarch the IT/IM segment of a business and force it to conform to the security plan of the larger organization, rather than be treated as a separate issue.

The TRA is an analysis of the threats faced by an organization or business. This looks at all threats and threat vectors, including online, physical, financial, legal, etc. It then makes a determination of the likelihood of occurring given the current state of the world and the current security capabilities of the client organization. Lastly, it makes an assessment of the degree of harm to the organization should an attack occur.

Essentially, a TRA will allow you to understand what you should be most concerned about which will allow you to use security resources to their best potential, which has the added benefit of saving you money. How? Well, when you go direct to a security company, they will inevitably want to sell you the cadillac of security services. Nothing wrong with that and it is expected, but without actually knowing about your security threats and your own footing, you may buy the Cadillac when you only need the Hyundai and a little knowledge of how to mitigate your threats.

Many individuals offer TRA services, and you should always look to obtain the TRA from someone who is not aligned with the security systems provider. This will ensure you are getting the best information on what you need to protect before you look at the shiny gadgets to buy at a premium.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Insurance Fraud

Insurance fraud hurts us all is the sad refrain of insurance companies and while most people tend to view these companies as organizations which are largely unworthy of sympathy, it really does hit everyone in the pocket book, and not just the big insurance companies in the form of higher premiums and stricter guidelines.

Insurance fraud really exists everywhere insurance itself exists, after all, one usually needs to prove only harm or loss and they can get a cheque cut to them. The fraud types are varied across these spectrums, from the slip scam in the grocery store, to the rear end scam where someone is goaded into running into the rear of another car, to the workers insurance scam where a false claim of workplace injury is presented.

These examples are but a tiny tip of the iceberg, but they show the prevalence of them as we all know exactly how these scams work, yet they still persist and remain effective ways of scamming the system.

Largely it is the insurance company which will launch an investigation as it balances the need to find out what happened with the costs of litigation or settling. This is happening a bit more now days as the previous policies of settling rather than fighting claims in court has largely failed as the claims were not only paid out, but encouraged scammers to put in more claims as they knew they would not be challenged. Private individuals and companies have also begun doing their own investigations as well though, as organizations such as workers compensation, which are often government run or managed tend to be overloaded with cases and cannot respond effectively to all claims needing investigation.

When this occurs, Private Investigators (PIs) have always been the go to folks to look into these scams and present evidence as to the actual state of the individual making claims. Surveillance, history and interviews all come into the investigative process to give the interested parties the information needed to assess whether or not a false claim has been made, then pursue it in court.

Call a local PI today to find out what kind of services they can provide you!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Identity Theft

With increased collection of online data, coupled with ever increasing interactions by individuals online, the potential for identity theft has also increased. These new interactions and data storage make it easier to obtain someone else's personal information, and more importantly, allow for rapid deployment of damaging methods across a wide spectrum with the added benefit of making it much more difficult to prosecute an issue.

In the old days, identity theft still occurred, however basic logical issues such as location, physical presence and direct human monitoring made it more difficult for someone to get away with something for long, and simple data manipulation was not sufficient alone to fool safeguards. For example, if you were a senior citizen and went into a bank to get a mortgage, the banker would expect to see a senior citizen in the correct town or city, asking for things generally in line with expectations. If something seemed off, added scrutiny would kick in.

Nowadays, the theft of personal information and the automation of many things makes the theft and quick exploitation of that data child's play by comparison. The most common form of identity theft is based on financial theft, where the data is used to either exploit existing financing such as credit cards, lines of credit and bank accounts, or to establish new forms of credit , relying on general good credit to obtain what can be created. These schemes are set up to run across international boundaries, making the tracing of material to make arrests that much more difficult. They are also set up to scoop up large amounts of info, use them for their intended purpose of extracting whatever real money possible, then dumping the identity for the next, maximizing profit while minimizing risk.

The other popular form of identity theft (albeit a distant second in terms of usage), is the targeted form of identity theft. This form can be significantly more damaging to an individual as malice is the motivating factor as opposed to financial gain. This type of identity theft can also focus not just on financial (and often ignores financial completely), but will focus on social and online interactions to discredit an individual's reputation and relationships.

Tracing identity theft can be a complex and expensive affair. Law enforcement may be able to conduct an investigation, but due to limited resources, they will normally only be able to look into severe or referred cases without investigation ahead of time. This is where a private investigator can come in and provide consulting assistance, and conduct the investigation to usually stop, and in some cases bring down those responsible. Give a local PI a call to see how they can help out!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Elderly Welfare

Taking care of our parents when they age and require assistance is a great responsibility, which comes with all sorts of difficulties. Sharing the workload with other family, paying a commercial facility or using Government resources to help care for parents are a few of the main issues. Add to this degrading cognitive abilities and you begin to appreciate how hard it can be to take care of your parents in their twilight years.

Sometimes, adding to these normal difficulties, comes the added burden of abuse, physically and mentally, as well as a high instance of fraud and theft.

These problems are normally associated to family members as the most common perpetrators of abuse and theft of the elderly, as it is with children as well. Sadly, many families do not realize the abuse until it is too late, either due to the perpetrator having trusted access to the parent, or by refusing to see the signs of abuse. The parent conversely cannot speak up, either due to mental or physical disability or due to fear instilled by the caretaker committing these crimes.

Additionally, we see increased victimization at care facilities, where caseworkers see opportunity and use it to steal goods, or use abusive measures in perverted means to discipline the patients. New in the news but not reality, is the increasing focus on patient on patient violence which can occur in situations with dementia patients which can cause great harm to loved ones who are supposed to be safe in the confines of the care facility.

These cases can be difficult to initiate, particularly as the investigation will undoubtedly focus on the family at some point, but the process itself is usually solvable in a relatively short period once the investigation has commenced, providing you with the evidence needed to pursue litigation or criminal actions.

