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As consumers turn more frequently to online reviews to make buying decisions, the role that the sources of these reviews takes on becomes more important. Industry leader Yelp has started taking some steps to prevent these reviews, but it is a moving target for the business model. Fake or exaggerated reviews can misrepresent the true nature of the business or product either for good or bad. In some cases a competitor or disgruntled customer can [...]

Casualty insurers are facing a more difficult claims settlement environment as the number of claims with questionable factors is increasing. The National Insurance Crime Bureau is reporting that 2012 saw an increase of 26% in questionable claims. “Suspicious theft/loss (not vehicle)” had the highest increase in volume to 10,680 in 2012 from 7,152 reached in 2011. In 2012, the top five states generating the most questionable claims were: California (21,935), Florida (10,693), Texas (10,368), New York (9,059) [...]

Recovery losses in a fraudulent investment case is not a hopeless endeavor. If you are a victim of any type of fraud, or have a valid judgement against a debtor, do not give up on getting back the funds which belong to you. The key to successful recovery is exploiting all available resources. Do not take the position that your scenario is a "collection" matter. Collection implies that the money belongs to the fraudster and that the efforts [...]

Employee embezzlement can happen at the intersection between trust and reasonable security. People who are valuable parts of an enterprise need to have sufficient latitude to take action and get things done. The CEO or owner cannot do everything personally, so key people are entrusted with important roles including managing money and critical information within the firm. Reasonable internal controls help protect the company from exposure to loss due to errors or fraud, but the [...]

Corporate fraud is a hot area of investigations in 2013. From embezzlement to corporate due diligence, the activity level is high. The Economist magazine presents an article talking about some of those areas. "One big source of work is the growing complexity of business regulation. Multinationals can never be sure that some employee, somewhere has not violated America’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or some other anti-bribery law." One investigator described how the job sometimes goes: [...]

The definition and perception of what goes into a criminal background check varies. For a private investigator it is important to serve the needs of a client by doing a thorough search so that he or she receives the complete information that they need. Be aware that within the investigative industry we have the knowledge that a one click "FBI Background Check" does not exist, and it might be necessary to describe the methods to [...]

Private investigators are often called upon to document cheating in a relationship. Whether in a divorce case or checking on a relationship partner it is important that the investigator go beyond simply observing that the subject is having an affair. Collecting supporting information and pursuing the related activity is even more valuable to the client. In most cases the client already knows that the subject is having an affair. Finding out the extent of all [...]

Investigations of people or events span many locations and time periods. When a private investigator works a case, his observations and efforts connect the movements and surroundings of the subject. To provide relative timelines the dates and time of each event is reported. It is critical to synchronize the timing of devices used to record these events.Most of the time the clocks built into different devices are not exactly in sync, which can have consequences when the [...]