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