Call a local private investigator to see how they can help, or just to bounce some ideas off of them on your best course of action.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Surveillance Investigations

Surveillance investigations are one of the most effective means of establishing fact. Most other methods can be subject to error, but when something is seen and documented by an investigator, it becomes hard to refute evidence when conducted properly.

While surveillance and private investigators tends to conjure up images of a PI in a car waiting for a couple to leave a hotel on their way back to their respective spouses, the reality is that surveillance is useful in a wide variety of case types. Some of these include competitive intelligence, counter-intelligence, harassment, vandalism, fraud and employee misconduct issues.

Hiring a surveillance investigator should be fairly simple as surveillance is ultimately a basic investigator skill, however you should always look out for false claims as surveillance is very much an art and not a science, meaning that there are many variables which impact the success of a surveillance, and chief among those variables is that you are waiting for a subject to act in a specific manner, which Murphy's Law dictates won't happen right away once the subject is observed.

Despite the unpredictable nature of surveillance, it remains one of the most powerful tools in a PI's toolbox. Contact a local PI to ask how they can help you!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Social Media Privacy

As times goes by, the big (and small) social media sites tend to upgrade this or that and inevitably change the privacy settings you forgot how to set.

Usually they will give out some press release, but for the noon-0nerds out there who don't get the tech blog info, they tend to miss it.

It should be a general monthly chore to go and check your privacy settings, but people are busy and let's face it, we like to think once we have set something, we can forget about it.

That being said, if you're reading this, then it's a good time to remind you about some of the more recent changes:

• Google has decided to implement a new system in which your +1's and Google+ endorsements can now be publicly used to help advertise certain products. While not really new in the free to use business model, it can be a shock to people who were not aware their info would be used in this way. If it is a shock and you want to adjust these settings, take a look at this blog to find out how you can limit this -  http://www.tomsguide.com/us/how-to-google-shared-ads,news-17690.html 
• Facebook has also made some new changes, namely the unhiding of people from it's new graph search function. This is great news for a private investigator (as I am), but not so great for everyone else. The thing here is that there is no way to adjust this setting. Add to this, Facebook indicates now that they are unblocking the ability for youth to share with others, meaning that their indiscretions may yet haunt them down the road. The best thing here is to educate yourself and kids about what is appropriate and not on Facebook. If you can't beat 'em, at least limit what they can get.
• Final point here is for those living in Canada, Bell has decided it will now use your browsing data to sell targeted ads to you. This is a pretty gross violation that hopefully hits the courts soon or gets shut down by privacy heads. As opposed to others who do this, like Google, you can't escape the grip of your internet service provider (ISP), who can see everything you do (for Google and others, you can simply use a service that does not take your data and sell it). An ISP getting into this is pretty major and should be fought at all levels, so feel free to contact your local MP and let your voice be heard.

Thats it for this week. As always, take precautions on all you do online and limit what you and those you know post about you to keep things as private as you can.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Parental Abduction

Parental abduction cases are traumatic events for obvious reasons. This occurs when one parent takes a child away from the other, sometimes in the midst or after a divorce and child custody decision, sometimes at other times. Although in some cases the abduction is in the abducting parent's mind altruistic, it is nevertheless illegal and needs to be settled ultimately through law enforcement and legal remedy.

While abductions within the parent/child home country is usually sorted out easily once the parent/child have been located, traditionally in the past, once the abducting parent has crossed a border (or more), the recovery process becomes very difficult.

This have gotten better though, as the UN and signatory countries have enabled the recovery process to be eased significantly on most locations, enabling local law enforcement and courts to hasten transfer back to the home country quickly for legal proceedings there.

The trick still remains location. While law enforcement should be the first stop in an abduction case, the more complex the movement, the more difficult it is for local law enforcement to keep up the hunt in a quick and manoeuvrable fashion. Private investigators can help out significantly in cases like this as they are significantly less bogged down by jurisdiction issues and can deploy rapidly to a host country or city and begin the leg work, sometimes with local support when the laws require, and can keep immediate pressure on the abducting parent. Once found, they can advise local and home country law enforcement and maintain surveillance until contact by law enforcement is made.

If you are involved in a situation like this, contact a local PI after you have notified police to see how they can help out and what advice they can provide.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Recent Corporate Spying

Here in Canada, and specifically Ottawa, two events serve well to warn off the public sector about the effects of corporate espionage, and to hammer home the concept that corporate espionage does in fact occur on the large scale, and the work can often be split between public and private bodies to execute.

The first report came from the Department of National Defence report leaking out indicating that there were concerns over the potential presence of eavesdropping devices on the former Nortel campus. While it is amazing that a defence security/intelligence organization failed to consider this before dropping a cool billion on a real estate transaction, the real bit goes to show that while Ottawa is only an average sized city globally, it is a hub of hi-tech business, and as such has a heavy amount of corporate espionage. That the Nortel campus had been bugged is not so new, but knowing the extent of the penetration is really an interesting story on the capabilities and the devastating effects of corporate espionage, as this was one of the main factors contributing to the downfall of the former tech giant.

The other story is the Communications Security Establishment of Canada getting its hand caught in the Brazilian mining cookie jar after further Snowden leaks revealed the Canadian spy agency was prying into mining and energy sector information from Brazil. Again, this should not (I hope) be news, as many advanced countries take part in healthy spying campaigns, even on their allies. This means that France spies on the US, we spy on the Brazilians and the Americans spy on the Germans. It is normal business. However there exists a belief, particularly in newer companies, that the first world and allied countries are super duper friendly and would never seek to advance their own corporate capabilities and R&D. This is naïve and all corporations should make sure they incorporate at least some thought towards how they manage their info and counter-measures to mitigate the damage which can occur in the face of international corporate espionage.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Physical Due Diligence

Anytime an organization, business or individual needs to make an acquisition, merger or partnership, the main thing that needs to be conducted is a due diligence check. In plain speak, this is doing what you can to ensure that what you are being told or led to believe is actually what you are getting.

While this is required by law for major corporate moves, it is largely only so in terms of financial due diligence, which involves accountants going over the books to ensure that the financial health of an organization has been accurately disclosed to the interested party.

What is not as well known or enforced, is the physical , or real world side of due diligence which can have major implications when not conducted.

A physical due diligence investigation involves real world checking of facts and holdings, which can exist on paper but not in fact. The on paper disclosures must be checked against reality as financial papers can be simply created, and when done well, can evade the financial due diligence process.

What a Private Investigator can provide in the conduct of a physical due diligence investigation includes the following:

• Check labour practices and obligations
• Confirm environmental standards
• Verify the existence and effectiveness of businesses and alliances
• Assess business reputation
• Identify the involvement of criminal elements
• Identify and confirm stockpiles of product and resources, including those moving
• Conduct background checks on important personnel and assess conflicts of interest

A PI can help identify these and many other aspects of interest to a prospective move and should be brought in to work in concert with the financial aspect of the due diligence process. Give a local PI a call to see how they can help!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Scam Seasons Are A Changin'

With the end of summer coming up and fall and winter rearing their heads, there is the inevitable change in tactics of the door to door and local scammer. The cooling of the season, the return of kids to school (particularly those going away to college) and big family holidays coming up present a different opportunity from those present in the warmer months. Let's look at a few of the anticipated scams we will see getting an uptick in the coming months:

• The Grandparent scam - While always present, the return of kids to school away from home adds credibility to this scam where the fraudster will call an elderly person and pretend to be a grandchild who got into trouble while away at college and is too embarrassed to call home. Seeking a fat payout, these scammers will usually look to get a few thousand out of a particular victim before moving on to the next.
• Charity Scams - As seen whenever there is a natural disaster, these cretins seek to take advantage of the giving spirit normally associated to the coming Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. These usually come disguised as real charities and can be door to door or online/telephone enabled. Either way, they target a large number of relatively small hits, but will gladly take a larger donation where available.
• The furnace upgrade scam - While the insufferable hot water heater/water filtration scams start to wane, they return in another form, seeking to gain entry to your home while presenting themselves (or at least heavily alluding to the fact) that they come from a utility or city department out of concern for your home. at one end, the scammer is looking to assess your home for a future break in while at the other end they are trying to peddle some overpriced equipment you don't need and lock you into a punishing contract.
• Lastly are increases in parking lot muggings and assistance scams. While the muggings are straightforward and common during the heavy shopping seasons, there is also a large upswing in "benevolent helpers" who will identify things you dropped to get close to you to swipe your keys or take a more valuable package while you are distracted. This is actually a new style of pickpocketing which requires you to view the individual in a positive light while they distract you to obtain your goods.

As with all scams, it pays to be attentive while moving with goods from the store to your car and ask plenty of questions when being solicited, even from family members if there is any doubt as to their identity. Also, ensure to help family members at risk (such as the elderly) are aware of scams which target them specifically to help all enjoy the coming season a bit more.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Information Leak Testing

Information leaks have long been the bane of companies, particularly for hi-tech and consumer products. Indeed, one only has to look at some high profile product releases to see how profitable the business of leaking information can be, as people scramble to obtain any kind of leaked info to blog about.

In addition to the geek tech bloggers though, are the competitors who are keenly listening to hints about a competitors upcoming product releases and strategic outlooks so as to take mitigating measures or find a way to fast track development of their own products.

These leaks occur in a number of ways, and unfortunately, exist largely outside of the context of your normal security plan for your business. Enthusiastic product fans, paid informants and accidental reveals of information which can be assembled to discover the intent of a company, bypassing all active measures to cloak activity through security programs.

The most effective way to deal with information leaks is to set up a strong information management program. this will enable a company to track sources of leaks if they do occur, but also allow for the careful release of information to only those who need it.

When leaks do occur, particularly in large companies with massive manufacturing and distribution channels, a penetration test can be performed to assess where leaks are coming from and indicate where future measures should be focussed to minimize the leak in the future. This can help indicate if it is a bad employee, evidence of infiltration by a corporate spy or poor resource management or press release activity which is allowing competitors from accessing your secrets.

While penetration tests are well understood for IT departments, they tend to be overlooked in the physical world, where leaks are far more common, damaging and more difficult to locate.

A skilled private investigator can help determine where the leaks are coming from and help develop a strategy for dealing with these leaks, allowing for future mitigation and cessation of leaks from a given area.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Bullying

Bullying cases have been very prominent lately in the news. Unfortunately, labelling them this way obscures the reality of the situation and diminishes the perceived severity of actions against a victim.

Even with all of the attention provided by the media, when we hear the word bullying, most of us still get the image of a schoolyard bully pushing around smaller kids. This is a normal part of growing up. What isn't however, is the types of activity that reaches the news...this is not bullying, it constitutes criminal activity and the media and public would do well to label these better.

Here in Canada, we have had many cases of "bullying" which are reported in the media as such. The problem is that the acts committed were not bullying, they were acts of criminal harassment, breaches of various anti-stalking legislation and assault. The US and many other countries have had similar issues recently and the same problem exists there.

Add to this, these activities are also being reported in the workplace....not a new phenomenon, but disturbing in that these have traditionally been cases of workplace harassment and intimidation, which have now morphed into schoolyard hijinks. They are not.

The victims of these types of behaviours are not new, and are most certainly not victims of mild bullying activities. Compounding the unfortunate label these people now have surrounding their victimization, is the fact that there is still no real ability for law enforcement to initiate investigations into the majority of these cases due to lack of resources and low reporting.

This is where a private investigator can come in and make a difference. With dedicated resources, a PI can put together the relevant facts, conduct interviews and prepare a case package for follow up by employers, schools or law enforcement to assist in stopping these activities and providing relief to a victim.

If you or someone you know is a victim of these types of crimes, there are a variety of local resources you can find online. If you need to move forward with an investigation, you can always start with your local police to at least open a criminal complaint. Once open, you can contact a local private investigator for more information on how they can help out for your individual case.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Asset Traces

            Asset traces are a useful tool in the investigator's toolbox. They are used to locate the assets of an individual or organization, track stolen goods, identify stolen or misused intellectual property and many other handy bits. They are also used to help identify the location of individuals and items through association when they cannot be tracked directly.

            What types of things are typically tracked? Well, just about anything, but it is usually only things of value such as major assets which can be tracked as there does not tend to be an accumulation of data on small and low value items that may be owned by an individual or organization.

            The most basic types of these searches are generally for property and cash. While property searches can be easy on a local level, the farther afield a PI must go, the more difficult, and potentially costly these types of searches can get. Cash and electronic funds, tend to be very difficult to trace, particularly in Europe and North America, however in some foreign jurisdictions, the restrictions be navigated, depending n local laws and the specific nature of the holdings.

            While these searches are of great importance to a PI in the course of trying to get to the bottom of an investigation, they can also be of significant interest to a client. Asset searches are used directly by many clients, including lawyers and domestic clientele, to locate assets for litigation, verify assets for divorce and family court proceedings, identify assets before mergers and identify fraud channels.

            In all, asset search investigations are excellent tools fro both PIs and prospective clients. There are many ways individual investigators go about running an asset search investigation, so you should be prepared to ask your PI about how they intend on going about the search. This can help you talk out the process and see if there is any other specific information you can provide to your PI at the outset which may assist in the search.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Employee Drug Use

Employee drug use has always been a problem. From alcohol to medications to casual marijuana use, the problems associated to drug use are as varied as the types of drugs used.

Some of the problem types associated with employee drug use are:

• Increased incidences of accidents
• Increased liability claims
• Public Relations and Investor confidence issues
• Losses associated to theft of industry drugs (such as hospital and drug manufacturer drug use)
• Misuse of company resources for the purpose of assisting trafficking (such as when company resources are diverted or used to traffick supplies, including vehicle, intelligence and computer support)
• Increased likelihood of other crimes associated to drug use such as theft
• Infiltration of services by criminal elements associated to the drug trade

These problems necessitate action by management to curb or stop drug use on site by employees. While background checks are used to minimize the risk of hires engaged in these types of behaviours, they cannot guarantee the an employee will never stray to this end. Also, law enforcement cannot always become engaged in these types of investigations, particularly if the case is too small or the force does not have available resources to conduct the case, which is a frequent occurrence.

In situations such as these, a private investigator is often the best option for the conduct of an employee drug use investigation. A private investigator will liaise with local law enforcement, bringing them in if and only when required and the PI can put together the evidence package which will allow for either criminal or employment actions as needed.

A private investigator can also work with internal security as a force multiplier when feasible to bring about a quicker resolution to a situation while ensuring third party neutrality over the course of the investigation. Call a local PI to get more information, or feel free to visit our website to ask us about the various ways a PI can help out in an employee drug investigation.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Online Scams Update

Online scams are a favourite topic around here. They permeate every aspects of online activity, particularly considering the types of sites we need to visit in the conduct of an investigation.

Well known scams such as phishing e-mails and the classic 419 scam are notable, but there are always new flavours of scams which rear their ugly head in a fresh attempt to part you with information and/or money.

Some of the best current types we've been running across here in Canada lately (with the exception of the often discussed regular 419) are:

• The Paid Assassin: While alarming, this one can be spotted pretty far off for most people. It generally seeks to take advantage of people who for one reason or another, could conceivably have someone be happy with them dead, either rationally or otherwise. A particularly nasty divorce can qualify a potential victim for example. The scammer then demands money in exchange for sparing their life.
• The Unstoppable Flood of E-mail Scams: This involves flooding a victims inbox with e-mail from something that looks real (Diet Pills for example). The intent here isn't exactly that you will believe the ad, but rather that you will become so desperate to stop the emails from coming through that you relent and click on a link or unsubscribe button....even calling in to the phone number to collect data, slave your computer or collect pay per call fees.
• The Trade Specific Scam: These are usually targeted to specific individuals such as lawyers or real estate agents. It sounds legit at the start, but there is usually some fee exchange which is introduced down the line which sounds real, but leaves the professional holding the bag. The thing with these scams is that they use the exact same letter each time as the scammer is usually not an English speaker. If you run the text (or a portion) through a web search, you will generally find determine the scam quite quickly.

These are only a small portion of the scams at this point. They are really to numerous to fit into one blog bit, but the common parts always exist. The first step when you receive an e-ail is to check the address. This usually won't match where the individual claims they are from. Also, note the timing. If you just posted something to Craigslist or Kijiji, I would be extra vigilant if any e-mails came in shortly thereafter claiming I have some problem. Also, the text itself is a giveaway. Look for odd spelling errors and run some of the main text through a web search to see if there are any examples of the exact text somewhere else, and failing that, type in a description into search of what you think is suspicious and you may find others with the same concerns who can offer some advice.

 As always, stay skeptical with any unsolicited online information, and if you have been scammed, contact local law enforcement immediately.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Skip Tracing

What is an actual skip trace?

This is an odd phrase which pops up lots in many businesses but people actually aren't sure. It is simply a search for someone who has disappeared from previously known contact points.

The name comes from the phrase skipping town and relates to "skipping bail", where skip tracers were essentially bounty hunters. The phrase gradually changed to a point where skip tracing is now down by a variety of people, including lawyers, credit agencies, PI's, journalists and anyone else really who needs to locate someone.

While different people and organizations may have different tools to accomplish a trace, such as police with the powers of the state and journalists who have state protections, the general mechanics are very similar.

Many people assume that a PI (who generally has the most flexible toolbox to locate an individual) can simply punch up a website and type in a name and voila, location found. This is generally not the case (although in some jurisdictions, such as a few US states, this occasionally happens). The majority of traces requires several different sources which are brought together over time to create an initial slate of possible names and locations, which is then refined as the data is reviewed and refined, eventually leading to a small set of leads which can then be followed up on. If the trace is located, great, if not, the hypothesis and data is refined and re-spun through the tracing machine to come up with new potential hits.

This can take time depending on a wide range of factors, taking anywhere from a day to several weeks to make the find.

A PI can usually give a rough idea of the complexity of your case from the outset to locate someone. If the case is very difficult, it is a good idea to establish benchmarks to continue or end the case if not enough progress is being made. Remember, not all people can be found, particularly if resources and time are a factor. You and your PI should work closely to achieve the best results possible in the most reasonable time frame.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

6 Ways A Background Check Can Help Your Business!

            Background checks are one of the best ways to assess potential hires and business partnerships by going past the information provided by the subject to assess a variety of things, primarily regarding the honesty of disclosed information. As such, I've decided to put together a quick list of some of the expected benefits that running a background check or background check program can offer your organization:

        I.         HR Cost Savings: This is the big one. A frequent assessment of the cost of hiring then firing a bad hire uses a simple formula. Annual pay, plus admin costs (around 40% real and productivity costs) divided by 4. Even on a $30k annual salary, you can see the losses for a bad hire can be significant, particularly for an organization with thousands of employees, where productivity issues are most likely felt.

     II.          Verify Credentials: This is the other main component of background checks. This is done in order to verify credentials, professional memberships, past employment, etc. Beyond what HR staff will do however, a Private Investigator will ensure credentials are real when fraud or forged credentials are suspected.

   III.          Understand Past Performance: This involves not only going back to a former employer and conducting thorough searches with co-workers, clients and others who can give a better understanding of your potential hire. This is not feasible for all low level hires, however at the higher echelon, particularly in the C-suite, this function should be vital.

  IV.          Maintain Staff Quality: This field relates to some of the others, and allows for a comprehensive picture of the candidate to be created in the form of a profile, which can then be matched to your other successful staff to determine who is the best fit.

     V.         Limit Deception and Frauds: This involves focussed searches for things like made up or low quality "internet schools", bogus certifications and organizations, made up employment and other points of interest which need to be known. This also includes searches for criminality which may not be documented but can be detected for staff who will be entering sensitive positions and areas of responsibility.

  VI.          Buffer Against Corporate Espionage: This is for the larger companies who run the risk of corporate espionage. A good background search will offer a good buffer against it and hopefully reveal gaps in the legends and cover stories to enable your organization to resist infiltration through hiring programs.

            A background check is not for every company and organization. Sometimes the cost of running a comprehensive background screening program exceeds the mitigation value. However, I would definitely recommend that executive hires as a minimum are screened prior to being brought aboard. These positions have the greatest ability to hide their pasts, and have the greatest ability to damage your reputation if your gut was wrong in bringing them aboard.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Mitigation versus Real Security

Of the many different ways of classifying security types, one seems to me to be of increasing importance in how an organization sets up and structures its security. The two types, which we will call mitigation and real for the purpose of this discussion, are important paradigms to distinguish for an organization to accurately allot funds and resources to the proper locations and will enable them to properly understand the effects they wish to achieve before heading out and buying the most expensive security gadget which turns out to be ineffective as the intent of the system was not understood.

Mitigation security (not to be confused with mitigation strategies) focusses on the concept that nothing is secure forever. The aim of this type of security is to present to interested parties, namely insurers, legislators and interested members of the public, that proper precautions were taken to secure that which requires security. In other words, it allows an organization to claim that all that could reasonably be done was in fact done, and a security breach occurred as an extraordinary occurrence which was not reasonably expected. This involves things like physical assets, unencrypted cloud data, product launch details and really anything which tends to be insured against loss or the loss of which, while damaging, will only expose an organization to potential financial loss or exposure to lower level litigation.

Real security on the other hand, is the paradigm which focusses on actual no fail security measures. Failures in security of this type result in real harm, major financial losses and litigation exposure, as well as public backlash and loss of confidence and possible adverse legislation. Organizations involved in this type of security tend to be government agencies, weapons and energy manufacturers and hi-tech organizations. Losses of this type vary, however they tend to involve cutting and bleeding edge technologies, personal and financial data losses, state secrets and significant intellectual property losses.

The difference between choosing one or the other does not need to be mutually exclusive, quite the contrary. Choosing the appropriate paradigm to put into practice in various areas of your organization shows that proper thought has gone into your security plan, and has the benefit of tailoring costs so that proper levels are used where they are needed. This runs contrary to the plans that many security sales folks may identify, however the truth of it is that high security comes down to planning appropriately rather than spending on the most expensive gadgets.

When you begin your planning for security measures, here are a few quick rules I like to use when planning for my clients:

• Start early in the business life cycle. Starting to think about security hen you are still a small to medium business will allow you to think about how your plan can and should evolve as you get bigger
• Establish what effects you want to achieve rather than what you want to secure. This will give you a better understanding of the variables you need to account for
• Consider everything, not just the gates. I always tell someone the best way for me to breach your data systems if the IT security folks are doing their jobs is to get some dirt on a staff member and blackmail them and have them get it for me, making those expensive IT security plans worthless.
• A plan is never done. Make amendments whenever a breach occurs and regularly as technology and organization changes occur.
• And finally, a security plan is useless unless staff are aware of the plan. Make sure they are aware of your plan, and refresh them on a regular basis (annually as a minimum).

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Conflict of Interest

Conflicts of interest are some of those issues that people generally know about but tend to fail to notice when they are actually presented with evidence that it is occurring. This is largely due to personal knowledge of the individuals and organizations caught up in a particular conflict, but it can also be caused by attempts by the organization or individual to hide any potential or existing conflict which can be used for gain.

Generally speaking, a conflict of interest is when an individual or organization has a relationship between two or more other individuals or organizations, where the relation to one could conceivably influence the interaction with one or more of the other organizations or individuals. Case in point would be the CEO who owns stock in his own company, trades off the majority of his shares prior to releasing poor economic results for the company. This is also seen in the public sphere where a public servant awards a construction job to her brother in law.

These examples are very obvious and often come under intense scrutiny when they occur, usually by the media for important contracts and major corporations, however they also occur in far smaller groups and circles, which can cost most organizations money and respect in their corporate circles.

Smaller level examples include the most frequent conflict, personal relationships, but also involve finances such as personal loans, memberships in clubs, prior or hidden criminal or ethically dubious acts and social pressures.

In any case, it usually falls to an organization's internal capabilities to keep track of conflicts of interest for its own personnel. Often times, these issues are investigated by HR staff at the time of short listing or hiring, when general checks are conducted internally or with the help of an outsourced HR firm or investigator.

The problem with this method is that things change over time. As people become more settled in a position or they develop professionally, they tend to branch out in terms of stock holdings, memberships and personal ventures. As these develop, the potential for conflicting circumstances to develop increases greatly. The person in the conflicting position usually will not identify the conflict to the organization, either out of ignorance, or more commonly as they recognize the potential benefit to keeping silent. Case in point is the computer software engineer who starts up a small business on the side providing similar services as he performs in his primary employment. Using the skills and resources gained from employment in the business, as well as valuable contacts and commercial opportunities to network, he can gain significant advantage by offering services below the corporate rate, often using resources from the company he works at to enhance his own business and reduce overhead. This scenario is actually one of the most prevalent forms of conflict of interest cases and costs companies major capital as it is often low level but very widespread.

A way for a company to keep on top of this is to run occasional updates to conflict of interest cases. Important times to look out for, particularly for C-suite executives and technical staff (engineers, scientists, etc), are periods of time when new staff are brought on, competitors make major acquisitions, supervisors become aware that staff are starting their own business and if any major bonuses are granted which could offer an employee the opportunity to make cash investments in personal business or stock acquisitions.

Additionally, depending on the type of business, regular checks should be performed on a regular basis (2-5 years) on all C-suite, executive management and major development and technical leaders to ensure that proper disclosures have been made. These checks should be performed out of the Board of Directors offices and can be done by internal staff if the capability exists, however using external organizations ensures the proper skill sets, impartiality in the investigation and allowing for greater flexibility without diverting staff from other tasks.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Employee Misconduct

Employee misconduct is one of those catch all phrases which generally captures employees doing things they shouldn't, from misuse of assets to malingering to racial discrimination.

Despite the various disguises that employee misconduct can wear, the effects of misconduct can be felt throughout an organization, and can hit not only employee morale, but the bottom line a well.

What are some of the more common types of misconduct? Well, the list is quite extensive, however some of the most common are:

• Harassment
• Discrimination
• Misuse of company assets (such as using assets for personal use)
• Malingering (claiming to be sick/injured falsely)
• Violations of ethical practices
• Safety infractions
• Legislation and internal policy abuses
• And of course, everyone's favourites, plain old goofing off.

The effects of these activities, particularly those committed by supervisory and management positions (which are most likely to engage in most misconduct types), is to clobber morale within your ranks. Not only does it create a poison environment, it has the effect of spreading, as people see those in power getting away with poor behaviour, which in turn leads others to come to the conclusion or justification to engage in other types of misconduct, if not flat out illegal behaviour within your organization.

This can have an incredible impact on the bottom line as high employee turnover, losses and reduced productivity can grind your capabilities into the ground fairly quickly.

What is needed to effectively identify misconduct issues is to ensure the following are implemented in your organization:

• Institute an active whistleblower program which protects staff from repercussions when reporting instances of employee misconduct
• Ensure that complaints are investigated as soon as possible. if you do not have the capability in house (and most organizations do not), hire outside investigators to come in for complex cases such as harassment and malingering (particularly when unions are involved).
• Communicate the results of the investigation to staff and explain the disciplinary measures taken. Many companies balk at this for fear of coming off as the proverbial bug meanie, however this shows staff that you are committed to stamping out misconduct and that the rules apply to everyone equally....you'd be surprised at how well a firm and fair hand is viewed by staff.
• Take suggestions from staff and management on how to remedy a situation once the dust has settled. Bringing your staff into play gives them a sense of involvement in the wellbeing of your organization and gives them a stake in the future.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence is often misconstrued as the corporate or national spy getting a visiting businessman drunk and then milking him for secrets, usually using a sultry honey pot to trap him and coerce him to spill the beans.

            The reality is that this method is actually called Corporate Espionage and it is highly illegal. This is not to say that it doesn’t happen, but it is best to stay away from people offering these types of services to a traded company.

            What Competitive Intelligence (CI) provides, is focussed research and data gathering skills used in open source intelligence methods to develop an intelligence package on a competitor or specific market subset which enables a company to develop and revise strategy to keep it at the front of a particular marketplace.

            As opposed to Business Intelligence, which is software and systems based market tracking technology, CI is primarily human driven and precise, designed to discover competitor strategies and trends ethically and intelligently to bring the most relevant data to your staff to enhance your corporate goals.

            CI can also be used in reverse, targeting your own company to detect leaks and clues your own competitors are trying to discover about your strategy, enabling you to shut down the leaks and protect your corporate planning process, allowing you freedom of movement in the marketplace.

            CI is a highly cost effective and efficient method for obtaining market data which can be used to protect your strategy and develop plans to offset competitor developments.

            Many private investigators have the ability to perform your Competitive Intelligence and investigations tasks, often remotely where the need for direct travel is limited by using a variety of online and real world resources to meet your CI needs. PIs maintain great flexibility for short term and long period deployments of intelligence resources to fit your goals. Contact one to find out more in your local area or abroad. The majority of service providers should be able to put together a solid idea of how they can help and work with your staff to target specific points or sectors to maximize your their, and your, efforts.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Hiring A Private Investigator

I had the pleasure of taking part in the private investigations industry in Ontario, the CPI-O, annual meeting in Toronto last week. It was good to get together and talk shop with others in the industry, as well as a few beers off the clock, and get back to basics.

It was also good to go over some of the issues affecting the industry and talk about our collective qualifications and what it means to hire a professional Private Investigator (PI).

Many people do not think of hiring a PI on a regular basis as private individuals, however, business and law offices regularly will reach out to us to obtain services. While the exact nature of the service can vary as widely as corporate counter-intelligence to infidelity investigations, they all have one primary goal in common....to find needed information.

Regardless of whether you are interested in hiring a PI for any one of the three main lines of investigations: Domestic, Legal Support or Corporate, there are a few rules of thumb which you should look out for to make sure you are getting a professional versus some random guy with a Craigslist account, pretty much regardless of where you are in the world.

First off are the basics of a profession: agency licence, individual licence, insurance and belonging to some sort of professional organization. These requirements are law in most areas, and really ensures you will have at least a basic level of competence as you move forward in the selection process. The licences are obvious signs that they are operating legally, and insurance is usually a requirement of the licencing process, but you should also look at the professional organization. In Canada, it is a requirement to be compliant as an investigative body under the national privacy legislation. In other areas, as well as Canada, they tend to demand adherence to a basic code of ethics and professional standard to give you some piece of mind that your investigator of choice is acting appropriately, even if you aren't aware of the regulations.

Next, you will want to ensure your investigator is open about pricing, plan, the investigator on scene and rough timelines. I'll be honest here, investigations aren't cheap, that's why you never saw Magnum driving a Chevette. Going to a guy who promises dirt cheap investigations but then hides what the final bill is, or is evasive on an estimate, is likely not a good choice. A professional PI will be up front about pricing, should provide you with a clear estimate and advise if there is the potential for cost overruns if things go squirrely, which can happen. They should also be forthcoming about a timeline and plan for the investigation. If they cannot provide this to you with a service agreement to make things legit, you might want to avoid handing over that deposit (which usually is required for service from domestic clients).

Lastly you will want to ask about what your PI can do, how he or she plans on going about it and why they are able to do it. Beware a PI who claims they can do everything or they nod as you ask for them to insert a brain probe in someone's head. There are many things which aren't legal (depending on the jurisdiction/country). Hiring the sort who is willing to do these things is tempting them to just walk with your deposit, leaving you with no real recourse to recover your money...or worse, they will go ahead with it and open you up to third party liability if something goes horribly wrong. Also match up why they are qualified for a particular task. Many of us offer general investigations, which means we dabble in all types, but each of us has a particular skill we excel at. Its not to say that we can't do a particular job, just that you should ask why they can and how they will go about it. They should once again be open and honest.

That about does it for the general aspects of hiring a PI. The big part is, know a bit about the laws in your area and ask questions of your PI of choice. They should answer all your questions clearly, or get back to you soonest if they need to research a more obscure rule. And always make sure they are licenced in some way, and if no licencing exists, that they belong to a professional association.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

PI's, Privacy and Social Media

Social media has become an important source of info for many people. Social media companies themselves sell off our data, statistics and preferences for huge kickbacks from ad companies, more and more of which are becoming social media interfaces as well. Credit agencies use this info as well as they compile overall profiles of each person, which gets augmented by other info sources we sign away to get a cheap discount on something.

Then comes us...the PI. I love using social media as a source, however make note to never abuse it as a tool, which is an important distinction in developing these source types as opposed to merely thieving data to help push out products, as our investigations focus on legal data for the assistance in compiling a case for court.

People think that the biggest leak of info from social media that people can exploit is poor settings on privacy. While this info is indeed a goldmine for someone researching another individual, it often is not the only method.

A good investigator will look not only at what is plain and obvious, but will build link table s and relational charts on what is not there as well, plus look into second and third party affiliations to build a strong profile.

What people need to know on the privacy side though is how to keep data off of these pages which can harm them hen accessed by bad guys.

The first step here is to set a good password and not share your account info with anybody...and for the love of god change your password if you do and you break up with that person....immediately!

Next is always assume that all of your info can be shared online. Some sites like Facebook are pretty good at blocking out data thieves (of course only so that they are the only ones able to profit from it), but there are newer social media sites which can provide a ton of info, but are not yet mature enough to have a robust privacy policy and secure access points to user info.

Lastly, know who you are connected to and what they have access to. While I'm not here to lecture, I do not think that people need to befriend everyone who asks online to seem popular. These other people may not be as security conscious as you are, and once someone finds out you are associated to them, can be exploited to reveal info about you.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Protecting Yourself Online

Online investigations are something we look at fairly often here in the office. Most often, the cases we look at are cyber harassment investigations and cyber-bullying in nature. These case types of course have been well publicized of late, particularly in the sphere of cyber-bullying, with heart breaking examples such as Amanda Todd, Jamie Hubley and Rehtaeh Parsons. Other major problems include identity theft which is increasing in scope yearly and encompasses financial and non-financial aspects and various hacking methods (which here will be a catch all phrase for system breaches of all types).

While the threat source on all of these problems can vary from schoolyard punks to co-workers to ex-lovers to unknown offshore hackers, the facilitator of these problems usually rests at the feet of the victim themselves. While I hope this is not a surprise to many, it is an unfortunate truth that there are still many, many people who fall victim to a wide array of online problems daily.

The main source that people gain access to information which should not be in someone else's hands is that which is freely given. That is, naked pictures to lovers, inappropriate jokes to friends and dark secrets to associates or forums when in all cases people think the information will stay safe forever. Obviously, this is not the case and highlights the unfortunate realities that the vast majority of these cases could be stopped by just paying a bit more attention to what we give out to other people and educating youth who have not yet seen the really nasty side of society to withstand potential pit falls.

The other main source of information getting out into the wild which can then be used against us is again the fault of the victim in most cases by using poor passwords. One just has to do a look at the top 10 passwords in the world to discover that even in the year 2013, the most popular continue to include 1111, 1234, password and the user's own name. There are programs out there which scrape e-mail accounts and then attempt to access them by using the top bad passwords out there. Password sharing is also a great source for a bad guy or girl to get their hands on a user account, as people assume that someone they are dating will be around forever or a co-worker who needs a quick access to a system will never use it against the victim.

True hacking actually comprises a very small amount of breaches as it requires quite a bit of skill and resources to pull off, which makes your average victim an unlikely choice for attack by complex methods. Usually the info was just out there for a keen eye to grab and exploit.

As such, there are some basic ways to protect and educate yourself and your kids (and the elderly as well who may not be as tech savvy as some). First and foremost, outside of the online world, be aware of sensitive materials given out. No duh huh? It seems easy at a glance, but you would be shocked at the types of graphic materials handed out by kids in school....as young as 10 and younger. This does still apply to adults as well and really comes down to knowledge of the reach people now have and the anonymity people can enjoy when a relationship falls apart to broadcast material given in confidence to a large and damaging audience. Next is passwords. Make them long, unique and use symbols to create something, not just the easiest thing to enter into the keyboard. Next, if you give out your password to anyone, change all linked accounts or those sharing similar or same passwords. People are lazy by nature and tend to use the same password or password family for multiple sites, a fact which is exploited by people looking to exploit you. Remove cloud storage access permissions if you suspect a breach of your files, as people may use access to one system to maintain access through a backdoor in another. Use up to date and well reviewed antivirus software. Even free antivirus can keep you secure from most threats as long as it is up to date and turned on to medium levels. The same goes for operating system software like Windows and Apple OS, which deliver periodic updates to patch known vulnerabilities. Finally, ensure you watch what you click, as the majority of spyware and system viruses are still delivered through e-mail where a person needs to click on a suspicious link to unknowingly download a virus.

Should you find yourself with information which has been leaked onto the net and is being used against you, contact local police. If the nature of the harassment is of imminent danger, they will be able to initiate an investigation. If it is of less immediate danger, they will open the file regardless, but outside resources will be requires to launch the investigation. Contact a Private Investigator if this level of investigation is needed. They will have experience tracking down the perpetrator, or at least locating the instances of harm being broadcast on the net to help shut them down. By and large, these investigations are classed as domestic investigations which require the investigator to have access to often embarrassing details before beginning. Ensure to interview your investigator in order to ensure you have an appropriate comfort level before intiating service. Visit us at www.elementalpi.ca if you would like more information, or visit the RCMP Internet Security site at http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/qc/pub/cybercrime/cybercrime-eng.htm

Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing in todays corporate environment is slowly gaining steam around the world. The US has brought in some strong legislation to enable a whistleblowing culture to develop, including the two most key aspect...reward and protection from reprisal. Unfortunately here in Canada, we are woefully behind the times and cannot seem to get some decent legislation out of Ottawa to help foster this type of shift in corporate responsibility.

Surprisingly, most companies who have adopted this model now find this to be a great way to operate, except of course the slimier companies helmed by the folks these programs are meant to uncover. Boards find this a great way to showcase openness and to stem the potential for destructive insider fraud and compliance problems which can decimate and even lead to the bankruptcy of major corporations.

Setting up a good program, even in the absence of direction from Ottawa or the provinces is a great selling point for companies in terms of openness and ethical corporate responsibility, on top of keeping rogue CEOs and CFOs from hitting the self destruct button on a company once fraud has been uncovered. An effective program will enable clear and anonymous messaging options (which can be set up through disinterested third parties via phone or e-mail drop boxes, and ensure that all complaints will be addressed. This then allows for a corporate investigator to come into a case and conduct either a due diligence check to see if further investigation is warranted, or begin a full investigation should the allegations prove to be credible. It is always a good idea to run these investigations openly as much as possible as this is a great motivator for employee and investor confidence, however there are times when covert investigations are required. Reporting chains and authorization should be set up before hand, and reports should be presented to someone who can act on recommendations, such as the legal department or the Board of Directors, but not usually the C-class executives.

There are a number of professionals who can conduct varying investigations in support of whistleblowing activities, including forensic accountants, IT professionals and Private Investigators

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca and ask about what can be done to suit your needs

Summer Scams and Crime – 27 May 2013

          Summertime is a great time of year to get outdoors and stretch the legs. It can also be a great time of year to spark up some old crime favourites. A lot of these endeavours are made possible as a result of increased freedom of movement and plain old increased goodwill. That is, people are happier and more easily approached and cajoled into hearing some line being spewed out by some fraudster or other kind of bad guy which just doesn't happen as easily in the wintertime. Largely, these crime involve foot traffic increases and include things like an increase in swarming crime, sexual assaults and petty theft as people have a tendency of leaving things outside. It also brings along some summertime favourites in the scam department as door to door sales personnel take advantage of people being outside to make their opening pitches for their crap products. Police can help out in some of these circumstances, but where they can't, a private investigator can help out. Check out the latest Elemental Solutions blog for our discussion of the week!

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca.