All about current standards, practices and more... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml en Conflict International http://www.conflictinternational.com http://www.conflictinternational.com/favicon.ico http://www.conflictinternational.com/ All about current standards, practices and more... It’s nothing new that infidelity is known to be one of the main causes of divorce in our society. However, it is still surprising to see how it keeps on growing year by year at an amazing rate. New technologies have made cheating easier and more tempting than ever. With so many social networks and contact pages nowadays it is relatively easy for spouses to cheat on their partners if they want to. As reflected by a recent study, between 20% and 70% of women and 40% to 80% of men have cheated on their partner at least once. Surprisingly, both genders have similar percentages which proves that it is a myth that men cheat on their wives much more than women cheat on their husbands. Overall, around 20% of divorce cases state infidelity as a direct cause. Although extra-marital affairs take place everywhere, it seems the stats are higher in big cities compared to smaller populations. In cities like London, where people have long commutes to work, infidelity stats are above the average.  Commuters spend many hours away from home every day, having ample margin to justify arriving home late. This, as Lucy Cavendish says in a recent article for the Standard is a big threat to monogamy. Although it is the most obvious reason, general dissatisfaction with the marital relationship is not correlated to infidelity. The main causes for adultery are sexual dissatisfaction, as well as low self-esteem and personal issues present outside of the marriage. As a consequence of this situation, Private investigators are becoming very common in divorce proceedings. Back in 2007, an article by the guardian said that private detectives were hired in more than 50% of the divorces in Britain. With numbers rapidly increasing since then, it is not difficult to guess that the previous percentage will have increased over time too. Conflict International has a wealth of experience offering matrimonial investigation services in the UK as well as overseas. If you want to know more about our services, you can visit our website or, alternatively, call +44 (0)20 7917 2939.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/05/14/infidelity-statistics-in-the-uk-growing-year-to-year http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/05/14/infidelity-statistics-in-the-uk-growing-year-to-year 1368537208 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml A recent article published by Sky News has shed light on a swath of publicly funded organisations that have, it is claimed, potentially commissioned illegal surveillance. Evidenced, acquired by civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, through the implementation of a Freedom of Information Act has shown that £3.9 million has been spent by public bodies over the last two years. According to the data, twenty-seven councils and a government department have paid private investigators to spy on their behalf. One of the many public organisations that has paid private firms to spy for them is the Department for Transport. Snooping on Staff The data attained by Big Brother Watch, has found that some of the surreptitious tasks assigned by government bodies to private investigators included ask for their own staff to be placed under surveillance. A total of twenty-eight organizations, using the powers under Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), paid private firms to undertake surveillance between 2010 and 2012. However, there are ten councils and four public authorities that have paid private firms to undertake surveillance that was not covered by RIPA. In simpler terms this means that they commissioned potentially illegal activity. There were two public authorities and two councils that paid other public bodies to spy on their behalf at a cost of £7,600. The four councils in Caephilly, Dudley, Leicestershire, and York used private investigators to monitor their own staff. The city of York Council denied using private investigators and said that it “had used an external fraud team.” BBW Speaks A director of Big Brother Watch, Nick Pickles said, “This research has uncovered cases where it looks like the law has not been followed and it’s essential they are urgently investigated. Unlike the US, British law isn’t strong enough to stop evidence obtained by illegal surveillance being used in court and the punishments for people deliberately flouting the law are trivial.” He goes on to say that the UK needs a proper licensing system for private investigators. Big Brothers Watch recommended that the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 “should be strengthened to stop unauthorised surveillance by raising the bar about what evidence can be used in legal proceedings.” BBW also wants private investigator licensing to be strengthened and introduce a way to regulate contracted investigators. In Favour of License Conflict International is a highly experienced and prestigious private investigation company. The team has a has a wealth of experience dealing with corporate, commercial and private investigations from a diverse range of clients, including multinational corporations, law firms and high net worth individuals. They conduct their investigations within the guidelines of RIPA. Along with Nick Pickles’ statement about proper licensing, Conflict International states that they are also “in favour of the introduction of licensing our industry.”... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/03/25/private-investigations-are-becoming-a-public-matter http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/03/25/private-investigations-are-becoming-a-public-matter 1364205499 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Private detective work isn’t just for detectives anymore, especially when it comes to the reality TV personality turned millionaire marketer and socialite, Kim Kardashian. In this past week’s episode of Kim and sister, Kourtney Kardashian’s show, Kourtney and Kim Take Miami, Kim professes her dreams of being a detective. In light of her aspirations she invites over friend of Larsa Pippen (Real Housewives of Miami star), Jake Schmidt, a private detective. When Schmidt and his team arrives Kim says, “My father was an attorney so I would see different things go on and so I have always had an interest.” She goes on to admit, “I think I can be like a detective, I can really investigate like a boyfriend.” With Schmidt and his partners on hand Kim’s dreams become reality. She gets to check out some sophisticated spyware such as a periscope, 180 degree view glasses and a lighter that doubles as a knife. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Kim gets more than she bargained for when Schmidt invites her to be a part of their attempt to solve a case involving a young girl named Fara who has run away from home, pro bono. The team starts by talking to Fara’s family and then begins to zero in on rumoured boyfriend. Of course Kim was thrilled with the assignment she had been thrown into confessing, “There is nothing more I love in life than to spy on people.” With the help of Kim, the team of Private Investigators track down photos and information on boyfriend, Jake, and to much dismay they find that he is possibly running a prostitution ring. With as much information as they could find, the team hands the case over to law enforcement and as the episode unfolds, Jake and his team congratulate Kim on a job well done. While Kim may have stunned the team on her PI work her true colours shine when she is in the limelight. We’ll leave it to Kim, but it’s safe to say that the multimillionaire mogul will stick to her profession and keep the private investigator work to the professionals. Conflict International has a global reach and is highly experienced at working with clients across various industries, including high net worth individuals. If you require our assistance then please contact us.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/03/18/kim-kardashian-reality-star-turned-private-investigator http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/03/18/kim-kardashian-reality-star-turned-private-investigator 1363613100 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml What is Happening Today According to the BBC, the Serious Fraud Office will be investigating the sale of the technology firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett Packard. HP, the company that bought Autonomy in 2011, has “provided information to the UK Serious Fraud Office, the US Department of Justice and the SEC related to the accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and misrepresentations at Autonomy that occurred prior to and in connection with HP’s acquisition of Autonomy.” Are Investigations the Way to Go? The director of the Serious Fraud Office has chosen to open an investigation into the allegations of the company. However, the opening of a criminal investigation “does not mean that individuals are guilty of a crime or indeed that a crime has been committed.” This investigation is now to see whether or not there is a conflict of interest or perception of a conflict. With this in the news today, it shows that corporate investigations are continually growing in importance. Conducting investigations can be costly but if they aren’t done, there can be serious consequences for a company. Find a Team That Works for You The London-based company, Conflict International, especially prides itself on its corporate intelligence team, which gathers business-critical information to help companies reduce risk, enter new markets, solve corporate problems, and enhance business opportunities. These corporate investigations are dependent on resourcefulness. Investigations can draw upon the local knowledge and resources of a global investigations network. The corporate investigations team can perform due diligence investigations, provide in depth reports in support of fraud and asset tracing, and provide accurate and current information in defending hostile takeover bids.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/03/15/serious-fraud-office-to-investigate-autonomy-sale http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/03/15/serious-fraud-office-to-investigate-autonomy-sale 1363352360 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The antivirus company, AVG, has recently released an impressive report in regards to children able to code malicious software. The company said children must be educated on coding “rights and wrongs”. Many schools around the world have started changing education programmes, aiming to teach children how to code instead of simply knowing how to use the computers. In the UK, there already are after-school clubs focused on teaching children how to code. The conern is that while able to handle technology, children most likely lack the level of maturity needed to differentiate between what’s moral and what’s not. Benefits or dangers? Linda Sandvik is the co-founder of Code Club which teaches children aged nine and up how to code. She told the BBC that the risks that were outlined in the AVG report were far outweighed by the benefits from teaching children to code. “We teach English, maths and science to all students because they are fundamental to understanding society,” she said. “The same is true of digital technology. When we gain literacy, we not only learn to read, but also to write. It is not enough to just use computer programs.” The AVG team focused their attention on one particular instance of code that masqueraded as a cheat program for gamers playing Runescape. Runescape Gold Hack promised to give the gamer free virtual currency that could be used in the game. In reality this was being used to steal log-in details from certain users. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at AVG, said:  “We found that the malware was trying to steal the data from people and send it to a specific email address.” “The malware author included in that code the exact email address and password and additional information – more experienced hackers would never put these type of details in malware.” And that email address belonged to an 11-year-old boy in Canada. Thanks to the malware’s source code, researchers were able to find out which town the boy lived in. With more and more children and people becoming more and more skilled and intelligent, the use of malicious software is more of a probability than a possibility. It is therefore advisable to resort to protective surveillance or counter electronic surveillance services. Find more details on the specific services pages of Conflict International’s website.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/02/11/children-and-coding http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/02/11/children-and-coding 1360592361 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The campaigners for Privacy International as well as other human rights groups like the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and Bahrain Watch are about to question Gamma International UK. It is believed that the company’s surveillance software may have been used against dissidents in Bahrain. The complaint was filed on February 1st and seeks probes of whether UK based Gamma Group and Munich based Trovicor GmbH violated guidelines for business conduct. By exporting their software, Gama may have well breached the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) guidelines concerning human rights. The OECD guidelines are designed to promote responsible business conduct. The case also brought to light another issue and that is the freedom of exporting software technology. The software, known as FinSpy, can be used to activate a device’s internal camera and microphone and capture images and audio recordings of the user. Gamma’s Position Martin J Muench, Gamma International’s managing director, rejected the claims according to which FinSpy has been used in over a dozen countries. In an email to the Observer, Muench said: “Gamma co-operates with the export controls authorities and the regulators of the UK, US and Germany.” He also said his company did not sell the spyware to Bahrain, but rather it had been stolen, copied and used without permission. Muench stated: ” The modification meant that there was no message sent to our server when the demo product was used against a real target,” he said. An unaltered demo would have sent a message to Gamma, and the company would have been able to deactivate that copy of the software” In a statement, the head at research at Privacy International, Eric King said: “We very much hope the OECD process will persuade Gamma and Trovicor to take a long hard look at their current and future clients, and to think carefully about the role their products play in the targeting and torture of activists and the suppression of pro-democracy voices.” Muench said in an e-mail that: “until such time as the OECD has conducted its investigations and reached its conclusions it would be inappropriate for me to comment.” He also said Gamma will continue to cooperate with export control authorities and regulators of the U.K., Germany and U.S. TSCM – Counter-Electronic Surveillance Unless respecting specific guidelines, surveillance and surveillance equipment can fall into the category of illicit actions. The Conflict International team can offer carry out a thorough physical sweep throughout the survey area, utilising trained personnel who are familiar with the various types of illicit monitoring devices. The Technical Surveillance Counter Measure available from Conflict International is an industry-leading one, utilising the latest radio and telecommunications line analysing equipment.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/02/06/uk-technology-firm-to-be-questioned-about-how-spyware-ended-up-in-bahrain http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/02/06/uk-technology-firm-to-be-questioned-about-how-spyware-ended-up-in-bahrain 1360149093 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml A few weeks ago, German activists started protesting against CCTV cameras. Camover is the new game played across Berlin which requires participants to trash cameras in protest against the rise in close-circuit television across Germany. Points are awarded for the number of cameras destroyed and the bonuses come when the method of destruction is imaginative. Concealing the participant’s identity is not essential, though highly recommended. Once the show is over, it has to be made public on the game’s website. This is quite challenging, as it is continually being shut down. According to the Guardian, the use of surveillance cameras has become a thorny political issue in Germany. The bomb scare in Bonn last December, together with a manslaughter in Berlin’s busy Alexanderplatz square in October 2012, determined the interior minister, Hans Peter Friederich to call for “efficient video surveillance and video recording in public areas”. The anarchist movement in particular views CCTV destruction as a legitimate tactic, and argues that it is not violence because it is action against property that infringes on individual rights, rather than hurting people. The game which started a few weeks ago will end on the 19th of February, which coincides with the starts of the European Police Congress. Emma Carr, deputy director of Big Brother, said that “Vandalism of the CCTV cameras could easily have been avoided.” “Perhaps the Germany government should listen to their citizens’ concerns and approach the situation in a transparent and proportionate way, rather than ignoring their concerns completely”. The Camover philosophy “The gaze of the cameras does not fall equally on all users of the street but on those who are stereotypical predefined as potentially deviant, or through appearance and demeanour, are singled out by operators as unrespectable. In this way youth, particularly those already socially and economically marginal, may be subject to even greater levels of authoritative intervention and official stigmatisation, and rather than contributing to social justice through the reduction of victimisation, CCTV will merely become a tool of injustice through the amplification of differential and discriminatory policing.” It is estimated that, so far, 50 cameras have been stolen. What triggered this chain reaction is the interior’s minister reaction, Hans Peter Friederich to call for “efficient video surveillance and video recording in public areas”. The bomb scare in Bonn last December, together with a manslaughter in Berlin’s busy Alexanderplatz square in October 2012, showed inadequate CCTV footage. What was supposed to be a safety The bomb scare in Bonn last December, together with a manslaughter in Berlin’s busy Alexanderplatz square in October 2012, determined the interior minister, Hans Peter Friederich to call for “efficient video surveillance and video recording in public areas”. Surveillance operations conducted within legal guidelines In order to be legally admissible in court, surveillance findings must be the result of operations conducted in accordance with The Human Right Act, the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life (Article 8.1), Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and Protection from Harassment Act 1997, chapter 40. More information on this topic can be read on the Conflict International website, or by clicking here.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/02/05/the-germans-protest-against-cctv-cameras http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/02/05/the-germans-protest-against-cctv-cameras 1360062467 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has made the top page of broadsheets all over the world again. He has also recently been questioned over allegations that his 2007 election campaign received illegal donations from Liliane Bettencourt, L’Oreal heiress and France’s richest woman. The reason this time? He is to be investigated over accusations of a breach of secrecy in an alleged corruption case, the “Karachi affair”. The Karachi affair refers to commissions and kickbacks paid by France when in 1994, it negotiated a deal to sell three Agosta-class submarines to Pakistan for a sum equivalent to €826 million. The commissions of 6.25% of the contract amount, approximately €50 million was paid out. In Pakistan, the commission enriched many military officers and political leaders. In 2002, when former French President Jacques Chirac was elected, he cancelled the commissions and kickbacks, angering many officials in Pakistan. It seems that the commissions were in part re-routed back to France to fund political activities of Chirac’s principal political rival, Prime Minister Edouard Balladu. At the time, Sarkozy was the spokesman for Balladur’s presidential election campaign. Some reports allege that the 2002 terrorist attack that killed 11 French technicians in Karachi was due to unpaid commissions. Presidential Immunity? In September 2011, the then President Sarkozy issued a statement saying he was not being investigated in relationship to the Karachi affair. This caused anger among the engineers’ families who sued Mr. Sarkozy over the press release, claiming it violated laws that prohibit the publication of information about ongoing investigations. At that time, the President enjoyed immunity from prosecution, but three judges have now ruled that he should be investigated. In their official ruling, the judges stated: “The act of permitting the release of information concerning on-going investigations does not enter into the functions of the president”. The killing of the 11 French naval engineers is only allegedly linked to France’s ceasing the payments to Pakistan. Mr Sarkozy has strongly denied that he had anything to do with the alleged deal. Investigations are very complex procedures that in certain cases, mainly politically related may take up to several years to complete. For any surveillance investigation questions you may have, Conflict International, a London detective agency specialising in private and corporate investigation and surveillance services is able to help. To discuss a particular case or our services, please contact at +44 (0)20 7917 2939 and info@conflictinternational.com... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/01/11/nicolas-sarkozy-to-be-investigated-in-the-%e2%80%9ckarachi-affair%e2%80%9d-deal http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2013/01/11/nicolas-sarkozy-to-be-investigated-in-the-%e2%80%9ckarachi-affair%e2%80%9d-deal 1357907877 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml On 29th November 2012, actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested on suspicion of starting a nightclub brawl and has now hired a private detective to perform a background check of her accuser, psychic Tiffany Mitchell. The alleged incident On the night in question, the twenty-six year old allegedly hit Mitchell in New York night club ‘Avenue’, after attending a Justin Beiber concert at Madison Square Garden. It is alleged that Lohan hit Mitchell during a heated confrontation where she believed the woman had stolen her sister’s purse, which contained $10,000 Lindsay was sending home to pay for her younger brother’s school tuition. However, Lohan counter-claims that whilst she was in the night club looking for the stolen purse, she did not lash out, but was pushed herself. The actress’s suspicions Lohan vehemently denies assaulting Mitchell and is suspicious that the psychic from Palm Beach – an area where her estranged father Michael Lohan also lives – is setting her up to make money from her stardom. A source told TMZ, ‘Lohan feels the palm reader is just another in a long line of people who see the actress as an opportunity to make money’. In the past Lohan has been arrested for multiple drugs, driving and assault offenses, which make her vulnerable to new allegations and she has gained a ‘wild-child’ reputation. Role of the private detective On 2nd December 2012 Tiffany Mitchell met with celebrity attorney Gloria Allred and hired her as a representative in legal proceedings. It is believed this arrangement led Lohan to hire a private investigator as it made it clear Mitchell was intending to seek monetary damages in a civil suit. In the press, reports are circulating that Mitchell regularly targets socialites in high end night clubs. One anonymous source told reporters that she was conned out of $43,000 after being manipulated by Mitchell – whilst the incident was reported to police, no further action was taken. With this in mind, Lohan hopes her private detective can find some evidence against Mitchell, such as a provable track record for this type of behaviour or a criminal past that can help clear her name from this latest charge. In particular, Lohan wants her detective to see if Mitchell has sued anyone before, and if so, under what grounds, and if she was successful. If the private detective can find any information to discredit Mitchell, is could see the case fall in the actress’s favour. Professional private detectives As with this high-profile case, it is always recommended that you hire professional private detectives when dealing with legal matters. Conflict International’s expert team have a wealth of experience in preparing evidence to be used in court proceedings, including background checks and lifestyle reports. Background checks involve looking up and compiling records from public and private information sources, commercial and financial records, whilst lifestyle checks use a wide range of undercover and surveillance techniques to establish an individual’s current private life. To discuss a particular case or our services, please contact at +44 (0)20 7917 2939 and info@conflictinternational.com... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/12/04/former-child-star-lindsay-lohan-hires-private-detective-to-investigate-nightclub-accuser http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/12/04/former-child-star-lindsay-lohan-hires-private-detective-to-investigate-nightclub-accuser 1354613927 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml This month, the media was shocked to learn about the case of a teenager girl being hit out of the blue, in midday. The girl was attacked from behind, all of a sudden, and a powerful blow over her head left her unconscious. This happened in Plaistow, East London. She had just left her home after midday on 13 November when the man hit her on the head near Black Lion pub in High Street Plaistow, police said. “I hope I am his last victim”, the girl who wants to remain anonymous said. Police said the man had followed her as she left her home and the “shocking” attack took place minutes later. Luckily, the CCTV cameras were able to record the unpleasant event and the footage went viral on the internet. Although the details are not that clear, an arrest has been made. This proves that London surveillance, despite being sometimes blamed as an attack on one’s privacy, actually helps either preventing violent acts or finding those responsible for these crimes. On top of this, social media channels, mainly Facebook which operates with videos and images play an important role in ensuring that outrageous criminal acts will eventually be punished. But the internet and social media channels may very well become channels for transmitting violent messages as well. According to a UN report, the internet has become a tool for terror groups who use it to spread propaganda, recruit members and raise cash. More in depth and wider web surveillance could help combat this phenomenon. Yury Fedotov, executive director of UNODC mentioned in a statement from October that just as lawful citizens use the internet for a variety of purposes, “terrorist organisations also make extensive use of this indispensable global network for many different purposes.” In a context like this, it is easy to understand why Google’s Transparency Report showed increased government surveillance. Although opinions are quite divided and books like Julian Assange’s book  Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet, present a rather SF film like scenario: “within a few years, global civilisation will be a postmodern surveillance dystopia, from which escape for all but the most skilled individuals will be impossible.”, surveillance remains one of the surest ways of fighting against terrorist and violent acts. Bespoke surveillance and investigation services are available from Conflict International and can be offered to firms, banks, companies and private individuals.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/11/30/london-surveillance-in-action http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/11/30/london-surveillance-in-action 1354295009 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml It is estimated that governments around the world made almost 21,000 requests for access to Google data in the first half of this year. According to Google’s Transparency Report, government surveillance of online lives is rising dramatically. In 2009, the first Report received 12,539 requests, whereas the latest entry shows the imposing figure of 20,938. In a blog post, Google said: “This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: government surveillance is on the rise.” Surprisingly enough, the US government filed in the most requests, while on the second place was the Indian government. Google stores huge amount of data and personal information about its users; the users’ IP addresses can also be used to identify location. The latest Transparency Report can be seen as Google’s attempt to highlight how often governments around the world need to access user data as part of criminal investigations. Various government agencies also requested that public content be removed. Blogger posts or YouTube videos were the main target, while the reason citied was content seen as defamation. Present Law drafted in 1986 The present concern is due to the loopholes that allow government and other agencies to request and conduct electronic surveillance without warrants. When the original law was drafted in 1986, data stored on cloud services was not something to be considered. But technology has changed a lot in the past years, so new laws are needed. Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, as well as other imposing names are trying to reform the law, while Twitter and LinkedIn will be releasing their own Transparency Reports. Although the United States Justice department is against updating the current law, it explained that the electronic evidence gathered without warrants is actually needed to build a strong case that would implicitly grant them the search warrant. Considering the present discussions and concerns around the legal nature of obtaining electronic information about private individuals, any surveillance investigation has to be carried as carefully as possible, making sure legal guidelines are followed and there is no room for breach of individual rights debates. As a detective agency specialising in private and corporate investigations and surveillance, Conflict International makes sure that surveillance in London follows the legal procedures.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/11/14/google-transparency-report-shows-increased-government-surveillance http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/11/14/google-transparency-report-shows-increased-government-surveillance 1352901578 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml A group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are building a surveillance camera capable of “activity forecasting”, which aims to recognise activity and predict what might happen next. “Activity forecasting” Last week (28.10.2012) new research from Carnegie Mellon presented a security camera system that can watch what a person is doing – study an individual’s behaviour – and predict what a person might do next. The surveillance equipment relies on intelligent software, an artificial intelligence to detect anomalous activity and “see” likely crimes before they have actually happened. Our Current Surveillance Equipment Research into this automatic video surveillance technology is funded by the US government and is expected to be taken up by both civil and military security networks. In the future, this type of surveillance could be useful in private investigations whereby the aim is to prevent individuals from committing crime or immoral acts. Today at Conflict International, we supply and install bespoke Covert CCTV. Our high-quality equipment uses up-to-date technology and gathers intelligence for your objectives. Whilst the “activity forecasting” software in years away from standard use, our services document events as they happen and are used as evidence in court. The New Surveillance Technology in Practice The idea is the “activity forecasting” camera will separate the individual from the surroundings and predict their physical trajectories. Kris Kitani, post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon says the software “models the effect of the physical environment on the choice of human actions”. The artificial intelligence of the software will then make a judgement call and notify security personnel if it decides a person is about to commit a crime. Whilst this sounds like equipment from science fiction, it could have a huge preventative impact of criminal acts in the UK and beyond. There is the possibility that the system could accurately predict a burglary and stop it from happening. This would not only save monetary items, it offers the chance of families escaping the trauma and violation of a break-in. Professional Surveillance Teams It is recommended to always use a professional surveillance service that can inform you of the law and has the best advice on equipment to use. As surveillance investigators, Conflict International offer reports on findings and all results from surveillance equipment are documented, including images and edited time/date stamped DVDs. Reports are written in a legal format, admissible in court proceedings.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/11/08/predictive-future-surveillance-equipment http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/11/08/predictive-future-surveillance-equipment 1352378785 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Lance Armstrong’s lawyer Tim Herman has told the BBC Armstrong may take a polygraph test to prove his innocence. The cyclist has been stripped of seven Tour de France titles after the US Anti-Doping Agency described him as a “serial cheat”. Lie-detection on key witnesses Asked by BBC Radio 5 live, if Armstrong was prepared to take a test to prove he didn’t repeatedly take performance enhancing drugs, the lawyer replied, “We might do that, you never know”. “I wouldn’t challenge a lie-detector test, with good equipment, properly administered”, Herman added. He also said he was “a proponent, personally”, of lie detector tests being used to clear his client’s name. In particular, he believes the twenty-six witnesses that informed the Usada report should be polygraph tested as “Many witnesses have contradictory stories to tell”. Our Own Polygraph Test Service Whilst it is unclear if Herman will proceed with polygraph testing as he doubts public opinion would change after the allegations against Armstrong, “His name is never going to be clear with anyone beyond what it is today”, the tests are useful in private investigations involving family law. Our examiners specialise in a wide range of lie detector tests for marital infidelity issues as well as cases of sexual abuse and confirmation of innocence. Conflict International has professionally trained polygraph lie detector examiners to carry out tests throughout the UK and internationally. Our examiners have undergone thorough lie detector test training at accredited American Polygraph Association polygraph schools and all equipment and techniques are up-to-date to provide the highest accuracy rates. Lie-detection in Sport Recently, polygraph tests have hit the headlines elsewhere in sport for being beneficial. In Singapore, soccer match-fixing has been reduced by compulsorily testing players. The soccer league took the step to stop the sport being ruined by criminal syndicates and added lie-detection tests into the players’ code of conduct as early as 2001. The service is implemented through random tests once the players have signed a form agreeing to be tested. General Secretary of the Singapore F.A Winston Lee, has said, “Match-fixing is a cancer in football and it’s everywhere, it’s not just confined to Asia”. “We have taken a very strong stand against match-fixing and we are quite happy that it is working”, he added. The main advantage other than a reduction in criminal activity is that the spirit of sport can remain intact, and as a result, fans can enjoy the sport with assurance they are witnessing a true competition. Many of Lance Armstrong’s shocked fans felt let down after celebrating his seven Tour De France victories. If the doping allegations are true, he stole success and celebrity from other deserving cyclists and tricked fans into believing he was a champion of the sport. Professional Polygraph Testing It is recommended to always use a professional polygraph service, which we provide as expert surveillance investigators. This ensures results are of the highest accuracy and satisfy your reason for using the equipment.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/22/accused-cyclist-lance-armstrong-may-take-polygraph-test http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/22/accused-cyclist-lance-armstrong-may-take-polygraph-test 1350905580 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Advances in surveillance technology mean that HD CCTV cameras now recognise faces from half a mile away. Some cameras even store images with resolutions of 29 megapixels, meaning criminals are more likely to be identified. Prevention of Crime Manufacturer’s figures reveal there will be 129,299 HD CCTV cameras installed in the UK by the end of 2012. This impressive figure will please members of the public who feel the law is too lenient on repeat offenders, and that authorities are a ‘soft touch’ when it comes to violence. Whilst the traditional argument exists that such advanced ‘Big Brother’ technology has the power to breach our privacy rights, as the Guardian’s Henry Porter bluntly states, “Without privacy there can be no democracy”, the reputation of CCTV has ripened since its role following the 2011 London Riots. The London Riots Between 6-10 August, the UK witnessed some of the worst riots in decades – the capital city was overtaken by rioters and looters, far too many for over-worked police officers to detain or arrest. Once order was restored, police spent hours trawling through high quality CCTV footage to release facial shots to the public. The footage helped convict hundreds of suspects that had initially eluded justice and reassured the populace they were being protected from further anarchy. One year on from the riots, police are still diligently releasing footage. In August, stills of two men wanted in connection with burglaries in Hackney emerged. Detective Sergeant Ian Coleman said: “We are still working hard to track down the people responsible for last summer’s disorder”. He stated, “The two photos are very clear”, emphasising how clarity increases the chance of recognition. Future Application The UK government’s surveillance commissioner Andrew Rennison has said of the technology, “It’s the ability to pick out a face in the crowd”, and stated that research is being carried out so that in the near future CCTV footage can be run through an image database of known offenders. This potential technology would safeguard the public against violent acts of crime, working to prevent offenses and discovering evidence for trial. The success of CCTV as an evidence gathering tool outlines a positive future for the technology and international security. It will be important to keep advertising the advancements: if people believe their unlawful actions will be caught on high-quality cameras that offer little doubt of their involvement, they’ll be less likely to commit the crime as the chance of conviction improves. Surveillance in Private Investigations Conflict International provides an expert surveillance service to gather intelligence for corporate, commercial and private investigations. The benefit of gathering evidence for court proceedings is paramount to the success of any case. As part of our surveillance service, we supply and install high quality CCTV systems. Our investigators are more than happy to discuss the legal requirements of individual Covert CCTV systems, so that you increase your security without breaching privacy laws.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/09/hi-def-cctv-safeguard-against-crime-in-the-uk http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/09/hi-def-cctv-safeguard-against-crime-in-the-uk 1349781096 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Joseph C. Zang faces two lawsuits in the U.S District Court over his alleged surveillance of wife Catherine Zang using a hidden video camera in their Green Township home. Mr. Zang’s now ex-wife believes she was monitored for months without her consent. The Correct Use of Surveillance Technology Joseph C. Zang illustrates how surveillance technology can be misused by individuals who chose to ignore basic ethical codes of conduct. They forget that surveillance tools should be used to prevent unlawful acts or to document such acts as evidence in the pursuit of justice. Conflict International carries out all investigations within the guidelines of RIPA – The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, following on from The Human Rights Act 1998. Operations are conducted with knowledge and in accordance to local legislation and protocol. Our Own Matrimonial Services Conflict International is one of theUK’s leading Matrimonial Investigators and provides discreet support in sensitive family matters. Relationship problems can be difficult emotionally, especially if wealth and children are involved. If you feel drained and have unanswered questions, seek help from our team who offer a wide range of services: we offer general background checks, deeper Due DIligence reports and professional surveillance services. If you doubt a partner and they consent, we also also offer polygraph testing to ease your concerns. Covert Surveillance Legality Issues Catherine Zang seeks damages with the belief her privacy was disturbed, as does Javier Luis, whose instant messages with Catherine were recorded. However, the case falls into a legal grey area as many surveillance laws were written in the pre-digital age. As a result, there is no precedent or standard to follow and no simple means to reach a verdict. Court records show he admits to installing the equipment but denies he was wrong to do so. It is possible he was trying to gain evidence for divorce proceedings, believing his wife was having romantic contact with another man. It is not clear when the equipment started being used, but it was discovered soon after Catherine announced her plans for a separation. Whatever his personal reasoning, the case highlights how much privacy laws are behind the technological advances that allow anyone to snoop. “I felt violated and I continue to feel violated”, Catherine told ABC News. After all, she was in the perceived safety of her own home. Currently, wiretapping laws in Ohio permit audio recording when one of the parties is aware of the equipment. Visual images are not covered by privacy laws and there is no definite stance on email and instant messaging. However, the US site “staysafeonline.org” launched on 18th September by the National Cyber Security Alliance informs the public of current rights. Legal Professional Surveillance Services It is best to avoid legal grey areas and abuse of technology by always using a professional surveillance agency. You’ll also receive professional advise, exceptional quality of service and access to the best equipment tailored for your specific needs.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/08/husband-in-court-over-misuse-of-surveillance-technology http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/08/husband-in-court-over-misuse-of-surveillance-technology 1349687614 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Even if the financial crisis might reach its long expected end, the causes are still a matter of the present. Complex corporate investigation actions slowly reveal various stories that make the understanding of the global financial crisis much easier. The New York Attorney General has sued JP Morgan for allegedly defrauding investors who lost on mortgage-backed securities sold by Bear Stearns. The Bear Stearns Companies was a global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm, until it was sold to JPMorgan Chase in 2008. The selling was the only solution as an emergency loan could not save the company. The nosedive of the company is thought to be a prelude to the risk management meltdown of the Wall Street investment bank industry in September 2008. In January 2010 JP Morgan stopped using the Bear Stearns name and now answered back to the accusations: “The NYAG civil action relates to Bear Stearns, which we acquired over the course of a weekend at the behest of the US government.” Joseph Evangelisti, the bank’s spokesman underlined that all the allegations refer to Bear Stearns before becoming a member of the JP Morgan family. The complaint argues that Bear Stearns defrauded investors who purchased mortgage securities from 2005 through 2007. The lawsuit also said that the firms made material misrepresentations about the quality of the loans in the securities. The suit tends to be a “general” one as it does not focus on a particular deal, but on the fact that the fraudulent actions had serious consequences. According to BBC news, the investment products that triggered the financial crisis in 2008 were the US mortgage-backed securities. Each security or bond was linked to pools of US mortgage loans many of which had been awarded to people with very high risk levels. When the US property bubble burst, the linked securities changed their status into serious debt. In simpler words, there was cause and effect. As soon as the banks understood they were sitting on huge liabilities, they stopped lending to one another, making it harder for businesses and individuals to borrow. Luckily, fraudulent acts and false claims are always exposed sooner or later. The goal of all corporate private investigations is to expose such unlawful acts. The services that investigators can provide have started to grow in popularity due to the increased media exposure of such frauds and the awareness that although committed by one person, frauds may affect a thousand others.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/04/the-global-financial-crisis-understood-after-complex-investigations http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/10/04/the-global-financial-crisis-understood-after-complex-investigations 1349366572 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Unless certain rules are strictly respected, surveillance can raise serious human rights questions, and instead of becoming a tool that can be used, it ends up being criticised and refused its usage. Surveillance investigation refers to the process of closely observing a person or a place to document and identify any unlawful activities or contacts. The purpose of the surveillance is to prevent a crime, to obtain evidence of a crime, to obtain information and other proof that can later be used in a legal interrogation. But if there is a law that specifically prevents surveillance, the whole effort put into obtaining evidence is in vain. The illegal surveillance that was recently carried out on Kim Dotcom, prompted an apology from the New Zealand MP. It seems that the Government Communications and Security Bureau had spied on Dotcom, despite a law that protects New Zealand citizens and residents against illegal spying. Kim Dotcom, currently a New Zealand resident since 2010, is fighting extradition to the US where he faces charges of internet piracy and breaking copywriting laws. The FBI accuses Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, a German national, of leading a group that netted £ 100m since 2005 by copying and distributing music, films and other copyrighted material without granted authorisation. Kim Schmitz is the founder of Megaupload and its associated websites. In 2005 he legally changed his name to Dotcom, in homage to the technology that made him a millionaire. Prior to his arrest in New Zealand, he enjoyed a mogul’s life, owning at least 18 luxury cars – according to US officials. According to Wikipedia, Schmitz was granted residency as he had invested $ 10 million in Government bonds and made generous charitable contributions. In January 2012, USA charged Dotcom with copyright law infringement. Several mistakes made by the New Zealand authorities have attracted widespread media coverage. The most severely criticised mistake is that at the request of the police, the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau had spied on Dotcom illegally. Dotcom’s team are fighting to have the FBI disclose what evidence they have against him. The GCSB had sought assurances from the police that Dotcom and the other fellows accused of internet piracy were foreign nationals. The cause of the blunder is the detail that despite being a German national, Dotcom and his Dutch partner, also accused, hold New Zealand residency. Blunders like this one might seriously affect the whole purpose of an investigation. It is therefore extremely important to make sure that the investigation is done in accordance with a state’s rules regarding the citizens’ rights. Surveillance in London and UK surveillance plans, in general, have also been the centre of several recent debates, as to the British Prime Minister, “keeping our country safe” is paramount. The New Zealand judge, David Harvey, overruled the wishes of the US Government and granted the internet tycoon the right to information gathered by the FBI. Still on bail, awaiting an extradition hearing, Dotcom is also allowed to return to live in his $ 30 million mansion for the first time since his arrest in January.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/09/28/surveillance-rules-that-need-to-be-respected http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/09/28/surveillance-rules-that-need-to-be-respected 1348839641 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml A month ago, an article in the Guardian tackled the issue of a new type of surveillance system in the US, Trapwire, which recognises people from their face or walk and analyses whether they might be about to commit a criminal or terrorist act or not. According to the same publication, the documents that made Trapwire’s existence and deployment public were apparently obtained in a hack of computer systems belonging to the intelligence company Stratfor at the end of last year. There are some who are rather doubtful regarding the Trapwire’s ability to actually forecast criminal acts based simply on data from cameras, while others believe in the existence of such software. The importance of surveillance systems and surveillance investigation agencies has increased a lot recently, as a very sure method of preventing unlawful acts. There are, of course, rules and laws that need to be respected and obeyed, otherwise a breach of Human Rights and Data Protection Act may be committed with serious consequences. So whenever the resort to surveillance services is needed, it is extremely important to make sure that the agency or company in charge respects these guidelines. Conflict International, as an investigation and surveillance agency, is registered with The Data Protection Act and the ICO and has also subscribed to the Data Protection Promise. Sri Lanka also launched an unprecedented security operation for cricket’s World Twenty20 tournament starting Tuesday. The players were also placed under surveillance over match-fixing fears. To make sure of this, local and international detectives where checked into hotels where the players were standing. Considering Sri Lanka’s past and the separatist war, the need for such surveillance operations with a focus of maximum safety and security is self-understood.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/09/19/surveillance-technology-that-prevents-unlawful-acts http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/09/19/surveillance-technology-that-prevents-unlawful-acts 1348065582 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml It has recently been made public that more than 200 schools across Britain are using CCTV cameras in pupils’ changing rooms and even toilets. The results were obtained by anti-surveillance campaigners who were very much concerned about the privacy of schoolchildren. Considering that violent acts do, unfortunately, happen in schools, using CCTV cameras can prove to be beneficial both as providing proof and as generating some sort of a barrier, as the mere acknowledgment of CCTV existence makes students reconsider their potential violent or inappropriate actions. Examples of conduct that CCTV cameras can prevent are: misbehaviour in lessons, vandalism, bullying, theft, smoking and drug use. Mr. Hayer, the manager of Radclyffe School in Oldham, has installed 20 cameras in its toilets, explaining that “toilets” does not refer to the cubicles, but to the area leading to them which is staff-free, meaning that teachers only rarely go in there. Pupils know this and use the information in their advantage. Most of the bullying or theft happens here, so resorting to surveillance cameras seems like the right thing to do, as long as both parents and children are clearly informed from the very beginning about why the cameras are present and how is the data going to be used, if used. There’s no need to worry that too many cameras might constitute a breach of pupils’ privacy, as all schools using cameras are required by law to adhere to the Data Protection Act. This ensures that the information obtained will only be made public in situations required by the law and will be respecting certain strict guidelines. Whenever CCTV surveillance is required, the very first thing that needs to be done is checking the legal requirements by addressing a specialised institution. For instance, if such a system is required within the workplace, the staff should normally be aware that they are being monitored. If, however, there are exceptional situations, video and audio recording equipment may be used without the workers being aware of this. Such a process is called covert monitoring. Before resorting to this, there are some questions that need to be addressed first and it is only the experienced investigators that can provide the answers. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/09/12/pros-and-cons-for-cctv-in-schools http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/09/12/pros-and-cons-for-cctv-in-schools 1347467663 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Fraud, an issue which some private detectives specialize in tackling, is an issue which affects millions of people around the world in wide range ways. Whether it’s increasing insurance premiums or failing to provide HMRC with the right taxes which leave the public purse short, fraud costs us all. One such area where it has emerged that HMRC has lost money is from criminal gangs who dodge alcohol tax at an estimated cost to the Treasury of more than £1 billion. MP’s have also claimed that HMRC appeared reluctant to prosecute offenders after they found just 20 successful cases had been brought over the four years to 209/10. Tougher stance needed Although HMRC has put the gap between the amount of alcohol duty due and the sum collected at around £1.2bn, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticized it for failing to assess the tax gap for wine despite previously pledging it would. The PAC’s Richard Bacon said: “Alcohol fraud is big business. The department estimates that the gap between taxes due on alcohol and the amount actually collected might be as large as £1.2bn. “[But] the department seems to be reluctant to prosecute offenders. Over a recent four-year period, there were successful prosecutions in no more than six cases a year. “This sends the wrong message to perpetrators and the wider public about the department’s commitment to reducing alcohol duty evasion. It should give more weight to the deterrent impact of pursuing perpetrators through the courts.” Mr Bacon also said: “HMRC’s drive to tackle alcohol duty evasion is being seriously hampered by a lack of information. “The department does not… have enough reliable information on the returns from tackling different types of alcohol duty evasion. “It cannot say, therefore, whether a more effective targeting of its resources might not secure a better return on its investment. “It is unacceptable that the department has still to produce an estimate of the tax gap for wine, despite a commitment to this committee’s predecessors to do so.” HMRC falls short The cross-party spending watchdog also found the department failed to make the best use of intelligence and technology to detect and prevent evasion. Mr Bacon said: “Since the criminal gangs who perpetrate major alcohol duty fraud operate across national boundaries, the department needs to strengthen its intelligence by developing better links with the industry, the UK Border Force and other EU member states.” Andy Tighe, director of brewing at the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), said: “The Public Accounts Committee is right to say that HMRC must do a great deal more enforcement, get tough in prosecuting criminal smugglers, and develop better links with industry, something the BBPA has offered, through the setting up of a new task force, in our recent response to the Government’s consultation. “We also agree with another key conclusion, that HMRC ‘does not have accurate data on the size of the tax gap’. “Without reliable data on the scale and nature of duty evasion for each category of alcohol (beer, wine and spirits), the Government must not move forward with hugely damaging and costly plans to put a tax stamp on every bottle and can of beer.” HMRC’s chief executive Lin Homer said: “HMRC welcomes the PAC report on alcohol fraud and is considering the findings.”... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/30/hmrc-losing-1-billion-to-alcohol-tax-fraud http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/30/hmrc-losing-1-billion-to-alcohol-tax-fraud 1346325003 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml After more than 15 years of silence, Asil Nadir, former CEO of Polly Peck Empire, is once again in the lime light. Back in the 1980s, Polly Peck International, known as PPI, was a small British textile company which started to expand rapidly after Asil Nadir bought 58% of the company and became Chief Executive. In April 1984 PPI diversified its profile by acquiring 82 percent ownership of Vestel Electronics, one of the largest publicly traded companies in Turkey, manufacturer of colour televisions. In 1989 Polly Peck bought the former Del Monte canned fruit division and in the 90s, it became one of Britain’s top one hundred quoted companies, while in Cyprus it came second after the state in hiring people, with an average of 7,500 employees. At the very same time an independent investigation was made by the Accountant’s Joint Disciplinary. The results were not quite clean and the report said that: “Mr. Nadir was able to initiate transfers of funds out of [Polly Peck's] London bank accounts without question or challenge.” The regulators also found that some of Polly Peck’s assets had been secretly registered in Mr Nadir’s name, in Northern Cyprus. The company ultimately collapsed and Mr. Nadir was charged with false accounting and theft. He managed to leave the UK in 1993, while awaiting trial, and remained a fugitive in northern Cyprus until 2010 when he suddenly returned. The trial started on 23rd January, 2012 and he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. But Nadir says he is innocent and will lodge an appeal. No matter the future course of the action, the major role of corporate investigation agencies in such trials has to be highlighted. It is the asset tracing services and the forensic accountants who are able to provide the necessary proofs for legal trials. What’s left now is to decide whether the money the Conservative Party had received in the 90s as donation should be returned or not. There are opinions on both sides: Lord McAlpine said it would be morally wrong for the party to keep the money, but at the same time the Conservatives received the money in good faith from what was then thought to be a legitimate business.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/24/former-polly-peck-money-hidden-in-off-shore-accounts http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/24/former-polly-peck-money-hidden-in-off-shore-accounts 1345828414 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In April 2011 Apple sued Samsung accusing it of copying patented designs for mobile devices; Samsung countersued. In a Bloomberg article edited by Andrew Dunn, it is mentioned that the smartphone market was valued by Bloomberg Industries at $219.1 billion. In a context like this one, the dispute over supremacy comes as no surprise. Although it became commonplace in the US only towards the end of the 20th century, intellectual property rights are now some of the best defended rights, as the stakes involved are very high, going beyond figures. The history of patent trials involving Apple is rather long and involves major names, very familiar to consumers. In 1988 Xerox sued Apple, stating that Mac was developed using some of the technologies owned by Xerox. The latter lost the trial. With the release of Windows 3.0, Apple sued Microsoft and Hewlett Packard, stating that they had used visual graphical user interface (GUI) elements that were similar to those in Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh operating systems. The court ruled that, “Apple cannot get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor.” In 1999 Apple sued eMachines, a company that produced computers similar to iMac. The eOne was taken off the market, resulting in eMachines losing the ability to sell the eOne as intended. And now when smartphones have become the most popular electronic device in many locations and the Samsung Galaxy S3 lauded as one of the best sold smartphones, Apple asks Samsung to pay $ 2,5 billion for patent infringement. Not to be outdone, Samsung has asked for $422 million in a countersuit against Apple. The two parties are expected to make their closing arguments Tuesday, 21st of August. It will then be up to jurors to hash out which Apple patents, if any, Samsung stepped on when it created devices that compete with the iPhone and iPad. It is this patent verdict that will influence the future course of the “smart” devices industry. The services of lawyers with an intellectual property background will also be more and more in demand. Conflict International already provides a tailor made investigation service to implement tested investigation strategies in order to identify any counterfeiting teams operating and compromising your brand.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/21/patent-infringement-trial-in-smartphone-market http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/21/patent-infringement-trial-in-smartphone-market 1345552348 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Whether you are in the middle of a messy divorce and you are doubtful about the true number of assets that your spouse actually owns, or you are merely curious about asset tracing, you have come to the right place. In order to trace someone’s assets, hiring a private investigator is absolutely necessary. If somebody refuses to be completely honest with you about what they own, then private investigations are necessary to conduct in order to find out the truth. Asset tracing works because private investigators have access to resources that regular people do not. Usually, these investigators have been in the business for quite some time. The majority of them are government employees, former police officers or agents from the Central Intelligence Agency who have decided to work for private institutions or individuals instead. Should you hire private investigators to do asset tracing for you, what they do is tap their contacts or connections that they have and gain access to private documents that are in record systems. The investigator then presents the information to you. Asset tracing is definitely helpful in many situations. If you feel that somebody is not being completely honest with you, this is one good way to test their word. Asset tracing is also widely used during corporate investigations and insurance fraud investigations. When talking about cost, there is no doubt that hiring a private investigator will cost you. However, this price and then some is definitely worth paying if you find the information that you are looking for. If you are dividing your assets and find out too late that there was something being kept for you after the decision has been lawfully made, there will be nothing that you can do about it. This is why the price is worth paying. It is better to be safe than sorry when faced with this type of situation.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/20/what-is-asset-tracing http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/20/what-is-asset-tracing 1345465890 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The growth of social media has been a global phenomenon. Facebook alone has close to a billion users and numbers like that are hard to ignore. Social Media sites like Facebook are changing the way people use the internet and the way businesses interact with their market audience significantly. Driving revenue or brand awareness and engaging with customers on social networking sites like Facebook for major brands is increasingly important activity. For small to medium sized business without the international brand awareness, Facebook represents a great opportunity to build brand awareness and drive revenue. However, Facebook’s claim of being able to detect click fraud, a crucial aspect of social media marketing has been called into doubt after a company found 80% of its ad click links were generated by bots. Conflict International understands that Limited Run, a company based in Manorville, New York, wrote on Monday that it was deleting its Facebook page within a few weeks after it determined 80% of the clicks may be fraudulent. Limited Run, which provides a platform for selling digital music and physical items, wrote that it noticed only about 20% of the clicks it was paying for lead people to its website. The company said it tried several analytics services and still could not verify more than 15 to 20% of the clicks. It then built its own customized analytics software and said it came up with the same result. For the 80% of questionable clicks, Limited Run found that JavaScript was not turned on in those web browsers attributed to the click. Limited Run said that it is suspicious since in its experience, only about 1 to 2% of its site visitors usually have JavaScript turned off. “If the person clicking the ad doesn’t have JavaScript, it’s very difficult for an analytics service to verify the click,” the company wrote. It concluded that the clicks were coming from “bots,” or automated programs engineered to fraudulently click on ads, driving up the amount of money it had to pay Facebook for the advertisements. The company didn’t blame Facebook for intentionally trying to drive up advertising revenue and said it didn’t know the source of the bots. “We tried contacting Facebook about this,” Limited Run wrote. “Unfortunately, they wouldn’t reply. Do we know who the bots belong too? No. Are we accusing Facebook of using bots to drive up advertising revenue? No. Is it strange? Yes.” Facebook said in an email it was investigating the claims and noted that it has defenses in place for such kind of fraud. A fake click, it said, would come from a fake account, which would be disabled immediately upon discovery. The company said it has “systems in place that attempt to detect and filter certain click activity, including repetitive clicks from a single user, clicks that appear to be from an automated program or bot, or clicks that are otherwise abusive.”... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/07/facebook-hit-by-ad-click-fraud-claim http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/08/07/facebook-hit-by-ad-click-fraud-claim 1344348505 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Law firms and private investigation firms such as Conflict International have over the years developed strong working relationships for a wide range of reasons. And there is good reason for this as hiring a private investigator can reduce a lawyer’s workload by freeing them from tedious but critical meticulous investigative work, such as tracking down persons or performing forensic record examinations. With fixed or hourly rates that likely fall well below that of any lawyer, it can be a huge cost-saver for clients as well. In addition to performing time-consuming activities such as tracking down elusive witnesses or canvassing neighborhoods, private investigators can add enormous value by vetting witnesses, experts and accusers. For example, when the social networking site, Facebook, was readying for its impending initial public offering (IPO), it was simultaneously grappling with a lawsuit filed by a man claiming 50% ownership of Facebook dating back to its origination. It was only when investigative experts were hired was Facebook able to obtain the necessary information to get the case dismissed. These expert private investigators determined that the plaintiff had concealed evidence, doctored e-mails and the contract in question, and uncovered his criminal past. The plaintiff’s case disintegrated as a direct result. A competent private investigator can perform detailed background investigations into everyone involved, often uncovering information that can make or break a particular case. In addition to vetting accusers and witnesses, a private investigator has the resources to research the qualifications of purported industry experts. A number of documented cases have involved embarrassing circumstances where an expert witness, upon investigation, was not the expert that trial participants had been led to believe. A private investigator will come to a case with an investigative perspective versus a legal one, shedding greater light on aspects of the case that an attorney might not have time to consider. Additionally, the private investigator can add enormous value simply by interacting with clients directly, which can save the attorney considerable time, freeing them up to focus more intently on the legal demands of the case.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/07/23/the-relationship-between-law-firms-and-private-detectives http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/07/23/the-relationship-between-law-firms-and-private-detectives 1343057086 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Many, if not all private detectives will be interested to hear that an influential group of MPs has recommended that the government should quickly undertake an assessment into which investigation roles currently carried out by police officers could be taken on by private investigators. In their Private Investigation report, members of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said increasing numbers of private investigators were likely to be used in law enforcement as government budget cuts took hold. The report said: “In future it is possible that increasing numbers of investigations that are now undertaken by the police will fall to private investigators. Given the evidence we received, it is important that this assessment includes an analysis of the role of private investigators in fraud detection, recovery of stolen goods, maintenance of public order and major investigations, such as murder enquiries, with a statement of the risks associated with the involvement of private investigators in each of these areas.” Elsewhere in the report, MPs recommended that officers should be subject to a “cooling off period” of 12 months before being allowed to become private investigators. They suggested that the government should set up a “robust licensing and registration system” as soon as possible – and that police officers should record all dealings with private investigators. Mr Vaz (pictured on the right) told reporters: “Officers must be compelled to declare any dealings with private investigators and be subject to a cooling off period before they can move from the police to the private investigation industry. “Recent high profile events, such as the phone hacking scandal, have thrown light on the sometimes shady world of private investigators – we have found that rogue private investigators are the brokers in black market information. “The public must be assured that those acting in private investigators are subject to stringent checks, act under a code of conduct and will face tough penalties if they step out of line.” Mr Vaz added: “It is now time this industry was regulated so the honest majority can get on with their work – we expect the government to act urgently.”... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/07/18/reaction-to-the-home-affairs-committee-report-on-private-investigators http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/07/18/reaction-to-the-home-affairs-committee-report-on-private-investigators 1342618976 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The head of Mi5 rarely makes public speeches, so when he does it makes sense to pay attention. After two years without public speech, Jonathan Evans has spoken about how the Mi5 is working to counter “astonishing levels of cyber-attacks on UK industry”. He went on to warn that internet vulnerabilities were being exploited by criminals as well as states. In his speech he said that “industrial-scale processes involving many thousands of people lying behind both state sponsored cyber espionage and organised cyber crime”. “Vulnerabilities in the internet are being exploited aggressively not just by criminals but also by states,” he said. “The extent of what is going on is astonishing. This is a threat to the integrity, confidentiality and availability of government information but also to business and to academic institutions,” Mr Evans said. “What is at stake is not just our government secrets but also the safety and security of our infrastructure, the intellectual property that underpins our future prosperity and… commercially sensitive information.” Examples of cyber-warfare and cyber-espionage have recently emerged. The Struxnet and Duqu virus found its way into several Iranian Nuclear facilities, significantly hampering their nuclear programme during 2010. The more recent Flame virus which was highly sophisticated and able to gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on computer microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and copy instant messaging chats is believed to have infected machines in Iran, Israel, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. For businesses in the UK this should really serve as a warning to review existing security systems, particularly online security. This is of course more relevant to some businesses than others, however the matter of personal data security is something we can all give thought to. Do you have sensitive personal information on social networking sites? Do you shred your bank statements? Do you have obvious log in details to your e-mail? Do you have an easy pin number e.g. 1234 or 0000? Do you have anti-virus and anti-malware software on your home computer or laptop? We live in a digital age where businesses can lose millions overnight from poor cyber-security and individuals can lose their identity through poor personal data security. Taking the best preventative and most robust measures is the best defence.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/06/26/mi5-warns-of-threat-to-business-and-government http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/06/26/mi5-warns-of-threat-to-business-and-government 1340704392 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Identity theft and data security are two topics which Conflict International frequently talks about. The reason we do say is because we have seen the damage they can do someone’s life or a business. Back in 2010, we wrote about how photocopy machines are a gold mine for data thieves because of the information being stored on them. We now understand that in America, the New Jersey assembly has passed legislation requiring information stored on photocopy machines to be deleted. The bill is part of a campaign to combat identity theft, in this case specifically regarding copier machines. Democrats Paul Moriarty, Herb Conaway, M.D., and Dan Benson led the effort to combat identity theft by requiring the hard drives of all digital copy machines to be wiped clean to protect sensitive, personal information. “Most digital copy machines use internal hard drives, which store every document that has been scanned, printed, faxed or emailed by the machines, many times numbering in the tens of thousands by the time copier is resold or returned at the end of a lease agreement,” said Moriarty, who chairs the committee. “Besides the serious threat of identity theft, consumers are also vulnerable to repercussions posed by sensitive medical records or police documents,” said Conaway. “There’s a simple way to eliminate these risks and we need to make sure it’s instituted.” According to a 2008 survey commissioned by electronics manufacturer Sharp, 60 percent of consumers are not aware that copiers store images on a hard drive. The bill (A-1238) requires that a person destroy, or arrange for the destruction of, all records stored on a digital copy machine, which is no longer to be retained by that person, by erasing or otherwise modifying those records to make the records unreadable, undecipherable or through generally available means. “It probably wouldn’t even occur to most people that documents they scan or print on a copier are stored on that machine, sometimes for the entire life-time of the machine,” said Benson. “Given how often electronics are leased or resold these days, it’s important that measures safeguarding against identity theft are put into place.”... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/06/22/photocopy-machines-get-data-security-legislation-in-america http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/06/22/photocopy-machines-get-data-security-legislation-in-america 1340381599 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml If you live in the UK, CCTV is commonplace. For some years now we have seen just how effective CCTV can be in reducing crime by providing evidence in court and deterring criminal activity. In America, CCTV has traditionally been more a tool for private companies rather than the government. However, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the American government, businesses and people massively increased their appetite for CCTV cameras and covert surveillance. In the UK, CCTV cameras started to become widespread in the mid to late 1990’s following several trials and studies.  Since then CCTV technology has improved considerably. And now a new generation of computerised cameras are able to detect suspicious behaviour. Built by BRS Labs, they use a range of in-built parameters of what is considered normal and can send a text message to a human guard to issue an alert.  According to the BRS Labs cameras have been installed at tourist attractions, government buildings and military bases in the US. The cameras will be able to track 150 people at a time in real time and will gradually build up a memory of suspicious behaviour and further improve its understanding of suspicious behaviour. BRS Labs said the cameras effective have ‘the capability to learn from what they observe’. In addition, the cameras have the technology to compensate for poor light or a shaky image which further reduces the need for human supervision and makes the system more cost effective. It is important to remember that good CCTV operation still requires a human eye for verification. BRS Labs, based in Texas also has offices in London, Sao Paolo and Barcelona, meaning they could be in located around the world. Exactly how many of these cameras are being used in the UK is hard to say as there is no requirement to register CCTV cameras. CCTV is becoming much more intelligent, sophisticated and increasingly miniature. It is also becoming increasingly widespread as governments aim to offer citizens better protection from crime and terrorism. However it’s not just governments. CCTV has also become much more affordable in recent years, so now parents who have an au pair or nanny can log in in to their remove covert CCTV surveillance in the house to check on their children or sensitive areas. This is a growing area of business for specialist private detectives such as Conflict International.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/06/13/the-future-of-cctv http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/06/13/the-future-of-cctv 1339577768 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The power and sophistication of computer viruses has increased significantly in recent years. A major reason for this is the escalation in cyber warfare between the US, China and Middle Eastern States such as Iran. The Struxnet virus and Duqu virus which attacked Iran’s nuclear programme in 2010 and stole data gave a real glimpse into the shady world of international cyber warfare. Now a virus estimated to be 20 times more powerful than other known viruses and must have been state sponsored, according to some experts, has been discovered. Iran has claimed that the West and Israel are behind a secret ware of sabotage using cyber warfare and targeted assassinations of its scientists as part of the dispute over its nuclear programme. The latest cyber attack can gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on computer microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and copy instant messaging chats. The virus was discovered by a Russian security firm that specialises in targeting malicious computer code and has made it available to other researchers. According to Kaspersky Labs the programme appeared to be released 5 years ago and has infected machines in Iran, Israel, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Kaspersky security senior researcher, Roel Schouwenberg said that “If Flame went on undiscovered for five years, the only logical conclusion is that there are other operations ongoing that we don’t know about,” Mr Schouwenberg also said there was evidence to suggest the code was commissioned by the same nation or nations that were behind Stuxnet and Duqu. Professor Alan Woodward from the department of computing at the University of Surrey said the virus was extremely invasive. It could “vacuum up” information by copying keyboard strokes and the voices of people nearby. “This wasn’t written by some spotty teenager in his/her bedroom. It is large, complicated and dedicated to stealing data whilst remaining hidden for a long time,” he said. Although these particular cyber attacks are part of a wider cyber war between various countries, it highlights the increasing sophistication of computer programmes and the need for robust counter electronic surveillance measures, both within governments and businesses.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/29/cyber-war-reaches-new-level-with-flame-virus http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/29/cyber-war-reaches-new-level-with-flame-virus 1338290161 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Taking on new staff can be an expensive procedure. The administration and training (if required) alone can be an expensive process. While this is simply part of doing business, you can overlook one important fact: your time effort and money will be wasted if he or she does not stay for an extended period of time. One of the most effective ways to combat this is to conduct thorough a pre-employment screening process. Not only can this reduce the employee turnover costs, it will also help ensure that you have hired the right person for the right job. In Conflict International’s experience, failure to conduct the necessary employment background checks could potentially expose your business to many risks, including: Employee fraud Theft of company or customer information Unnecessary costs – wasted resource in recruiting and training unsuitable candidates Threat of litigation Reputational damage Why this is relevant Fraud by employees rose sharply in 2011, but the figures imply that internal controls against fraud have also become much more effective, according to a survey released on May 11 by the UK non-profit fraud information sharing service Cifas. The study found a 14.5% increase in staff frauds from 2010, with 378 reported by Cifas members this year. But 44% of the frauds were discovered by companies’ own internal controls. In contrast, a KPMG study in 2011, covering the period from 2008 to 2010, found that internal controls were often useless in detecting insider fraud, with only 22% of frauds detected by management review and 74% of frauds depending on known weaknesses in internal controls. A March study from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also reported a spike in insider fraud at public-sector organisations. The continuing economic slowdown in the UK has also had an impact on the nature of fraud. The PwC study, like others, noted that fraud tends to rise in times of economic stress, with private-sector fraud rising in 2009 as the recession hit, and public-sector fraud increasing as government-imposed austerity measures made it more difficult for organisations to achieve their targets legitimately. A survey released in May 2012 by BDO supported this view, pointing out that reported fraud had risen 50% to £2 billion between 2010 and 2011, with the average size of detected fraud also up. “In 2011, there were 413 reported cases at an average value of £5 million, compared with 372 cases in 2010, at an average value of £3.7 million,” BDO wrote.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/25/insider-fraud-rising http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/25/insider-fraud-rising 1337942426 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In the UK we are very familiar with CCTV. Some might argue that CCTV infringes on our civil liberties but very few people would argue that they do no good. A recent analysis by Northeastern University and the University of Cambridge, “Public Area CTV and Crime Prevention: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” examined 44 different studies that collectively surveyed areas from the United Kingdom to U.S. cities such as Cincinnati and New York. The analysis found that:- Surveillance systems were most effective in parking lots, where their use resulted in a 51% decrease in crime Public transportation areas saw a 23% decrease in crimes Systems in public settings were the least effective, with just a 7% decrease in crimes overall IMS Research senior analyst and report author Gary Wong said the Eurozone debt crisis is expected to depress growth in Western Europe as austerity measures continue to be implemented and a lack of end-user confidence limits video surveillance equipment spend. “Spain, Italy and Greece are forecast to be the three slowest growing European markets for video surveillance equipment in 2012,” Wong added. Wong said, “The global market will be driven by strong demand for video surveillance equipment in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries.” The growth will be contributed by infrastructure development in advance of major sporting events in Brazil and a heavy focus on city surveillance in China, India and Russia The global video surveillance spend in 2016 is estimated to have 40% share from the BRIC market, which represent a 10% from the current 30%, whereas only low single digit growth is forecast for some of the more established markets Worldwide market for video surveillance equipment will grow more than 12% in 2012 despite the weak and uncertain economic environment, according to IMS Research For Conflict International, CCTV is a key piece of technology which can make or break legal cases. In addition the technology is becoming increasingly miniaturised. The future for CCTV surveillance looks bright because its worth has been proven, in both the public sector and private sector.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/23/cctv-around-the-world-to-grow-by-12-in-2012 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/23/cctv-around-the-world-to-grow-by-12-in-2012 1337768119 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), occupational fraud, be it employee theft or the fudging expense reports, could be costing companies around the world $3.5 trillion each year. This figure is based on a 2012 report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse is based on surveys from the Certified Fraud Examiners and the analysis of 1,388 fraud cases from 96 countries investigated by ACFE’s in 2012 and/or 2011. Of the fraud cases looked at the average loss was $140,000, with more than 20 percent of the cases costing at least $1 million according to the report. The people spoken to in the survey estimated that the typical organisation loses 5 percent of its revenue to fraud each year. The ACFE offers a caveat that “this estimate is based on the collective opinion of anti-fraud experts rather than on specific data or factual observations,” but also admits the report “may well be the most reliable measure of the cost of occupational fraud available.” The ACFE breaks down fraud cases into three broad categories: asset misappropriation schemes, corruption schemes, and financial statement fraud schemes. These categories in turn have several sub-categories. The ACFE releases this kind of report every two years, and much like previous years, asset misappropriation schemes accounted for the vast majority (56.7 percent) of fraud cases. On the other hand, financial statement fraud accounted for only 7.6 percent of cases, but was more costly with an average loss of $1 million. Fraud is most prevalent in the banking and financial services (16.7 percent of cases), government and public administration (10.3 percent), and manufacturing (10.1 percent) sectors. Healthcare (6.7 percent), education (6.4 percent) and retail (6.1 percent) were close behind. The most likely way a business or organisation discovered a case of internal fraud (only 43.3 percent of the time) was from a tip, the majority of time coming from employees of the victim businesses organisation. Interestingly, while external audits were the most common anti-fraud being used at the time of the fraud (80.1 percent), those external audits only accounted for 3.3 percent of the initial detections. According to the report, the smaller the organization, the more vulnerable it is to fraud. Organisations with fewer than 100 employees accounted for the majority of fraud cases reported, at 31.8 percent, followed by organisations with between 1,000 and 9,999 employees, which accounted for 28.1 percent. Companies with fewer than 100 employees were also shown to have far fewer anti-fraud controls in place. Regarding the perpetrators of internal fraud, roughly 87 percent are first time offenders, having never been charged or convicted of a fraud-related offense, according to the report. In 81 percent of the fraud cases, perpetrators displayed one or more behavioural red flags that are often associated with fraudulent conduct. Preventing Fraud A strategy for fraud prevention really does depend on the business or oganisation. Ultimately every business will have a different strategy to prevent this type of crime, however there are basic things that can be done to help prevent this. 1 – Create a positive work environment 2 – Implement internal controls 3 – Hire honest people (do a background check!) 4 – Educate your employees 5 – Create an anonymous reporting system 6 – Perform regular and random audits 7 – Investigate every incident 8 – Lead by example Of course, these are just general points which perhaps need further explanation, however they do give a good idea of the steps and procedures needed to minimise your business exposure to fraud. Speaking to experts like Conflict International on the subject of fraud and how to prevent it will give businesses the added confidence of having worked with experts in the field.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/21/internal-fraud-estimated-to-cost-3-5-trillion-globally http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/21/internal-fraud-estimated-to-cost-3-5-trillion-globally 1337598832 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The success of Facebook has been truly unprecedented. With more than 900 million users, if Facebook was a country it would have the third largest population in the world. The vast amount of information Facebook has is their biggest asset. Sadly this vast amount of personal information makes the site a prime target for hackers, scammers and other cyber criminals. Conflict International gives the following seven examples of how Facebook is used as a platform for their activities:- Hacking accounts Criminals who hack Facebook accounts will use a variety tools. One of the more common tools uses “brute force” by cycling through a common password dictionary using commonly used names and dates against hundreds of thousands of e-mail addresses. Once your Facebook has been hacked it can either be used for spam or more commonly sold on through underground networks. Commandeering accounts This is when someone logs on to an existing Facebook account using illegally obtained ID and password. Once online they have rich resource of information including your network of friends and family. Many of these scams use trust to deceive people in to giving money. Profile Cloning The cloning of profiles typically involves using unprotected images and information to create an identical Facebook account of an existing user. The cloner can then send out friend requests to all or as many friends as they please. Once these friends accept the invitation, the cloner has access to further information of friend’s profiles which can then be used for fraud and various other criminal activities. Cross Platform Profile cloning The cloning of profiles on different platforms involves using your Facebook profile information to create accounts in other social networking sites. This form of cyber attack can also go unnoticed for long periods of time. Phishing Phishing on Facebook involves a hacker pretending to be a trustworthy individual or business and asking for personal data, usually via posting on walls or direct messages. Once the message or link is clicked on it infects the users’ computer with malware or redirects them to a website offers strong and sound reasons to reveal sensitive information. A well known example would be a site congratulating you on winning $1000, providing you fill out the form with your banking details. Fake Facebook This scam involves directing users via some kind of click which takes them to fake Facebook log in page. When the user then enters their username and password they are collected in a database, which often then sold on. Once sold on the scammers can take advantage as they please. Mining unprotected info Facebook’s biggest asset is the vast amount of personal information. Although it is possible to keep much of your personal information private, many users will allow their e-mail, phone numbers, addresses and date of birth to be viewed by anyone. This type of information is what hackers need to carry out a range of criminal activity.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/18/7-ways-facebook-is-used-for-cybercrime http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/18/7-ways-facebook-is-used-for-cybercrime 1337346327 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml A recent survey by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has shown that a significant proportion of Canadian businesses are failing to use recommended technology and tools to protect customers’ personal data. Conflict International understands that the survey showed nearly half of Canadian businesses that handle customers’ personal information in digital form fail to use the appropriate tools and practices to protect sensitive data. A poll that covered 1,006 companies across a range of industries from around the country found that a “vast majority” of businesses use passwords to protect personal data stored in digital devices. However, “many do not ensure that passwords are difficult to guess or that their employees change them regularly – two practices that can really help thwart online crime,” said Federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. In addition to this the survey produced a range of statistics including:- 50% of the companies that stored personal information on portable devices such as USB sticks and tablets to not use any form of encryption Of the firms surveyed (93%) collect contact information such as names, phone numbers and addresses Businesses gather other types of customer data such as financial information (39%), opinions, evaluations and comments (24%), purchasing habits (17%) and medical information (10%) Nearly 66% of these companies store customers’ personal information in paper records, while 55% store such information on desktop computers and 47 % use on-site servers Of those firms that use portable devices to store customers’ personal information, only 44% use encryption to protect such information As much as 23% keep customers’ personal information in portable devices such as laptops, USB sticks, and tablet devices A much smaller number (8%) have moved these types of data into cloud computing systems About 7% of the respondents said they were using third party cloud storage providers The businesses which took part in the survey also went on to describe the methods they do use to protect the personal information from their clients. Some of the measures include:- Tech tools, such as passwords, encryption or firewalls (73%) Physical measures, such as locked filing cabinets, restricted areas or security alarms (72%) Organizational controls, such as policies and procedures (51%) Of the businesses that said they use technology-based tools to protect data, 96%  use passwords, 79% use firewalls and 43% use encryption Understanding exactly why, according to this survey, Canada seems to lack data encryption is somewhat harder to understand and may well require further research. Whatever the reasons may be, the Canadian government and businesses need to realise the importance of data security in such a digital and global economy. To read the Canadian Business and Privacy-Related Issues final report Click Here... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/14/lack-of-data-security-puts-canada-at-risk http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/14/lack-of-data-security-puts-canada-at-risk 1337004033 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml For the 12th year in a row, identity theft complaints top the list of consumer complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission. It turns out that 15% of more than 1.8 million complaints made in 2011 involved identity theft. Research conducted in America, by the Javelin Strategy & Research estimates that nearly 12 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2011 – a 13% increase over 2010. This has been attributed to the explosion in Smartphones, social media and several major data breaches. Social media sites like Facebook provide just the kind of data needed to help criminals with cracking knowledge-based passwords. Equally Smartphones are increasingly integrated into our lives. We can shop on them, do our banking, surf the web and spend time on Facebook and Twitter. According to the report one of the most popular strategies for this type of fraud is to add their own names as registered account users, or changing the physical address for a stolen account. Preventing identity theft Prevention is better than cure. Avoid being the victim of identity theft by taking the following steps:- Regularly obtaining a copy of your personal credit file from one of the three credit reference agencies to see which financial organisations have accessed your details. It is particularly helpful to check your personal credit file 2-3 months after you have moved house. Being extra careful if you live in a property where other people could have access to your mail. In some cases a bank or credit card company could arrange for you to collect valuable items such as new cards from a local branch. Telling your bank, card issuer and all other organisations that you deal with immediately if you move house. Ask the Royal Mail to redirect any mail from your old address to your new one for at least a year. If your plastic cards are lost or stolen, cancel them immediately. When giving your card details or personal information over the phone, Internet or in a shop, make sure other people cannot hear or see your personal information. Keep your personal documents in a safe place, preferably in a lockable drawer or cabinet at home. Consider storing valuable financial documents such as share certificates with your bank. If your passport or driving licence has been lost or stolen contact the issuing organisation immediately. Don’t throw away entire bills, receipts, credit-or debit-card slips, bank statements or even unwanted post in your name. Destroy unwanted documents, preferably by using a shredder. Never give personal or account details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. Be suspicious even if they claim to be from your bank or the police. Be aware that a bank will never ask for your PIN or for a whole security number or password. Keep them secure. Don’t use the same password for more than one account and never use banking passwords for any other websites. Using different passwords increases security and makes it less likely that someone could access any other accounts. Keep your passwords safe and never record or store them in a manner which leaves them open to theft, such as in your purse or wallet. For private detectives, like Conflict International, the area of identity theft is a real opportunity to put the skills to the test. Identity theft is a complex criminal activity which can have long lasting and far reaching affects. Prevention is always better the cure so the best advice is to follow the points listed above. For further useful information on how to protect your identity visit – http://www.identitytheft.org.uk... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/08/identity-theft-continues-to-rise http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/08/identity-theft-continues-to-rise 1336484993 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International understands that in 2011 the number of cyber attacks increased by 81%, and mobile platforms such as Google’s Android operating system were increasingly attacked. This alarming statistic came from the annual “Internet security threat report” released by security software vendor Symantec. The report also points out how social networks are increasingly under attack and represent a new frontier for cyber criminals, according to Symantec. However users can increase their security by not adjusting privacy settings and removing details such as your date of birth, telephone number and full address to social networking profiles. Symantec reportedly blocked 5.5 billion malicious attacks in 2011, 81% more than in 2010. Meanwhile the number of web attacks that were blocked on a daily basis jumped 36%. There were also 403 million unique malware variants over the year. Symantec also found that “2011 was the first year that mobile malware presented a tangible threat to businesses and consumers”. This is due to mobile vulnerabilities increasing by 93% in 2011 which coincides with the huge growth in Smartphones and tablet devices. Symantec stated that “These threats are designed for activities including data collection, the sending of content and user tracking.” This means your data could be used for various forms of fraud or even identity theft. It was also made clear that cyber criminals aren’t limited to big businesses. Symantec stated that “More than 50% of such attacks target organizations with fewer than 2,500 employees, and almost 18% target companies with fewer than 250 employees,” and they continue to say “These organisations may be targeted because they are in the supply chain or partner ecosystem of a larger company and because they are less well-defended.” Other highlights from the report include:- Nearly 60% of the attacks targeted low profile targets, such as employees in human resources, public relations and sales. 4% to 5% of all business e-mails contained malware 1.1 million identities stolen during data breaches, exposing more than 187 million identities The most common cause was the loss of Smartphones, tablets, USB keys or backup devices, which combined exposed 18.5 million identities Spam emails declined from 88% of all e-mail volume in 2010 to 75% of e-mail in 2011 (mostly thanks to shutting down of one of the world’s biggest botnets) For businesses and individuals the message is very clear. Protect your data! It is clear that cyber attacks are indiscriminate. It does not matter if you have 10,000 employees or just 10. As we live in an increasingly digital world, it is quite possible that these trends will continue. Much like medicine, cyber attacks are best prevented rather than cured.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/04/cyber-attacks-increase-by-81-in-2011 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/05/04/cyber-attacks-increase-by-81-in-2011 1336145561 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Being the victim of any scam is an experience everyone would rather do without. If you’re the victim of a scam which affects you both financially and emotionally it is even worse. There is also no question that the online dating industry is a major source of such scams. Many will say that such scams are easy to avoid, however in the last few years online dating scammers have adopted increasingly sophisticated methods making much harder to differentiate a scammer from a real person. Why target online dating? Emotions are hugely powerful forces which can easily override our sense of judgment and logic. Anyone who has been in a loving relationship will understand the huge effect it can have, specifically in regard to the sense of determination to be with that person. Whilst there are additional reasons, this emotional vulnerability is major aspect to online dating scams. The scammers who target online dating sites are very aware of this fact and use it to exploit people Who are they? The people who carry out these scams and frauds could be anyone just about anywhere. With online dating the scammers could be the person featured on the site or a different person pretending to be someone else, or perhaps even the webmasters of the actual site. It could be just one person or an organised group with a specific online dating strategy. 3 rules to remember to avoid Scams and frauds 1) Never get money involved Do not use any dating website that requires you to pay or donate money in order to get the details of the person you are interested in. 2) Restrict your information There have been various cases where people have been scammed simply because they have given out all their personal information such as their full name, address, telephone number, date of birth, the details of family and friends and bank details. This information is gold-dust to a scammer. 3) Be sceptical Some people might view scepticism as being rude, but it is a powerful weapon of defence against scammers and fraudsters. Scepticism and common sense are some of the most important mental attributes we have. Early warning signs Profile picture Typically, incredibly beautiful women do not need to advertise themselves in order to find a man. Often scammers will use photographs from modelling sites and other sources so when online don’t trust a pretty face straight away. Cash extortion Whatever his or her reasons are to request money from you, no matter how sincere or legitimate it may seem, don’t give in. The scammer is trained in deception! Inconsistent information If you find that your conversations are inconsistent and confusing it is perfectly possible that the person at the other end is running multiple scams. Overly keen It is unlikely that the person who you have only briefly been messaging is going to develop a strong emotional connection. If you find that they are swamping you with pictures and messages there is a good chance it’s a scam. Conclusion Online dating sites have grown siginificantly in recent years and more and more people are are getting into relationships through them. Everyone is in title to happiness and its great that people are able to meet other people online with similar interests. Sadly there are people who see this as a haven for scams, so if you are going to use online dating sites we suggest that you never get inloved with money, don’t share every personal detail and don’t be afraid to be sceptical. As a result of growing popularity, the demand for private detectives like those at Conflict International, to carry out work related to the online dating industry is likely to grow.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/04/27/guide-against-dating-scammers http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/04/27/guide-against-dating-scammers 1335542114 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The use of Smartphones has increased dramatically around the world in recent years. They have also become increasingly powerful and capable as devices. As Smartphones have developed so has the software and apps that run on them. While this has certainly improved Smartphones as a technology it has also increased the security risk associated with them. Making your Smartphone secure is now considered just as important as making sure your home computer is secure because of the large volumes of data on our phones which may include private information such as banking details. A recent report in The Sunday Times has shown just how much data Smartphone apps leak. After analysing 70 apps and they discovered “twenty-one transmitted the phone number, six sent out email addresses, six shared the exact co-ordinates of the phone and more than half passed on the handset’s ID number.” The actual permissions for data collection may be buried somewhere in the privacy policy but it is widely accepted that the vast majority of users don’t actually read these non-negotiable, lengthy and complicated contracts. What is particularly concerning for users is where this data is going. The Sunday Times investigation highlighted that the terms and conditions of the tested apps do not disclose the names of the data recipients. The Sunday Times went to claim that personal information was being sent outside the EU to places such as China, India, Israel and America. Citing examples, The Sunday Times investigation found in one app the user’s phone number was being sent to an LA based internet advertiser. Another sent the user’s e-mail address and phone number to a server in India. App development as a sector has grown massively and as the number of Smartphones being used around the world continues to increase the sector looks set to grow further. It also seems that data security is on the agenda as the GSMA released their mobile app “privacy by design” development guidelines which included some excellent recommendations to develop industry-wide agreement in these areas. The area of Smartphone data security is expected to grow just as quickly as smartphone app development. As we increasingly use our Smartphones there will be an increasing need to keep them secure. For businesses which give their employees a company phone, particularly those which contain sensitive data such as government security organisations or private security firms there is extra pressure to keep data secure. Services such as mobile phone forensic investigations, which is offered by leading private investigation firms, are consistently increasing in demand.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/03/22/smartphone-apps-leaking-data http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/03/22/smartphone-apps-leaking-data 1332433279 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml By Khristina Narizhnaya – Busness Insider  – 17/02/2012 The disputes playing out in London courts increasingly feature tough guys with private jets who deploy armies of attorneys to fight over obscene piles of cash. What they lack, however, is British plaintiffs or defendants. London has become the battleground of choice for big business disputes emerging from Russia and countries that once belonged to the Soviet Union, a group known as the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS. As these countries’ economies grow and globalize, post-Soviet businessmen increasingly shun local judicial systems, which often lack experience and are riddled with corruption. Instead, they take their disputes to international courtrooms and arbitral tribunals. Many of the legal narratives from this newfangled world of offshore lawyering read like the scripts for gangster movies. A third of all cases at the London Court of International Arbitration, which gets the majority of business disputes because of its speed and confidentiality, involve a Russian-speaking party. The International Commercial Court also gets its fair share. The scuttlebutt among London lawyers says that the Kremlin has encouraged litigants to stop fighting their battles in the UK, concerned about how the sheer volume of high-profile litigation in English courts reflects on Russia. The Kremlin denied any knowledge of such efforts. “It’s not so great that they are suing each other, but everyone is free to decide where to litigate,” a Kremlin spokesperson said. The Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal has long been a popular venue for CIS cases, but London has now taken the lead. “The cases are always interesting — great characters, and often dramatic allegations. It’s never boring,” said Rupert D’Cruz, secretary of the Russian-British Law Association, who heads the Littleton Chambers CIS Dispute Resolution. They typically involve “multi-billion dollar assets, privatized under questionable circumstances,” said one corporate investigator, who requested anonymity due of the nature of his work. Events in the cases are usually dramatic, with clients battling over everypoint, said Alastair Shaw, a Swan Turton commercial litigation partner who has worked with CIS clients in the past. The disputes provide growth for the UK’s recession-stricken economy. One entrepreneur opened a firm last year that supplies Russian-speaking paralegals. Dispute consulting firms are hiring more private investigators to accommodate CIS cases, which often lack transparency. The High Court commercial division moved into a new state-of-the-art 300 million pound ($460.6 million) building in October. The building houses 31 courts and is adorned with a glass staircase and modern art. English law is often used in business contracts across the CIS for its reliability, independence and established reputation. With capital flight of over $80 billion and Russia’s overworked courts and arbitration tribunals, the disputes are likely to stay in London for years to come, experts say. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s push to increase credibility of the Russian legal system will take years to accomplish, said Evgeny Raschevsk, director of international arbitration and litigation at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, a prominent Moscow-based law firm with offices in London. In the early part of the last decade there was an influx of cases filed in American courts, mainly in New York. But most were turned away because judges ruled that the United States lacked jurisdiction over them. American courts demand a tighter connection when it comes to accepting foreign cases than the British courts. Moreover, many more oligarchs and businessmen from the former USSR live in London than in New York.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/02/22/billionaire-wars http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/02/22/billionaire-wars 1329927720 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml A Florida couple realised that the wife’s $350,000 engagement ring was missing just before Christmas 2011. They were desperate to retrieve their item but did not want to get in contact with the local authority and have their name exposed to the public. They decided to hire private investigator John Milano, also an ex-policeman, to carry out a mission to retrieve back the 11 carat emerald cut diamond ring along with a hefty $5,000 reward to anyone that can return back the lost item. The couple realised they had lost their ring which was at their home, in the cup on their dresser on the 23rd of December 2011. Mr Milano was sure that there were people in the house at the time the ring went missing and carried out a polygraph test to the potential suspects.  He also traced back to pawn shops in Martin County, Florida and also New York City due to the high demand diamond market. After the polygraph test,26 year old Cody Mejias, a cleaner for the house proved to have failed the test and from then, quoted from Mr Milano that, “she was avoiding him after.” He also said: “I hunted her down. She refused to come in so we had to get police involved.” Cody Mejias was arrested and after charged with grand theft. The affidavit said: ‘Mejias was apologetic and stated she needed the money to feed her children.’ ‘Mejias advised the money she retrieved from the transaction was used for food, gas, Christmas gifts and bills.’ The ring was tracked back and rediscovered in a pawn shop on Jensen Beach Jewellers which is owned by Charles Sarullo. The ring was allegedly sold for $4,800. The Martin County arrest affidavit states: ‘According to Sarullo, Mejias came in on 12/22/11 and stated she received a diamond ring as an inheritance from a recently deceased aunt.’ Mr Milano called Mr Sarullo to offer him the $5,000 reward to return the ring on top of the $4,800 he spent for it. When an item of high price and value is purchased, it is highly advisable to pay the ‘in-comparisonly-low-fee’ insurance to cover any lost, theft or damage. A mistake the couple clearly made. Likewise, hiring a private or corporate detective in this case proved triumph. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/01/12/missing-engagement-ring-riddle-solved-by-private-detective http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2012/01/12/missing-engagement-ring-riddle-solved-by-private-detective 1326384308 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), which is responsible for 850 developers, will be hiring up to 10 private investigators to conduct an international search for secret cash deposits and hidden properties owned by the country’s top developers. Investigators have been given permission to interview developers, their accountants and solicitors, and view full financial records in order to unearth assets which were trying to be kept out of the eyes of the State. Last year all major NAMA members were forced to swear affidavits detailing their assets and their debts. If it is proven that they lied, NAMA has the ability to impose very tough sanctions on them. The private investigators will be carrying out asset tracing using the most up to date computer forensic techniques to discover undisclosed wealth. They will also look into more secretive countries through the use of local experts to increase scrutiny of Ireland’s developers who owe the government €70 billion. On the 14th of December NAMA invited companies to apply for the work and up to 10 investigation firms will go on the eventual panel. The contracts are expected to run over two years with an option for renewal. A large number of developers have set up companies abroad, such as the Isle of Man to hide their wealth and it is very likely that this will be a key part of the investigation. NAMA has made it clear that the investigators hired are obliged to keep in contact with them at all times and they are ultimately responsible for how they operate. So far NAMA has already reversed transfers of wealth from developers to their children and their spouses. Several hundred million Euros of transfers have been reversed and NAMA is no doubt hoping to find more such cases. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/12/21/private-detectives-to-look-for-irish-hidden-wealth http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/12/21/private-detectives-to-look-for-irish-hidden-wealth 1324463813 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In April 2010 the London private detectives, Conflict International, released a blog article titled – Scam Warning: Microsoft Global Tech Support – which discussed an international scam  involving individuals posing as Microsoft technical support staff. For just over a year the blog article went largely un-noticed. Fast forward to May 2011 and things start to change. Up until that time the original Microsoft scam warning article was being viewed about 30 times a month. In May, it was viewed 152 times, in June 395 times, in July 757 times and in August 2,264 times. Since then the number of views has hovered around the 1,700 mark. Since the blog article was published there have been 49 comments made by people from across the globe. Conflict International would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has contributed to the blog. Your comments have really helped people avoid becoming victims and have helped raise awareness of this particular scam. It should be said that the blog article Conflict International wrote was also targeted by the scammers responsible for this. After seeing a particularly detailed blog comment by a George Walker on the 23rd of November the scammers posed as him by adding another comment under his name saying how he had been refunded and that this is no scam. Needless to say this didn’t stay under the radar for very long at all and the post was removed. However it also demonstrates that the scammer’s cage has been rattled. They resorted to a desperate attempt to misinform our readers and anyone searching for information on this topic. This is because over time the blog article climbed up Google rankings to appear high on the first page for a variety of keywords and phrases around the scam. It is now December 2011 and from our understanding the scam is continuing and there has been little change in the way they carry it out. You receive the call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft Global Tech Support, or something similar. You are then informed of having malware on your computer, at which point you may be passed on to another ‘department’ or a tech guy. You will then find out that for just a few hundred pounds the problem can be fixed. We want to stress that although we do describe the scammers as quite the amateur bunch, this is not the case. They are a well organised group who have successfully conned who knows how many people out of who knows how much money. Underestimating the people behind this scam would be foolish. As it stands this scam will continue and it is unlikely that any one person or organisation will bring it to an end. It is therefore vital that people share their experience in order to educate and prevent others becoming victims. With this in mind, Conflict International would again like to thank all our readers and the people who have commented on this topic. It is really appreciated and you have helped people become innocent victims of a global scam. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/12/09/scam-warning-microsoft-global-tech-support-part-2 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/12/09/scam-warning-microsoft-global-tech-support-part-2 1323443289 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Being a professional private detective will require a variety of skills. Arguably the most difficult skills to master are under-cover or covert surveillance. Undercover operations carry with them the greatest risk because it requires a private detective to enter a dynamic and unpredictable environment with the risk of being exposed. When carrying out undercover corporate investigations or fraud investigations a private detective risks a great deal. If their cover is blown then the legal case which they are working on is going to suffer a major setback. There are those however, who operate in an environment where if they are exposed they are more than likely to lose their life. This has been glaringly brought to light in the recent New York trial of the ex-Soviet officer, known as the ‘Merchant of Death’, Viktor Bout. Arguably, the biggest industry in the world is arms. This does depend on what you classify ‘the biggest’ however it is safe to say that the weapons and security industry is very big. The vast majority of the defence industry, though sometimes controversial is legitimate business. There is however a black market for arms dealing. Anyone who has seen the film ‘Lord of War’ starring Nicholas Cage will have some idea of this. In an ironic twist of fate the film was based upon non-other than the man convicted in New York, Viktor Bout. The trial of Viktor Bout has come to fruition thanks to an incredible piece of undercover work by Carlos Sagastume. In his undercover role he posed as a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC, to coax Bout to travel from Russia to Thailand in March 2008 to arrange to send deadly weapons to Colombian rebels to fight Americans. Born in Guatemala, Sagastume spent five years in the army specialising in intelligence gathering and then began transporting drugs. According to Sagastume he was then kidnapped by Federal police in Mexico and a $60,000 ransom was paid to release him, after which he contacted the DEA in Guatemala in search of a new line of work. By 1998 he had moved to the United States and was having a lot of success with DEA investigations. In January 2008 he was then recruited into a DEA sting operation designed to catch Bout who was well known to have supplied weapons in across South America, the Middle East and Africa with clients ranging from Liberia’s Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to the Taliban government that once ran Afghanistan. Sagastume was assigned to pose as a FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) member who wanted to buy 100 surface-to-air missiles, 20,000 AK-47 rifles, 350 sniper rifles, 5 tons of C-4 explosives and 10 million rounds of ammunition, among other weapons. Sagastume successfully lured Bout to travel from Russia to Thailand in March 2008 to arrange to send deadly weapons to Colombian rebels to fight Americans. The trap was set and the sting operation was a success. This case highlights just how far and extreme undercover operations can be and reminds us that there are people who work in extremely challenging environments risking their lives. It also shows just how valuable undercover surveillance is because without Sagastume’s amazing work, Viktor Bout would still be fuelling conflicts around the world. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/11/16/the-ultimate-private-detective http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/11/16/the-ultimate-private-detective 1321462852 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Smart phone ownership in the UK has grown rapidly in recent years. The UK public, as with many other countries have adopted the smart phone with open arms. Our ever growing need to communicate on the internet through social networking and our desire to be able to surf the net wherever we are and whenever we want has seen our phones get much smarter. Sadly, as with many industries and technologies there are those who wish to exploit it. The development of applications for our Smartphone’s has grown significantly in the last couple of years and it is this area that criminals are targeting Smartphone users. To be more specific, the threat to Smartphone users is related to malware disguised as innocent applications, which in fact send messages and make calls without showing up in your phone’s history. The messages can cost as much as £6 per message and can be sent as frequently as one per minute. As a Smartphone user, you will be completely unaware that any of this is taking place as it is specifically designed to work in the ‘back-end’ of the system. This can result in weeks of malware activity which can land you with a ridiculous phone bill. However the trouble does not end there. Some malware will enable fraudsters to take control of a user’s phone, which can then be sold on and used for a range of criminal activity. Clearly, criminals realise the potential Smartphone’s can offer them so it is now up to the Smartphone manufacturers, software and application developers and ourselves to protect our Smartphone’s much more effectively. If you look at computers and the development of viruses and then look at the development of anti-virus software you will see that it is an evolutionary arms race. Someone writes and releases a virus, eventually the virus is understood and the anti-virus software is updated or further developed to counter it and so the cycle continues. In the coming years you can expect the area of Smartphone security to expand significantly as more and more people use Smartphone’s the more threats we will see and have to counter. Until then there are a few things you can do to help keep your Smartphone secure. Check reviews, ratings and developer information before downloading any app Malware can seriously impact battery performance so if you phone drains its battery exceedingly quickly this may be the cause. Check your phone bill regularly for any suspicious activity Private investigators understand how attached we can get to our phones. There have been several reports of private detectives hunting down celebrity’s lost phones but what we hear less about is how government security agencies invest in securing their phones. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/11/09/smartphones-at-risk http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/11/09/smartphones-at-risk 1320840546 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International is proud to offer its private detective services around the world. Building our reputation in different major cities around the world requires a great deal of time and effort, which includes meeting with various businesses and making presentation such as our most recent with the  Transeuropean Centre of Commerce and Finance. Below are some words from the Event coordinator, Alina Velius. “In September 2011 the Transeuropean Centre of Commerce and Finance was delighted to foster a meeting between Conflict International and representatives from high-profile Russian companies. Heads of Security and Fraud divisions in Rosneft (Russia’s leading extraction and refinement company) and Uralkliy (one of the world’s largest potash producers) enjoyed learning about the British experience in investigation and intelligence. The representatives remarked on Conflict International’s profound expertise in this field and noted that the experts’s competent answers to the questions related to their current challenges were very useful. Both sides had a chance to exchange contacts and continue the heated discussion over lunch. Transeuropean Centre will be delighted to welcome Conflict International in the future events involving high-profile Russian delegations.” Alina Velias Event Coordinator Transeuropean Centre Ltd ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/10/19/conflict-international-meets-transeuropean-centre-of-commerce-and-finance http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/10/19/conflict-international-meets-transeuropean-centre-of-commerce-and-finance 1319016357 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have had a bigger impact on the way business is conducted and the way we communicate and interact with others more many would have ever predicted. However the reach of social media goes beyond a bit of cyberspace chit chat. In a recent court case in the United States a defendant tried to impeach the credibility of a key prosecution witness by turning to Facebook. The witness stated that she had no contact with the accused after he was charged with stabbing another teenager at a party. However, the defendant was able to show that the witnesses Facebook page contradicted her testimony. This was an inspired moment from the accused. Perhaps a first of what will become increasingly widespread. Unfortunately for him it was met with an answer which could also become increasingly common. The witness did not deny the postings were from here Facebook account, but she denied ever writing them. The witness claimed that her Facebook account had been hacked into and somebody else posted the messages. Although this might sound about as convincing as an eight year old telling her teacher the dog ate her homework it did create enough doubt in the mind of the judge to rule the Facebook messages inadmissible as evidence. As of yet there is no consensus regarding the validity of Facebook in legal matters. At this stage there seems to be one major factors preventing Facebook and other social media sites from being heard in court. Simply put security. A court must be one hundred per cent certain that whatever evidence is being submitted is totally authentic, which in this case means knowing that the witness was the only person with access to her Facebook page, knowingly or unknowingly. Law enforcement communities and private detectives understand the impact social media can have. For example in the recent London riots, which then spread to other parts of the country, Facebook and other social media sites were heavily used amongst the young people who made up the majority of those rioting. The police and judicial response to the riots have been swift and strong which includes arresting and charging individuals who encouraged violence, disorder and looting on social networking sites such as Facebook. A private detective service today has to be familiar with technology and communication. The police, the judiciary and the government have all seen the rise of social media. What they must also understand is that it is more than just a communication tool for many. It represents freedom of expression and opinion which need to be handled accordingly. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/09/05/is-a-facebook-message-admissible-evidence-in-court http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/09/05/is-a-facebook-message-admissible-evidence-in-court 1315222065 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml London private detectives, particularly those who work with big businesses will no doubt be urging them to seriously consider their cyber security in the wake of recent hacking activity targeted towards the corporate world. A recent report by the Security for Business Innovation Council (SBIC) suggests that for most businesses and organisations it is a case of when rather than if, they will be targeted by an advanced cyber threat. Whether it is corporate espionage or hackers, large corporations in particular have been warned to shift their focus toward damage limitation. In other words a multimillion dollar business that spends millions on cyber security cannot guarantee it will never be compromised and therefore one must consider how to limit the damage and recover the situation. The SBIC is made up of 16 top security experts from the Global 1000 who discuss the latest security concerns and how cyber security can respond. The people who make the SBIC include the Chief Information Security Officer at Nokia, the Chief Information Risk Officer at JPMorgan Chase, the Chief Information Security Officer at Coca Cola and thirteen other high profile information security experts. The SBIC report is a good representation of the cyber threat to large corporations because the people who make up the board deal with information security in large organisations. In 2011 we have seen the NHS, Citigroup, Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Sony, Playstation Network and the European Space Agency become victims of hacking. The list of corporate hacking victims is only set to continue as hackers and hacking groups have proved to be very intelligent and capable. Believing that your cyber security is impenetrable is naive at the very least. As the SBIC has stated it is equally important to consider and plan for what happens in the event of a hack. Private detective London Setting up the right protocols and procedures for the worst case hacking scenario can make a big difference in recovering the situation and potentially even retrieving the data itself. Private detectives with experience in the corporate information security environment are just one resource available to such organisations. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/08/17/hackers-continue-unrestricted-corporate-warfare http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/08/17/hackers-continue-unrestricted-corporate-warfare 1313589834 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml For individuals, businesses and governments the threat of cyber attack is very real. The threat is so real that the US Pentagon recently confirmed that they will treat cyber attacks as an ‘act of war’. In the UK the government also confirmed that their networks receive about 20,000 malicious e-mails each month. The increased threat of cyber attacks and cyber terrorism has forced individuals, businesses and government organisations to rethink their security measures and procedures. The IMF will no doubt be reviewing their own security after what they described as a major cyber attack. The IMF is not alone. The Sony Playstation Network hack and Lockheed Martin are examples of other major cyber attacks which have brought the matter of digital security under the spotlight. The major concern is that a successful cyber attack has the potential to seriously damage power, finance, security and government systems. For some individuals the recent cyber attack news has been so nerve raking that they have cancelled accounts on social networks, reset passwords wherever possible and delete any sensitive information stored online. Some detective agencies and private investigators have great experience in counter electronic surveillance and digital security. Simple things like regularly changing your password and ensuring it is nothing obvious like your pet’s name is a good start. Businesses and government organisations face cyber attacks on a daily basis. Cyber security is like many of the great arms’ race in history. It is a never ending game of cat and mouse and neither side shows any sign of quitting. Investing in cyber security, whether you are an individual, business or government organisation should be a top priority. It is also vital to learn from your mistakes and more importantly others mistakes. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/06/15/cyber-war-rages-on http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/06/15/cyber-war-rages-on 1308126607 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Lawmakers in the US, specifically The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Utilities, Commerce and Government Operations, are considering new legislation which calls for the use of GPS technology in high risk domestic violence cases. The legislation proposed is designed to track the movements of domestic violence offenders who repeatedly break restraining orders. Protecting vulnerable individuals in a community is key aspect of a civil society as it reflects humanity, compassion and concern for others. The bill proposes that once and offender is fitted with a tracking device the State Department of Corrections would monitor the movements and alert the victim and local law enforcement agencies if the offender enters a restricted area which would be identifies in the restraining order. Approving this legislation will require US lawmakers to consider all aspects of the bill, such as the right to privacy and the cost of actually implementing and managing these changes. The main group concerned about this legislation are fathers due to custody battles. Going through a divorce and losing the right to see your children can break any man. In some cases individuals lose control and target their former spouse. In other cases domestic violence can be the product of drugs or alcohol. Whatever the reason, society has a duty of care and protection which thanks to GPS technology is made much more effective and easier. You need only to read the recent news to find examples of where this technology might have been useful. In very recent news, a UK mother, Chrissie Chambers and her two year old daughter Shania, were murdered by David Oakes. He was the ex-partner to Chrissie and the father of Shania. What is particularly upsetting and aggravating about this case is that Chrissie Chambers showed the police over one hundred threatening text messages just days before she was murdered. David Oakes and Chrissie Chambers were also going through a custody battle and the murders took place just hours before a scheduled court appearance. In America they are considering adding legislation that would allow GPS tracking for domestic violence cases. Perhaps the UK judiciary should consider what exactly constitutes being in serious danger or when does a threat become a life threatening. Clearly these are difficult questions to answer but they are extremely important, perhaps even a matter of life or death. Remember though that this type of legislation is for protecting the vulnerable. It is not for the benefit of private detectives, private investigators or the law enforcement community. It is for the protection of those who need it and GPS can help. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/06/08/can-gps-technology-help-tackle-domestic-violence http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/06/08/can-gps-technology-help-tackle-domestic-violence 1307527527 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Rapid technological development in recent years has changed the world in which we live. The internet is the biggest machine ever built by man. It is a network of networks of networks. The internet is made up of countless home computers, laptops, data centres and servers. As the internet has grown, so too has the volume of data stored on it. Internet users, businesses and governments alike have grown to trust it enough to store a range of sensitive information and data. And while security measures are rigorously tested and put into place, the potential rewards for cyber criminals is so great that the risk is an afterthought. The recent hacking of the PS3 Network had demonstrated just how determined and intelligent cyber criminals are because the gaming market is huge. Online gaming in particular has seen spectacular growth, as more people play and spend money online it made a perfect target for cyber crime. It is estimated 77 million users had personal data stolen, making it one the biggest data thefts in history. The way we communicate is also changing dramatically thanks to software such as Skype which allows an individual to have a meeting in New York without having to leave their London office. The bulk of communication in business is now done through e-mail. Meanwhile, social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have had an equally big impact on our personal lives. Legislation protecting data has however remained reasonably static as it has failed to keep up with rapid technological development. In the US the Electronic Communications Privacy Act was put in place in 1986 and is woefully out of date. However amendments to this act have been proposed which offers more legal protection for the privacy of data, with particular focus on cloud computing due to its growing use. The proposed amendments would require law enforcement agencies to obtain court-ordered search warrants before accessing electronic data stored on third party cloud providers. The proposed changes would also impact on geolocation information, and it would require law enforcement agencies to notify suspects within three days that the government has accessed their data. Furthermore digital surveillance and undercover surveillance will create additional issues for those proposing the amendments. Some argue that the proposed changes will only make it more difficult for the likes of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to protect the American public and maintain national security. The proposed amendment to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act requires further debate due to the significant impact it would have on law enforcement and user privacy. At this stage it is difficult to predict the impact of the proposed changes for private detectives and private investigators. Because they are not strictly part of the US law enforcement community the changes might not affect them. However any overwhelming changes to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act will inevitably have some kind of impact, it’s just too early to say if it will be positive or negative. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/05/18/us-surveillance-laws-facing-reform http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/05/18/us-surveillance-laws-facing-reform 1305722716 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The recent US operation which resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden is headline news. America’s most wanted man who masterminded the 9/11 attack had been on the run for ten years was killed in a daring operation by US Special Forces. The death of Osama Bin Laden will undoubtedly raise many political questions however it has also resulted in the biggest intelligence in a number of years. The Special Forces team was able to recover five computers, ten hard drives and over 100 other storage devices such as DVDs and flash drives. That data captured will now be in the hands of the US intelligence community and agencies such as the CIA will already be well into trawling through the data for further information on Al Qaeda and affiliated groups. The information gathered will help in further understanding the terrorist network, the individuals within and any plans that may be in place. Computer forensic experts and analysts will be using all their skill and training to extrapolate as much information as possible. However with such a large haul of data this will most likely keep many computer forensic experts busy for a very long time. In countries like the USA and the UK the intelligence community will put great effort into counter electronic surveillance and protecting valuable information and data. On the other hand Al Qaeda is unlikely to have the resources or the expertise to protect their sensitive material in the mane way. What this highlights is the value of information and data. The expression ‘knowledge is power’ has never been so true and over the coming months and maybe even years the United States will use this new knowledge against the terrorist organisation. The field of computer forensics and data analysis has never been so important. These highly skilled individuals are in demand from businesses and governments around the world as the roots of the digital age grow stronger spread further and wider. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/05/05/field-day-for-computer-forensics http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/05/05/field-day-for-computer-forensics 1304587805 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International have been picked by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) as a case study to profile successful trade and investment by UK companies. The case studies are used to give UKTI customers a practical insight into the experiences of companies that have already successfully set up their businesses overseas, and illustrate to them what help UKTI and their partner agencies can offer. The case study will be used on the UKTI website, for testimonials,presentations, events, exhibitions and press material. Download the case study ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/28/conflict-international-featured-as-ukti-case-study http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/28/conflict-international-featured-as-ukti-case-study 1303995649 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The iPhone is more than just a phone. It is a handheld computer which is more capable than the computer man used to land on the moon. For most people, this will be no surprise, but what if someone told you that your iPhone was keeping a record of everywhere you have been since June? Some might be shocked and surprised and others may be less so. The least surprising aspect of this is the technology. The iPhone and other smart phones have tremendous capabilities such as surfing the web and satellite navigation. And it is this very technology which enables Apple to track every iPhone user’s location history. As with most things the hardest question to answer is why. Why would Apple want that data. Perhaps Apple doesn’t want the data and just sells it off to the highest bidder. As of yet there has been no explanation from Apple as to why this is happening. Perhaps Apple is in cahoots with private investigators, or perhaps even the government? Until there is a full explanation conspiracy theories will surface and this may damage their traditionally loyal customer base. Trust is incredibly important, be it in business or your personal life. Businesses work incredibly hard to build up trust between themselves and their customers in order to grow loyalty. When people are misled, particularly when it comes to privacy issues the impact can be quite severe. However Apple has such strong brand loyalty that in all likelihood this will hardly make a dent in their profits. In fact some people will not care in the slightest and will actually want to see this data themselves, which is now possible thanks to some keen hackers. Private detectives have been using tracking systems for as long as they have been around. It now turns out that if a cheating spouse has an iPhone it might contain all the data needed. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/27/iphone-tracking-system-exposed http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/27/iphone-tracking-system-exposed 1303902685 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Private detectives in London operate in a highly competitive market. The UK capital is home to hundreds of private detectives with a wide range of skills and services to offer. Many of these individuals will have a background in the police or military and will have benefited from extensive training. The same can be said of many other busy international cities such as New York and Paris. However in developing countries and emerging economies the same cannot be said. There may be a domestic private investigation industry but it is unlikely to posses the same level of skill, experience, training and technology. In some places around the world just being a private detective is extremely difficult. In Dubai for example it is illegal to hire a private detective. This essentially forces the private investigation services underground, which many find less appealing due to the risk of being arrested. If you live in Pakistan and wish to hire a private detective it could take a while to find one. This is because the government is considering shutting down the country’s first private detective company. According to reports, the company in question is illegal and unconstitutional. The private detective company has also been accused of espionage, intercepting and recording telephone conversations and taking video and photographic surveillance in their attempt to build evidence. The company in question denies these allegations. Based in Lahore, the company did claim to be the country’s first fully licensed private detective agency and was registered with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). Sadly there is no regulatory law for private detectives in Pakistan which makes the claim somewhat illegitimate. In the UK private detectives will use their undercover surveillance skills to gather evidence to be used in court. They are also used for counter electronic surveillance, background checks, corporate investigations, fraud investigations and more. Clearly the UK has a highly advanced private detection industry and Pakistan has a long way to go. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/19/private-detectives-in-lahore-hit-brick-wall http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/19/private-detectives-in-lahore-hit-brick-wall 1303210509 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In business, relationships change. Some relationships in business can flourish and other can turn very sour. Take Hewlett-Packard and Oracle as an example. At one time the two businesses worked exceptionally well together and now HP is suing a former senior member of staff for stealing and passing on vital and sensitive information. What was once a healthy working relationship between the two companies quickly descended into fierce rivalry after Oracle bought Sun Microsystems in 2009. This brought them firmly into the server hardware market which was the area that the two companies had previously worked so well together in. The allegations made by HP clearly demonstrate just how important data, information and k knowledge are in business. Putting procedures in place to prevent industrial espionage cannot prevent an individual with expert knowledge moving job and taking it with them. In fact for many senior positions in large businesses and corporations, previous experience is a highly significant factor. Perhaps the best example of the power of knowledge occurred towards the end of World War 2. Wernher von Braun was the greatest rocket engineer of the 20th century. He designed the Saturn 5 rocket which took America to the moon. However under Nazis Germany von Braun designed the V1 and V2 rocket which rained down terror on London. Despite this the allies needed to capture him alive because his knowledge was so important and they didn’t want him to fall into the hands of the Russians. There are obvious differences between Von Braun, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle. However the principal of exchanging information remains. It is for this reason that private detectives and private investigators are essential for businesses in certain industries such as technology. Services offered by a skilled private detective include undercover surveillance, GPS tracking, data security and counter electronic surveillance all of which are invaluable tools in helping to protect sensitive material. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/12/hp-and-oracle-battle-it-out-in-courts http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/04/12/hp-and-oracle-battle-it-out-in-courts 1302605787 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International are proud to announce its capabilities to supply independent credit information solutions and detailed company background reports throughout Cyprus. Strategically based with dedicated on the ground agents in Cyprus, Conflict International is at the hub of these markets currently setting the pace in a rapidly growing global economy.  Conflict International lead a strong team of credit information solutions professionals, that hold the local knowledge and industry expertise to deliver its promise to its clients in providing market specific solutions that enable critical trade and credit decisions. Conflict International has effective proven capabilities in Cyprus, Dubai, Malta, and Saudi Arabia, with locally skilled correspondents in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. Conflict International is associated with the only online database in Cyprus offering unrivalled access to companies registered with the Department of Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver.  We are the premier source of financial information in the Cyprus market for over 240.000 Registered Companies in Cyprus, and all listed overseas companies operating in Cyprus. Our Databank covers over 700,000 registered companies across the Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council. Through strategic agreements with comparable Databases, Conflict International is able to offer business information on companies anywhere in the world. Our services include: Personal Data Protection Credit Report Structure Report Structure Report Enhanced Relationship Report Company Shareholder Defaulting Debtors Enhanced Report Due Diligence Reports Read more about our services in Cyprus and around the world. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/03/14/conflict-launch-credit-and-background-information-solutions-in-cyprus http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/03/14/conflict-launch-credit-and-background-information-solutions-in-cyprus 1300108677 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International are pleased to announce that we will be attending directorBAR event on the 8th of March 2011  being held at Corney & Barrow’s, The Lounge, 10 Patternoster Square, EC4M 7DX. The event starts at 6pm and we are looking forward to hearing from guest speaker Mark Scot who is the Chief Executive of Cello Group PLC which has 760 staff and its 2010 results show headline operating profit of £5.9m on a turnover of £126.7m. Its strategy is to build a portfolio of companies around two specialist platforms, each operating within a different niche of the UK research and consulting sector: Research and Consulting (‘Cello’) and Response Communications (‘Tangible’). With a growing international presence in key markets – especially in pharmaceutical and healthcare - and a proven acquisition strategy. There will also be ‘advice zones’ which look at Capital Markets, Corporate deal making and exporting or expanding overseas. With advice from the likes of UK Trade & Investment London (UKTI), the event is sure to be success. For furthe rinformation on the event please follow the link http://directorbar8march2011.eventbrite.com/. If you are attending the event we look forward to seeing you there. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/03/08/conflict-international-attends-directorbar http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/03/08/conflict-international-attends-directorbar 1299599555 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Private detectives who operate in Dubai are perhaps some of the bravest in the private investigation industry. The reason for this is because the practice is illegal and consequently it is rare to find a private detective with offices based in Dubai. Because of the increased risk levels, private detectives operating in the area typically charge higher fees. However there are many private detectives who work on a truly global basis and will therefore be based in city hubs such as London, New York and Hong Kong and from these locations private detectives can reach areas such as Dubai with relative ease. The demand for private investigators in Dubai mostly comes from suspicious wives who need evidence in order to successfully divorce. Local law states that a woman is required to have at least two witnesses or documents proving abuse or mistreatment in order to apply for separation. Professional private detectives are capable of providing this service in a challenging environment. In order to conduct a successful investigation in Dubai there are certain techniques which are adopted to ensure that local authorities are not alerted. For example it is very rare for private detectives to meet their client face to face in Dubai. Much of the investigation work conducted is surveillance oriented and the techniques used here come from expert training and experience. Technology has become a key tool for private detectives, many of whom now have the ability to hack into computers and phones to retrieve e-mails, text messages and voicemails. GPS technology, which is increasingly miniaturized, also plays a key role in undercover surveillance. A private detective can find out exactly where the vehicle is going and can therefore conduct highly accurate surveillance. There are local private detectives in Dubai however but if you compare them to a UK private detective there are notable differences. Military or law enforcement experience and training is very common amongst UK private investigators. Undercover surveillance requires a lot training, skill and patience which a local Dubai private detective may not have. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/03/03/private-detectives-in-dubai http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/03/03/private-detectives-in-dubai 1299153906 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The economy and your career within it is the biggest concern to the vast majority of the public. In times of rising unemployment, spiralling costs, some alarming inflation figures and a government hell-bent on making deep cuts the economy is by far the most important issue facing this country. The National Fraud Authority (NFA) has said that fraud costs the UK economy £38 billion a year, half of which within the public sector. That is a huge figure but what does this mean to the average Joe. The NFA has said that “if the total cost was broken down, every UK adult would be £765 worse off.” Few areas of the economy are completely immune from fraud. Corporate fraud, insurance fraud, online fraud and individual fraud all cost the taxpayers’ money at a time when the taxpayer is already under plenty of financial pressure. For London private detectives and the private investigation industry as a whole, fraud is a constant thorn for both individuals and businesses. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and The Serious Fraud Office are working hard to reduce the level of fraud in the UK and face a huge challenge with relatively limited resources. The National Fraud Authority is absolutely right in saying that the UK needs to develop a stronger counter-fraud culture. Being a victim of fraud is an incredibly frustrating experience. Individuals and families in the UK have lost life savings and there is no guarantee they will ever see that money again. For a business, insuring yourself against fraud is now almost common practice. However if we do not tackle the issue of fraud then the insurance premiums paid by businesses will only increase. The same applies to individuals. An individual’s insurance will also suffer increased premiums due to widespread fraud. Businesses and individuals need to be much more aware of fraud in the UK. Both parties need to communicate with the police better and share more information. Hopefully the government will further invest in the battle against fraud which if won could make a big difference to the UK economy. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/02/12/38-billion-lost-to-fraud http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/02/12/38-billion-lost-to-fraud 1297511123 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The New Year is often an exciting time for businesses. Many will have had some time off over Christmas, either thanks to public holidays or thanks to some heavy snow but as February rolls on its time to do business. The last couple of years have been economically tough so 2011 is a year which many expected would see the UK economy start to grow again. Economic growth can be measured in all sorts of ways such as GDP or government borrowing levels, but a real sign of a growing economy is growing employment. According to the Office for National Statistics unemployment is approximately just under 8%. The coalition government will no doubt be keen to see that number fall over the next 3 years. The coalition government will inevitably offer incentives for businesses which will be aimed to create jobs. There is significant pressure on the government for this to happen because public service budgets and staff are going to experience cutbacks. The government is adamant that the private sector can grow sufficiently enough to prevent unemployment rising significantly further. Performing background checks has previously been considered an important practice by employers. Now that there is an even bigger pool of candidates to choose from, it could be argued that background checks are even more important. With more people looking for the same job the competitiveness increases and individuals may be inclined to exaggerate or lie on their CV’s or about previous experience. Due diligence is more important than ever in business. Preventing fraud from the most common source, your own employees, is a difficult but necessary task. This applies to some industries more than others but nevertheless the last thing any employer wishes to experience is internal fraud. Private detectives haves been used by all kinds of businesses to perform background checks. Some private investigators also have the ability and experience of conducting undercover surveillance within organisations. Employers have at their disposal all they need to ensure that when hiring new employees it will not turn out to be a bad decision. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/02/05/due-diligence-to-dominate-2011 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/02/05/due-diligence-to-dominate-2011 1296902880 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml GPS technology has been a revelation for motorists around the world. The technology which was originally developed for military purposes is now a one of the most important resources for governments, businesses, individuals and New York private detectives. If on the other hand you are a New York cab driver who has been caught up in the recent scandal then GPS is probably a piece of technology you wish was never invented. According to the New York Daily News a city investigation last year showed that 36,000 New York City taxi drivers overcharged passengers an almighty $8.3 million over 1.8 million fares. The investigation, carried out by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, ran for 26 months and used new electronic trip data gathered from GPS tracking systems. The results of the investigation are enough to scare the average New Yorker and tourist so much to never trust a New York Cab driver. Of the 47,000 licensed New York medallion cab drivers, 75% have overcharged customers. With such a high figure you would be fair to argue that the scam is endemic and part of the New York City cab culture. Some drivers were able to make significant sums of money from the scam, with one driver reportedly earning an extra $40,000 a year from it. The scam itself was in fact a very simple one. As with many other taxi systems around the world, the car has a meter and when the passenger enters and the journey starts the cab driver activates the meter. The meters in the New York cabs enable the driver to select base rates. Different parts of the city have different base rates. However as a passenger unless you are very familiar with the cab fare system you are likely to be oblivious to this and assume the driver is following standard procedure and acting fairly. Sadly they weren’t, and if it weren’t for GPS perhaps the scandal would have continued. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/01/20/new-york-cab-scam http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2011/01/20/new-york-cab-scam 1295522188 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml If you were to go to Delhi today you would probably think that everyone is getting married on the same day. It is the marriage season and the roads are so busy with wedding guests and horse drawn carriages, the police have to run extra shifts to try and keep the roads clear. The marriage season is now a busy season for private detectives in Delhi. Traditionally many families would arrange marriages but as India continues to develop more and more young people are meeting through offices, call centres, colleges, the Metro and increasingly the Internet. For many of the parents this is a big change in culture and while they would know all about the person they may have been arranged to marry with, parents now feel that their children are marrying complete strangers. As a result many parents, particularly of the upper middle classes who are trapped between tradition and an increasingly modern society. What many people fail to understand is that India still has a caste system which is part of the Hindu religion and describes the system of social stratification. The four main castes are brahmans, princes, merchants and servants. However in the rapidly expanding cities of India the caste system has largely broken down. Despite this the majority of India’s population live in rural areas where the caste system is still accepted. Under the caste system there is considerable pressure to find a partner that matches your caste and parents will often intervene if they feel that their children are either above or below the caste of the potential husband. Unfortunately the caste system is very strong in some areas, particularly in northern India which results in the murder of hundreds of young people every year. Fearing for their lives there are many young couples who are forced to flee their families. Some private investigators have explained that there is a growing trend of young Indian girls chatting with Indian men who live abroad in places such as the UK. Indian women living in the UK have also used the internet to find potential husbands back in India. The UK has a significant Indian community and even in the UK private detectives will do background checks on Indian men and women at the request of their parents. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/12/08/delhi-marriage-season http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/12/08/delhi-marriage-season 1291809690 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml At Hadley Wood School, the 8 year olds there have been learning about the world of spies. Conflict International was invited to speak with the students about the world of spies, who they are and what they do. The class had been writing their own spy stories and had put together some questions. The first thing they wanted to know was what exactly is a spy? Conflict International explained to the class that a spy can be described as someone who gathers intelligence on individuals, organisations and locations. The class went on to ask exactly what spies do. Conflict International explained that what makes a spy special is that they gather information without the individual’s knowledge. This information is then often used in legal cases. The next question generated a lot of interest from the class. They asked what spies carry with them. With technology being such an important part of spy work it was a fantastic opportunity to talk about and show them some of the kit used. Conflict International was able to show the class some the equipment used is covert surveillance, such as hidden recording devices, audio recording devices and covert tracking devices. The class also showed us some of their very own home made spy gadgets. It was further explained that often a spy will carry with them various forms of identification and will always have a cover story. The final question asked by the class was, who do spies work for? Conflict International went on to explain that spies are used by businesses, individuals and governments. Different people will have different reasons for using a spy or private investigator and the type of work can vary hugely. The children at Hadley Wood School were incredibly enthusiastic and soaked up the information like a sponge. Their questions and their time were truly appreciated and Conflict International wishes to extend it thanks to the school for giving us the opportunity to talk about our profession with such a great bunch of kids. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/10/28/conflict-international-meets-the-next-generation-of-spies http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/10/28/conflict-international-meets-the-next-generation-of-spies 1288261846 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The European Appeal Tribunal has recently made two very interesting rulings which may have an effect on the way a European or a London private detective or investigation agency operates, as the result of a recent employment appeal tribunal held in Edinburgh. They have decided where an employee cannot do their primary job because of sickness, the default position is that the individual may not partake in paid work for another employer. In addition it was concluded that covert surveillance does not contravene the individual’s right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention of Hunan Rights (ECHR). However the level of covert surveillance cannot be disproportionate to achieving its aims. Essentially the case regards Mr McCann who appealed against his dismissal from a local College where he lectured part time, because whilst on sick leave it came to the attention of the college that he was working in the garage which he was the proprietor of. What most appeals to any investigation agency, is that Mr McCann appealed on the basis that the decision to place him under covert surveillance contravened his right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention of Hunan Rights (ECHR). What does this mean to a private investigator and ongoing cases? If you are conducting a private investigation within the European Union, it is essential the extent and depth of covert surveillance does not go beyond the fine line of appropriate to excessive. You might ask where this line stands, however every case is different and there can be no rule of thumb. It is a question of judgement which is often dictated by experience. With the right experience knowing how far your investigation can go within the letter of the law is absolutely crucial to a successful investigation. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/08/18/covert-surveillance-wins-against-eu-right-to-privacy http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/08/18/covert-surveillance-wins-against-eu-right-to-privacy 1282140943 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The private detective industry may find that it is set to boom under the Conservative Lib Dem government. You might be asking yourself how this is possible but in reality there is a very simple explanation. The government is determined to reduce the amount the state pays out on welfare benefits which is all part of the larger plan to reduce the country’s budget deficit. The Department for Work and Pensions is expected to be busier than as they will no doubt be doing everything possible to identify fraudulent benefit claimants, which actually provides significant opportunities to private investigators, which has been demonstrated ever so aptly in the case of 61 year old Terence Read. In Mr. Read’s case he began claiming benefits in 1995 thanks to sever arthritis which left him virtually unable to work and therefore restricted to a wheelchair.  As a result of his claim the Department of Work and Pensions awarded Mr. Read just shy of £20,000. Unfortunately for Mr. Read someone had tipped of the Department for Work and Pensions who then proceeded to hire a private detective. Although quite frankly the tip of was inevitable as it is unlikely an older man with severe arthritis would be taking part and do exceedingly well in a jive competition. Mr. Reid was even awarded the highest possible benefit rate which is typically reserved who individuals who need assistance with bathing and going to the toilet. However by 2005 it was thankfully apparent that his health had taken a dramatic turn for the better due to a successful hip operation and recovery. Unfortunately for Mr. Read, he failed to notify the Department for Work and Pensions and continued to claim benefits for three years and six months. Investigators have said that he was often seen walking without the need for assistance, taking part in dance competitions with the dance schools he attended in Manchester. For people who are genuinely in need of full support from the Department of Work and Pensions, they deserve to be on benefits and nobody can deny them that. However the government should quite rightly make sure that those who can work but choose not to have paths and opportunities system. For those that defraud the system perhaps more serious litigation will assist in reducing the number of people on benefits in the UK. Whatever the case may be private detectives and the Department for Work and Pensions are probably going to become good friends in the coming years. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/07/12/investigators-target-benefit-cheats http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/07/12/investigators-target-benefit-cheats 1278924988 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The breaking news coming from America that ten Russian spies have been arrested will for many come as a shock. After all the cold war is over and American and Russian cooperation is better than ever. However what this demonstrates is that even in peace time the worlds superpowers try to keep a close eye on their allies. As a detective agency, hearing about this is very exciting because it briefly highlights the murky world of spying and espionage between major governments. This case is particularly interesting because of the length of the spy operation conducted, the long term surveillance by the FBI and some of the spying techniques used which would sound totally appropriate in an early James Bond movie. The spies are accused of gathering information on US nuclear weapons, US arms control, Iran, White House rumours, CIA leadership and political parties. It is alleged that the spies were trained by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. However this is not the first time another country has been found spying on the US. A few months ago Iran claimed to have hacked US spy sites. The US department of Justice has stated that eight of the suspects were carrying out long term deep cover assignments. This required the spies to work in civilian jobs to minimise any suspicion. From what we understand the spies had been in the US for some years but the FBI had discovered them and had been monitoring them for a number of years. US officials say that FBI agents posed as Russian handlers and collected information from two of the suspects, which was the major breakthrough that led to eight more being arrested. During the investigation and surveillance of the spies the FBI observed a combination of modern computing skill and some older spy techniques. For example the spies apparently used invisible ink, buried money next to beer bottle markers and “brush pasts” which is where agents swap identical bags as they pass each other. The spies endeavours were not in vein according to news sources as they were able to get quite close to a scientist involved in designing bunker busting bombs and a top former intelligence official. And finally to make things even more interesting there is an eleventh spy who is now at large in the US. The man has been named as Christopher R Metsos. If the allegations are true, which they most likely are given the detail provided it does beg the question, does America do the same in Russia? Well the answer is almost certainly yes. Whilst there is no proof we can call upon, these old Cold War enemies although much friendlier now clearly have some trust issues. Evidence of this mistrust can be found when you consider that US officials who routinely travel to Russia turn off their BlackBerries and leave them on the plane to ensure any data on their phones remains out of reach of tech-savvy Russian intelligence agents. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/29/russian-spies-exposed-in-america http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/29/russian-spies-exposed-in-america 1277807928 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Chip and pin was once hailed as the miracle cure for credit card fraud. Private Investigators were however rightly doubtful. On one side you have the Police and the banks who work on improving security and tackling fraud. On the other side you have criminals who are always looking for weaknesses in technology which they can then exploit. It is a battle which constantly ebbs and flows. It is a bit like the cold war. The Americans make planes that can fly high over Russia on reconnaissance missions. In response the Russians invested heavily in anti-aircraft missiles, and soon develop the weapons to shoot the US planes out the sky, which they successfully do in 1962 shooting Francis Gary Powers U2 spy plane out of the sky. Thankfully the cold war stayed cold and today both the Americans and Russians use satellites. While the Cold War may have come to an end the war between the police, banks and fraudsters rages on. Thankfully the police have recently jailed a gang of chip and pin fraudsters who had apparently carried out one of the UK’s most prolific scams. The gang would modify chip and pin machines at petrol stations in Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Kent, Bristol and Sussex. The ringleader admitted to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to possess articles for use in course of fraud and has been given a four and half year sentence and deportation upon release. In addition accomplices were also found guilty and sentenced to three and half years in prison. The strategy the gang used was to install devices in chip and pin readers which would clone the card details allowing the gang to steal their money. In total the nine month fraud caused losses totalling £750,000. When arrested the ringleaders laptop 35,000 cards, of which 7,000 came from one garage in Kent. Unfortunately for the garage owner he was victim of a Facebook campaign which urged people not to use the forecourt, and was subjected to repeated verbal abuse.  The prosecution described the ringleader as one of the most prolific chip and pin fraudsters and since his arrest the amount of credit card fraud has dipped slightly. However the prosecution also warned that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sadly credit card fraud is international and the iceberg is truly gigantic. Wherever the technology there will be someone there to exploit it. For example in Abu Dhabi, fraud investigators unearthed a 66.65 billion dollar fraud attempt. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/29/prolific-chip-and-pin-gang-jailed http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/29/prolific-chip-and-pin-gang-jailed 1277805290 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In the aftermath of the credit crunch the full scale of scandal is slowly coming to light. Private Investigators and journalists have been frantically going through whatever evidence they can. However in the murky world of international corporate business, the complexity is quite amazing. The enormous international financial institutions didn’t get to where they are by luck. They’re smart. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt the credit crunch took on a whole new persona. People become very frightened that we would be heading to a great depression. A lot of people quite rightly couldn’t understand how a company with such vast fortunes could go bankrupt so quickly. Global Investment banks operate in extremely complicated ways, with millions of dollars being exchanged around the world every second. However if there is one thing which binds these companies together it’s their accounts. What Lehman Brothers did was essentially tricked individuals and companies to invest in them. How did they do this you ask? The short answer is, Europe. Without their European arms Lehman might not have been able to fudge their accounts and swindle millions from innocent investors. How did Europe help, you might ask? Well it was all thanks to an accounting deception known as “Repo 105” which was legal in the UK but not in the US. The accounting trickery helped Lehman Brothers temporarily remove about $50 billion of assets from its balance sheet, making the company look much better than it really was. Back in 2001 Lehman Brothers used the practice for the first time thanks to British law firm Linklaters, allowing the Repo 105 accounting practice to be carried out through the firm’s European arm. Therefore, at least in Lehman Brothers case one could argue that it was not the American bankers that brought the company down, instead British lawyers allowed them to do so and once they found an easy way out it was the start of the company’s downfall. According to investigators these were the dollar amounts of United States-originated securities used in Repo 105 for the last three quarters of Lehman’s life: $8.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007 $14.9 billion for the first quarter of 2008 $13.6 billion for the second quarter of 2008 In conclusion, the argument over who is to blame for such malpractice is much like the chicken and the egg argument. The British lawmakers allowed Lehman Brothers to perform at the very least questionable accounting practices. But it was the Lehman bankers, strategists and accountants that decided to continue to use the Repo 105 accounting practice which in hindsight was a prolonged and desperate last throw of the dice of a business out of control. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/18/was-lehman-brothers-bankruptcy-down-to-british-lawyers http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/18/was-lehman-brothers-bankruptcy-down-to-british-lawyers 1276857830 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Investigators representing the US congress have published a series of internal BP memos which they claim proves the company systematically neglected their duties which put safety at risk on the Deepwater Horizon rig in order to increase profits. These actions, if proven, cost lives and has done untold damage to the Gulf of Mexico natural environment and the local industries which depend on nature such as fishing. Confidential e-mails which were written in the days prior to the catastrophe, seem to show that very serious concerns were raised by BP workers and the contracted workers but were dismissed for financial reasons. Some of the e-mails describe the oil well as a “nightmare” and safety measures which should have been put in place were ignored. The man heading the investigation is Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has accused BP of making several poor decisions in the lead up to the disaster. “We found a pattern,” he said last night. “Every time they had a decision to make they decided to cut corners; to do things faster than they otherwise should have been done; to do it less expensively and the consequence of this, as one independent expert told us, was horribly negligent. “They violated what their own employees were recommending they do, they violated their own industry practices and they ignored the recommendation of contractors who told them to do certain tests to avoid safety concerns.” “We found a pattern,” he said last night. “Every time they had a decision to make they decided to cut corners; to do things faster than they otherwise should have been done; to do it less expensively and the consequence of this, as one independent expert told us, was horribly negligent. “They violated what their own employees were recommending they do, they violated their own industry practices and they ignored the recommendation of contractors who told them to do certain tests to avoid safety concerns.” Henry Waxman’s investigation has also made key findings into the procedures and protocols which were ignored by BP for financial reasons. They are that: BP’s Deepwater Horizon used 6 instead of the recommended 21 “centralisers”. BP decided against performing a “cement bond log” that would have tested the integrity of the cement. BP failed to fully circulate the drilling mud, which is a procedure used to detect gas pockets which later shot up the well and exploded on the drilling rig. The evidence from the investigation into the disaster, at this stage doesn’t look to positive for BP. However it is worth pointed out that Henry Waxman himself has stated that US oil firms have identical response plans to BP and are therefore equally woefully unprepared for such a disaster. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/16/investigators-close-in-on-bp http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/16/investigators-close-in-on-bp 1276677543 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml An investigator is drawn to places such as Abu Dhabi like moths to a flame. It is a region with vast fortunes, which brings out the very best and worst in people. This is why for a private investigator it is an important place to consider making connections. Abu Dhabi is rapidly growing economy. The United Arab Emirates is a crucial location and the region boasts some remarkable economies. It is about seven hours from London and only nine from China. Businesses have been slowly investing in the region for several decades and it is now flourishing. It was in the 1970’s that the UAE struck up major oil contracts with American and European governments and businesses. The simplest of exchanges, oil for money has made the region and economic powerhouse. Unfortunately where ever you find vast wealth you will find those who wish to exploit it, which was most recently highlighted by the Abu Dhabi police who have foiled an attempt by three Iranians to defraud the United Arab Emirates central bank of 14.4 billion dollars. Suspected ringleader Farzin Ali Karoryan Mutlaq remains at large in Iran, while two men whose initials were given as E.H.K. and Iranian-American N.A.B. Both are believed to be under arrest. The accused fraudsters allegedly presented fake documents claiming Mutlaq “has property investments worth 14.4 billion dollars and that the amount was transferred to the UAE from Germany through the central bank,” according to Rashid Mohammed Burasheed, the head of Abu Dhabi’s Criminal Investigation Department. E.H.K. had power of attorney to receive the money and transfer it to Mutlaq, who is wanted by Interpol, Burasheed said. It is also understood that four failed fraud attempts in the past year would have netted 244.6 billion dirhams (66.65 billion dollars), had they been successful. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/15/abu-dhabi-investigators-and-fraud http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/15/abu-dhabi-investigators-and-fraud 1276610415 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Any private detective will warn that fraudsters as well as footballers are geared up for this month’s World Cup extravaganza in South Africa, which also has domestic issues regarding corruption. It is easy to see why some travelling fans might be concerned with the risk of being a victim of fraud. Football’s governing body (FIFA) has already warned supporters to be wary over various forms of scams that will inevitably occur in the run-up to the start of the tournament and during it. FIFA lottery, prize draw or competition scams are likely to abound. All represent types of advanced fee fraud where fraudsters attempt to trick people into paying “administrative fees” supposedly needed to secure non-existent World Cup tickets or cash prizes. “Prize draws and competitions offering tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup can only be held by companies who are commercially affiliated with FIFA, such as, for example, sponsors,” it said. FIFA also used the notice to issue a warning against ticket touts and unauthorised agents, a more standard message that has preceded every recent World Cup. Spam emails touting 419-lite lottery scams themed around the World Cup are already in circulation and more can be expected to follow as excitement builds toward the start of the tournament. Security watchers report that scam emails seen thus far have not been sent through botnet networks of compromised PCs but via direct spamming from known Nigeria-based 419 scam-friendly IP addresses. If you are a victim of fraud or crime whilst in South Africa following the world cup your best bet is to contact the local authorities will will be very helpful and do whatever they can. There is little point in contacting the local private investigator because it is unlikely that you will be compensated at all quickly. However, as with most things if you are sensible and use your common sense the chances of something bad happening is greatly reduced. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/07/word-cup-fraud-warning http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/07/word-cup-fraud-warning 1275890434 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In Italy, a private detective which specialises in gathering evidence on cheating partners, up until recently would probably not have had much business. You might be asking yourself why this is and the answer is surprisingly simple. Italy is a Catholic country and Catholicism does not think to highly of divorce. Of course not all Italians are Roman Catholic but historically it is the main religion of the country. However, recently Italy hosted its very first divorce fair, giving people in difficult marriages the opportunity to explore divorce as a possibility. Going through a divorce is not a pleasant experience and couples should always try to resolve their differences and issues before seriously discussing divorce. Unfortunately some marriages are beyond repair and divorce is the only option for both to be happy again. The divorce fair is named “Ex? Punto e a capo” and roughly translates to ‘Stop and start again’ and was Held in Milan in May. The event which is the first of its kind in Italy will offer prospective divorcees advice on everything from how to initiate legal proceedings to throwing a party to celebrate their new-found freedom. Although it was made legal in the 1970s, it is still frowned upon by the Catholic Church and can take three years, including two years of separation and a year more for the legal process. For married men and women who are harbouring suspicions about what their partner is getting up to, there will be information on how to hire a private investigator. And for those whose relationship has already turned toxic, there will be information on what to do if an ex has become a stalker, which can be a very scary experience. Experts will proffer tips for the newly single on the challenges of living alone again, how to find a new partner through match-making agencies and embarking on a makeover, including buying a new wardrobe. More than 130,000 couples split or divorced in 2007, up from 30,000 in 1971, according to the national statistics agency, ISTAT. As a result private detectives and investigators in Italy will continue to see their services increasing to meet the growing demand. Far from being a topic spoken under a whisper, divorce is now front page news. The Italian prime minister, Silvia Berlusconi has brought the topic right into the limelight with his own recent divorce and various scandals. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/02/divorce-fair-comes-to-italy http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/06/02/divorce-fair-comes-to-italy 1275479265 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The recent changes of Facebook’s privacy settings have attracted a lot of negative comments from regular users, but also from Data Protection authorities,  NGOs and even private detectives. If you actually think bout the amount of information which people freely give out in their Facebook profiles it is easy to see why such concerns have been raised. With so much information available to businesses, which can then use the information for marketing purposes, and individuals we can all be our own private investigator. In a public letter, the Article 29 Working Party, the group of European data protection authorities, has bluntly accused Facebook for its data protection practices, calling “unacceptable that the company fundamentally changed the default settings on its social-networking platform to the detriment of a user.” The 75th plenary session of the Working Party has also addressed letters to the 20 social network operators that have signed the “Safer Networking Principles for the EU ” asking them for a “a default setting in which access to the profile information and information about the connections of a user is limited to self-selected contacts. Any further access, such as by search engines, should be an explicit choice of the user.” The letters also included the issues of the third-party application providers of social network services and of third persons contained in users’ profiles. On a different level, Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a coalition of U.S. and European consumer advocacy groups has adopted a new resolution criticizing the U.S. and European governments for failing to protect social network users from privacy and marketing abuses. “Social networks are like virtual homes for millions of people, but they are being invaded by data miners and marketers seeking to capitalize on information that users never intended to provide to strangers,” said Susan Grant, co-chair of the TACD Information Society Policy Committee. The resolution calls for the U.S. and EU governments to prohibit social networks from targeting advertisements to children under 16 and to bar them from using online marketing practices that studies show can have a negative impact on individuals, particularly children – for instance, digital marketing of products that contribute to childhood obesity. Facebook is trying to redeem its respect, by publicly answering questions posted to New York Times in relation with these new privacy concerns and even leaking some information that they are working again on “its privacy options”. But the current answers are flatly contradicting its own stated Principles on privacy, as EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) explains: “Facebook wrote these Principles and designed them to not only reassure its users, but to give itself wiggle room for the future. It is a carefully drafted document, and Facebook has no excuse not to live up to the minimum standards it set out for itself. If Facebook wants to regain the trust of its users, following its own principles would be a good place to start.” ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/21/facebook-under-pressure-for-not-observing-its-privacy-principles http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/21/facebook-under-pressure-for-not-observing-its-privacy-principles 1274452394 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Performing potential employee checks in small to medium businesses can be a difficult decision. If you have a tight budget it is easy to see a background check as an unnecessary expense. However the evidence for background checks really does speak for itself, and if you don’t believe us you should ask a Gwent businessman lost over 10 years of information and data after his apprentice, who was made redundant during the recession, downloaded and wiped emails, files and diary appointments, whilst his ex-employer was on holiday. It is a well-researched fact that any criminal activity which has been inflicted on your business is much more likely to have been committed by someone working from within your firm, rather than a stranger. A 2007 report carried out by CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Protection Service, revealed that employee fraud continues to pose a real risk to UK businesses of all sizes and that the UK is second only to Iceland for being the hardest hit country in Europe, in regard to employee stealing – costing the economy billions of pounds each year. The Fraud Act, which came into force in 2007, specifically targets actions whereby an employee impersonates someone else in order to gain access to financial records, false information given on a CV and financial abuse of seniority. In 2005 a poll revealed that 34% of managers didn’t check the background for the vast majority of applicants because they felt the process was too time consuming. It is somewhat ironic, given the poor financial decisions made by major investment banks in the UK and around the world, that the financial services industry does have a more checks in place that most. Just to work in certain areas requires extensive compliance exams to be taken, and the more senior you are the more scrutiny you will be under and rightly so. How to protect the firm? In the Gwent example, initial employee screening would not have necessarily given reason to worry, particularly when you consider what he did was an act of revenge. However, it is always sensible to firstly check out any new employees thoroughly before engaging them, and secondly to protect your company’s information and data. In addition to insisting on statements from referees, one of which should be the candidate’s last employer, but we recommend getting referees from the last five years of employment and scanning their CV for any contradictions or gaps. You should also seriously consider looking for any outstanding CCJs (county court judgements), verifying their address details and questioning any other aliases or addresses they may have. All this can be done by professional credit screening agencies or a professional investigation agency and we are certainly beginning to see an increase in requests from smaller businesses. Perhaps the vulnerability and widespread coverage on the topic is having an impact. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/14/are-background-checks-an-unnecessary-expense-for-small-to-medium-businesses http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/14/are-background-checks-an-unnecessary-expense-for-small-to-medium-businesses 1273837637 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Social media and user generated content have become a huge part of the internet and has had a massive impact on the way people surf the internet. Some have described it as a mixed blessing because of the security and privacy risks associated with the site and others like it. Some people are happy to share considerable personal information which might one day come back to haunt them. For example many employers will use Google and Facebook to search for people that have applied for a job. So be careful what groups you join and what pictures are posted. A picture of you blind drunk will not do you any favours with your job hunt. In addition, when you think about the amount of information that you can share on Facebook, it is everything anyone will need to know about you. Your age, where you live, where you work, likes and dislikes, who you’re friends and family are, your religion, your favourite music and your favourite films, if you want can be available to anyone. What’s even more eye opening is that investigators and private detectives are using social networking sites such as Facebook to uncover false claims made to insurance companies. With insurance fraud claims on the rise, insurance companies are keen to ensure they are not paying out when they shouldn’t be. Unfortunately insurance fraud raises premiums for everyone else so for policy holders it is no bad thing to hear about your insurance company making sure claims are true. They are perusing photos and comments made on the sites of claimants and witnesses to see if they tally with statements made to insurance companies. In some cases, insurance investigators are uncovering photos showing people who claim to have injuries preventing them from working doing activities such as skiing. But sites such as Facebook also have become a tool for investigators to uncover people doing undeclared jobs, to track down those who owe debts and other activities such as document/process serving. In a perfect world insurance fraud wouldn’t exist but there will always be those who choose to try and make a quick win or think that they can dodge the system. Indeed some are lucky and do get away with it, however typically these people will do it again and somewhere along the line they will slip up and the best place to start looking, Facebook! ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/12/private-investigators-use-facebook-to-uncover-insurance-fraud http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/12/private-investigators-use-facebook-to-uncover-insurance-fraud 1273662075 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In times of economic difficulty it is well known that thus usually coincides with a rise in crime and fraud investigations in particular. For some, desperate times require desperate measures and unfortunately innocent members of the public get caught up in things they really don’t deserve. Lancashire residents are advised that there are a number of scams in circulation at the moment. The good news is you don’t have to be a private detective to figure them out. The Autotrader scam This involves second hand cars sold at attractive prices on the Autotrader website. When enquired about, the vehicles are currently based abroad and a quick sale is desired for personal reasons. Potential buyers are informed that the vehicle will be sent over using a shipping agent, typically costing £600 or so, either to be halved between the seller and buyer, or paid by the buyer. There will then be a chance for inspection. If the buyer is not happy the shipping cost will be refunded. Be aware that this is a variation on an ongoing vehicle-purchase scam- the vehicle does not exist, and the ‘seller’ intends to take the money and run. Buyers are advised to be suspicious of email-only sales where they cannot speak to a seller. Also be careful when purchasing items to be sent from abroad- it can be dangerous to send money up front. Check that a seller in the UK actually lives at the house he claims to be resident at, and that a logbook is produced where addresses tie in. The Federal Deposit scam A second scam involves Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which claims consumers have made large amounts on stocks and shares but that a fee has to be paid to release the money. This is easy to fall for if the consumer, although chosen at random, happens to possess such investments, but is of course another fee scam. A further reminder is issued relating to clothing collection company Supporting Arms, currently collecting in the county. Please be aware that this company is not a registered charity and any goods given are going to a business operation. As a general reminder it is important to say that there are some simple things you can do to avoid or at least reduce the risk of becoming a scam victim. The first and perhaps most important is never be rushed into a decision. Always make the decision when you are ready. Finally, before making a decision, ensure that you have all the information needed, and some more if possible! ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/05/lancashires-latest-cons-and-scams http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/05/05/lancashires-latest-cons-and-scams 1273057148 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Fraudulent and dishonest insurance claims total £1.9 billion a year in the UK alone, adding £44 to every premium. Unfortunately it is not realistic, practical or affordable for insurers to hire a private detective for each customer. In fact insurance fraud is very difficult and costly to combat, particularly in the wake of a recession. Fraud is becoming an increasingly critical issue in the UK, with an estimated £5.2 million worth of fraudulent claims going undetected on any given day. Why should you care? Well, because fraud is inevitably paid for by the customer, so that growing problem could translate into growing premiums for you. In fact, an average of £44 is already being added to your insurance premiums as a result of fraud. Problem is widespread According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), one in five people would still be tempted to cheat on their insurance, despite the likelihood of being caught, facing trouble in obtaining financial products in the future, and getting a criminal record. Factor in that over 90% of adults have at least one general insurance product (according to the ABI) and it’s easy to see how widespread the problem is. The most likely offenders are males between the ages of 18 and 34 in full-time employment, have an income of more than £30,000 and have a non-mortgage debt of more that £5,000. Previous research suggests that between 7% and 11% of adults admit to making a fraudulent insurance claim. Why the increase? Since the onset of the recession there has been a dramatic rise in fraudulent insurance claims, suggesting households are feeling the squeeze. Studies show evidence of a long-term relationship between non-violent crime and the business cycle, suggesting that the recession and the consequent rise of unemployment will increase the risk of fraud for insurers. After the downturn in the early 1990s, fraudulent claims were at their peak 18 months after the UK officially emerged from recession. “Some policy holders believe that after years of paying premiums, it is time to get something out of it,” said Tony Jones, client services director at Fraud solution company TCF Corporate. This is seen in some minor claims where, to get upgrades, people say they have dropped their mobiles in the toilet or spilled things over laptops. Accidental damage and loss claims related to high-value items such as LCD TVs, high-end watches and laptops have increased by as much as 35% since 2008, according to insurers. Types of scams The most common type of insurance fraud is opportunistic retail fraud, according to TCF. This is where individuals exaggerate or inflate genuine claims to increase the value of a payout. Estimates put the range of increased opportunistic fraud at 15-25% higher in 2009 compared to that of 2008. In some cases, fraudsters will fabricate an entire claim – by deliberately breaking something in an attempt to get a free replacement for example. A growing number of car owners are torching their vehicles and then reporting them stolen to cash in on the insurance. According to TCF there was a 300% increase in arson claims in motor insurance from 2008-09 suggesting that financially strapped car owners have been driven to desperation. So-called “crash-for-cash” scams have been quite popular recently. This is a more organised type of scam where people will set up fake accidents in order to claim cash for their car. The ABI has also found a significant increase in amateur attempts at fraud indicating that honest customers are now attempting fraudulent claims. Type of coverage most affected ABI states that property claims are the most popular in terms of volume, at 54% of fraudulent claims detected, and followed by motor policies at 33%. However, in terms of value, motor policies account for nearly half of the total cost of these claims. The average value of detected fraudulent claims was £10,000 for motor policies and £2,000 for property policies. The total value of detected fraudulent claims in motor insurance increased 40% from 2007 to 2008. Property insurance fraud savings increased 43% year-on-year. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/30/surging-fraud-leads-to-spike-in-insurance-premiums http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/30/surging-fraud-leads-to-spike-in-insurance-premiums 1272626403 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml To become a world class private detective takes years of training and experience. Often the people who know the skills best come from a military background. Two of the most iconic spy characters today are Jason Bourne and James Bond. No doubt both would make a good private investigator. The Jason Bourne trilogy was a massive box office sensation which really caught the imagination of the public. Prior to Bourne there was Bond who epitomised a life of of extreme risk whilst remaining ice cool under pressure, and managing to seduce stunning women in less than two minutes. There is no denying the entertainment value of a good Bond film. However the overwhelming feeling of Bond films is surreal. It was not to be taken too seriously; more of a demonstration that even if the world is seconds away from being destroyed you can trust a plucky Brit to save it and get the girl. Although the two latest films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace have brought the Bond franchise forward, ultimately the Bourne movies generated much more interest. Why is this? Well there are a few reasons really. To begin with Jason Bourne was new and we wanted to know, rather like himself in the first film, who he was, how he got there and why there was a laser implanted into his hip! The film also focused in great detail on the intelligence community and their clandestine operations, which was depicted as an scarily efficient, effective and powerful process. Part of what makes the Bourne films so special is that they are believable or plausible. Yes there were moments which may have been pushing the limits but it never seemed impossible. Who is the real Jason Bourne? People like Jason Bourne were part of top secret military programs. They were products of extreme physical training, drug experimentation, mental conditioning and mind control and although there is some information on the subject the vast majority of data was destroyed in 1973. Unfortunately we will never know the full implication, scope or reach of Project MK Ultra, or if there are ongoing mind control programs. Yes there will no doubt be top secret programmes but the details will be unavailable for a very long time, if ever. How do we know about it? Thankfully some documents have survived and some have been released however they are mostly to do with the financing and basic details of the programme. Little evidence remains about the program’s history of operations, either having been destroyed or classified as ‘Top Secret’, which in all likelihood we will never get to see. However there have been individuals who have come forward and made claims of being part of the program and as the US government has stated that these programs did exist, we can immediately discount the claims made. One such person is Robert Duncan O’Finioan, who claims that at the age of six, he and several others were put into Project MK Ultra and the training started from there. His memory is patchy but he does recall parts of his training and missions more and more ever since a car accident. There are several interviews with Robert on the net, including some Youtube videos, all of which provides some fascinating reading and research into Prject MK Ultra and others. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/28/who-is-the-the-real-jason-bourne http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/28/who-is-the-the-real-jason-bourne 1272461010 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml It was reported by the BBC last week that credit card is now the most common type of fraud. The report revealed that while overall crime across the UK and Wales is down, or at least stable, credit card fraud is increasing significantly. In fact it grew 40% from 2008 to 2009 with 4.7% of card holders falling victim to fraud in 2009. When the ‘Chip and Pin’ technology was introduced by banks and retailers back in 2004 there was a mixed response, ranging from people claiming it was too much for them to remember four digits to people saying it will make no difference whatsoever. The data suggests that overall fraud is reducing, but it also offers a valuable insight into how fraud is changing. It is a bit like an arms race; you have the fraudsters constantly trying to find a weakness in the security systems, and on the other side are the banks. Both want to be one step ahead of the other. Quite rightly the report questions the correlation between the surge in card fraud and the uptake of online banking and shopping. The internet is giving rise to more fraudulent attacks and as a result of its phenomenal growth we are battling a new trend of crime. Financial investigators and private detectives must advice that the best thing you can do is to monitor your account closely and notify the bank immediately if there is any suspicion. With far greater numbers of people using the internet for online shopping and banking, volumes of card payments have increased exponentially. It’s therefore not surprising that fraudsters are challenging this channel with increasingly sophisticated methods. In addition, this issue in not just restricted to the UK and Internet transactions, in India The Reserve Bank of India announced last week that it will fine Banks if they don’t improve the security of their phone banking. Keeping up with the latest phishing scam or computer virus, fraudster or identity thief in no easy feat and as a result the industry is struggling. It’s quite clear that we are now in need of better way of securing people’s payments and keeping their identity safe. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/26/what-is-the-most-common-type-of-fraud http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/26/what-is-the-most-common-type-of-fraud 1272289943 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml If you are ever quoted an investment package with of returns of 500 per cent in five years, every single alarm bell in your body should be ringing. This does not require private detective training. If anything the last 12 to 18 months should provide ample evidence that there are investments out there that are literally too good to be true. Today, everyone can be their own private investigator. If you are investing for your retirement or a holiday or a car, whatever it may be, it is your money and you need to carry out your own due diligence investigations. Thankfully technology today, especially in regard to providing vast amounts of information, is available with the click of a mouse. We therefore suggest that whenever you intend to spend a large amount of money you put your private investigator cap on and see what you can find. The con We are pleased to report that a fraudster from Kent who stole £34m from people using a pyramid investment scheme has been jailed for 10 years. Kevin Foster, 51, of Doddington, was convicted of 14 counts of theft and deception last month after persuading people to part with about £4,000 each. Harrow Crown Court heard he deliberately targeted people on low incomes, including many in small valley communities in south Wales. Sentencing, Judge Nick Madge said the fraud was sophisticated and elaborate. During his trial jurors were told Foster persuaded thousands of people to part with an average of £4,200 at high-pressure rallies in sports and social clubs across the UK. At least 8,000 people “invested” a minimum of £1,000 into the scam, with a guarantee that within two years they would get a return of five times their initial outlay. Koi carp During Foster’s “KF Concept” road shows he appeared on stage to music, cheering and handing prize winners luxury holidays and even free cars. The jury was told he used their money to fund a lavish lifestyle, spending more than £600,000 on a luxury farm in Kent, which he fitted out with a swimming pool and hot tub, and £700,000 on motor vehicles including a Ferrari. Foster also spent money on expensive Koi carp breeding pools and withdrew almost £3m in cash. He was convicted of unauthorised investment activity, deliberately concealing facts from investors and stealing investors’ funds, following a seven-week trial. Foster was found guilty of six counts of theft, relating to his use of funds, and eight charges under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/22/kent-fraudster-sentenced-over-34m-pyramid-scheme http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/22/kent-fraudster-sentenced-over-34m-pyramid-scheme 1271939534 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml We understand that two undercover police officers narrowly escaped being killed by republican dissidents in a recent botched surveillance operation in Northern Ireland. Experienced private detectives are quite used to carrying out surveillance operations but in an area of strained social and political relations the importance of intelligence can take on a whole new dimension. Workmen and their tools The officers were on a covert surveillance operation where the target was a senior ONH member involved in directing the group’s bombing campaign. The two police officers, both women, were dressed in civilian clothes and sitting in an unmarked car during the incident at the end of last February. They had a very lucky escape when a gunman from the republican terror group Oglaigh na hÉireann (ONH) approached them and attempted to fire into their car, which was parked in the west Belfast area. Thankfully the gun jammed and one of the police officers quickly put the vehicle into reverse, and then drove off at top speed with no harm coming to them. The ONH is the smallest of the three dissident groups opposed to the peace process, but has within its ranks a number of former Provisional IRA bomb-makers. It is not clear whether the group had prior knowledge of the police mission. Intelligence Gap? Officially, the PSNI (Police Service Northern Ireland) will not comment on security or intelligence issues but privately a number of police officers contend that the PSNI is “intelligence blind” at present. The incident highlights a problem facing a police service that underwent large-scale reform and got rid of hundreds of informers to meet ethical standards. According to veterans of counter-terrorism in Northern Ireland, there is a serious intelligence gap within the PSNI. Jeffrey Donaldson, the Democratic Unionist MP and privy counsellor, who has close links to the police and army in Northern Ireland, agreed that there was a gap regarding the dissident republicans. One example of the intelligence gap was the attempted murder of a PSNI officer in Garrison in November, when a masked gang opened fire in the County Fermanagh village. Their target was a Catholic police recruit who had been moved out of his home hours earlier by the security forces. The intelligence had come from informers run by the Gardaí in the Republic. Lessons to be learned However what is there that can be learned from this story? One of the first things would be the importance of good quality intelligence, which can evidently be quite hard and sometimes risky to obtain. Despite this there is no better intelligence than having live eyes on target. When conducting undercover surveillance operations, it is somewhat vital that the operation remains undercover. The consequences in this case could have quite literally been life or death for two police offers and potentially many more with the turmoil that would have inevitably followed. A lasting peace There is now peace in Ireland, which has come a long way from January 30th, 1972 – Bloody Sunday. It was a day of unnecessary loss of life and a day of shame which stained the British army in Northern Ireland and escalated the tension only further. Today, Northern Ireland is a very different place but not without the lasting memories of difficulty and suffering which manifests itself from time to time like the recently attempted murder, as reported in this blog. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/20/northern-ireland-undercover-surveillance-let-down-by-intelligence-gap http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/20/northern-ireland-undercover-surveillance-let-down-by-intelligence-gap 1271761569 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml In the line of private detective work we regularly hear about cons and scams. Some will get found out quite early on, others will stay under the radar for quite some time and are eventually brought to an end. However, perhaps the worst kind of scam is one that comes and goes. Some of you may have already had this, it has been around a while but it seems to be rearing its ugly head again. You get a call claiming to be to Microsoft Global Tech Support or similar. They tell you that they have detected that you have received malware on the computer and they will put you through to a tech who can sort it out. Another guy comes on and asks you to go to your computer and takes you through to your event viewer. This will show errors that have occurred on your system. So far so plausible. But the whole point is that everybody at some time will have these errors but they claim they have a solution but they need to take over your computer to ‘sort it out’. BIG RED FLAG – Don’t let anybody you don’t know take over your computer remotely! If you let these guys in they will load on software which will cause serious problems. They will then try and scam you for money to get the software to work. But if you’ve got this far you’ve totally had it. If you pay – and it seems the amounts are £150 – £200 for the ‘upgrade’ it still won’t work. And they have your credit card details and have had access to all the data on your computer – just use your imagination what this can mean. This scam is being operated out of Pakistan and India. If at any time you want to call a halt they’ll happily give you a name and UK number to call back on. In some cases they will even refer you to a website which looks genuine. Don’t fall for it. It is feasible that when you get an application crash and you report it to Microsoft that Microsoft could link the IP address to any software that you might have registered with them which might have included your telephone from the same PC. But if they went to all that trouble why couldn’t they tell me what operating system I was using? There is no way any call like this could be coming from anybody authorised by Microsoft to do so. There is a private investigator in all of us, some might call it intuition or instinct. As with all these scams I feel for the unwary and the elderly. If you want to find out more enter ‘fake tech scam’ into your search engine.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/16/private-detectivescam-warning-microsoft-global-tech-support http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/16/private-detectivescam-warning-microsoft-global-tech-support 1271427021 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Five men are facing jail for their part in an international plot to smuggle 25 tons of counterfeit soap powder into Britain. This reflects a growing problem with counterfeit products, which is an industry some value at over £10 billion. Counterfeited DVDs are perhaps the most common form of counterfeit product on the market today. However this is just one product and we are all very familiar with, but there are some incredibly skilled counterfeiters who will replicate some of history’s finest artists or even dinosaur fossils. This gangs strategy was to counterfeit a very widely recognised product. The gang arranged for ‘low grade’ detergent to be shipped from south-east China to Felixstowe, Suffolk, to flood the black market with almost 3,000 boxes of fake Persil. The detergent, which had no bleach content, was hidden in a warehouse with 2,900 empty replica Persil boxes, which were described as ‘almost perfect’ copies of the real thing. Thankfully their scam failed after chemicals giant Unilever hired a private detective. As to exactly how the information was gathered, one can speculate that with 25 tonnes of material needing to be redistributed the logistics would be relatively complex, involving intense communication. Peter Moss, prosecuting, said: ‘The surveillance operation was “all singing, all dancing”, probably refers to the use of bugging, GPS tracking and undercover video surveillance. ‘At 10.55am on September 23, 2008, in a joint operation by Cheshire Police, Cheshire West Council and Trading Standards, officers raided the unit at the Phoenix Centre and found an Aladdin’s cave of detergent. All those charged admitted importing the fake washing powder between September 1 and September 30, 2008. The jury heard the detergent was shipped from Jinjang in the Fujian province of south-east China to Felixstowe on the container ship CSLC Asia. It was then transported to a unit at the Phoenix Centre on Winsford Industrial Estate in Cheshire. The unit was raided after Unilever received a tip-off from a member of the public. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/13/private-detective-cleans-up-soap-gang http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/13/private-detective-cleans-up-soap-gang 1271174044 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International, the private detective agency, has learned about a relatively new form of data theft which may well have gone unnoticed for quite some time by individuals and businesses around the world. It turns out that the latest photocopiers found in offices contain a wealth of copied data on the hard drive which anyone can hack. In the age of everything digital, the photocopier is probably the one workplace item you never thought to worry about. It turns out that it is a piece of technology which could hold vast quantities of highly sensitive information and it is something that businesses around the world have either chosen to ignore or simply weren’t informed. Victor Beitner, a security expert who reconfigures photocopy machines destined for resale in Toronto, says businesses are completely unaware of the potential information security breach when the office photocopier is replaced. Typically people think the copier is just headed for a junkyard but, in most cases, when the machine goes, so does sensitive data that have been stored on the copier’s hard drive for years, which might be a gold mine for someone looking for specific information. “In almost all the machines I have seen, the files, phone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses are left there as if it was still in the office,” said Beitner. “There are files from insurance companies, medical facilities, pharmaceutical and regular office-type documents,” he said. Modern, large, office-type photocopiers are computers. The whole system is controlled by a computer, it has a hard disk. It scans images and they are stored on the disc”. They are also networked computers, and they have all the same security issues that a computer does, so all the same security issues arise. Any web-savvy, techno-whiz kid could easily access the hard drive, or send all scans to email or, if they have the password, retrieve copies of confidential documents by simply hooking their laptop up to the copier. To make matters worse the activity of photocopiers linked to an unsecured network can be seen and tracked online. In Toronto, most rented photocopiers are picked up when the lease is almost over, usually anywhere from two to five years. If the copiers are in good shape, they are often destined for auction, where they are bought to be resold. Some end up with dealers, who ensure confidential information is erased. Others can be found on sites such as Craigslist, and they are likely to still have crucial data on them. Some companies tell their clients to remove the hard drives and purge them before they are picked up for resale. Or they replace the hard drives. But that costs extra time and money. The cheaper thing to do, says Beitner, is to make the data inaccessible, clear the memory on the machine and change the pass codes through the machine panel. It doesn’t completely wipe the hard drive, but renders it unusable to the average person. “Ninety-nine per cent of the population can’t get to it. But it’s the one per cent, the guy who is going to come in the middle of the night, take the hard drive out and scrub all the data off it,” said Beitner. “There is still that risk.” Companies like Xerox now have enhanced security measures that enable an office to remove the hard drive and do digital shredding. However this is really part of a larger issue – the lack of awareness about technology in the everyday work environment. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/08/photocopy-machines-a-gold-mine-for-data-thieves http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/08/photocopy-machines-a-gold-mine-for-data-thieves 1270741155 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The Financial Services Authority today brought charges against seven people in its first ever attempt to break a suspected insider dealing ring that it alleges resulted in £2.5m of illegal gains. A warrant for the arrest of another person in connection with this investigation has been issued after the charges were laid against the seven at police stations in London. They are on police bail to appear at City of Westminster magistrate’s court on April 14. The charges against the seven were brought after a series of arrests in 2008 and follow last week’s raids at 16 addresses across London, the south-east and Oxfordshire in connection with another suspected insider dealing ring. The City regulator is determined to show that it is able to clean up the City and crack down on so-called market abuses such as insider dealing, where profits are made by individuals in possession of private information. It had warned the City to “be afraid” of its crackdown and since 2008 has secured five convictions for insider dealing. The latest charges mean that there are now four pending cases. The new case, codenamed Saturn, required a 21-month investigation involving a team of 35 investigators, lawyers and support staff. The investigators examined more than 75 electronic devices containing more than 200,000 electronic files, 130 individual trading accounts, more than 150,000 entries of publicly available information and took more than 250 witness statements. The FSA said the charges cover a two year period, beginning in mid 2006, when are alleged to have obtain inside information from two major investment banks. The FSA did not the name the banks involved. Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/01/fsa-charges-seven-with-insider-dealing http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/01/fsa-charges-seven-with-insider-dealing 1270136608 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml British conman jailed in US for £50m trail of fraud and theft Conflict International recently learned about a British conman who traded on charm, confidence and American weakness for an English accent Prince Harry would be proud of. So we write this as a warning to anyone who is wishing to invest their hard earned money and the message is simple – just because a man is dressed well, in a nice office and speaks the Queens English does not mean they are trustworthy. Robert Tringham gave every appearance of living the American dream ‑ a self-made man, running a string of lucrative investment businesses in the United States, he lived in a million-dollar house and always had a beautiful woman at his side, but behind this well-crafted front, the reality was that Tringham was an international conman. Financial investigators in the US believe he left a trail of misery across 10 American states and several countries dating back to the 1980s. They are embarking on an international effort to find offshore accounts, hidden properties, and secret deposits to recover some of the estimated $50m he has defrauded and stolen. Tringham, meanwhile, is behind bars after finally being convicted in a Los Angeles court of 10 charges of federal fraud and tax evasion. Now 64 years old, he faces a jail term of up to 170 years for his latest con, in which he tricked unsuspecting investors into handing over $7.3m in a so-called Ponzi scheme. It is believed the names caught in his web of deceit included Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Depp and John McEnroe, as well as young children suffering from cancer, widows and successful international businessmen from Germany, Bulgaria, Norway, Canada, the UK, US and Australia. His tactic was simple, but effective. “He is one of the most dangerous sorts of criminal,” said Lawrence Gilmore, who represented Springsteen when the rock star sued Tringham for $2m losses after he tried to pirate his music. “He wore the smartest suits, and spoke perfect public schoolboy Queen’s English. He had an extremely powerful personality, he was very persuasive. I have sued him I don’t know how many times under various different corporate guises. But eventually his company went into liquidation, he went bankrupt and skipped the country.” He conned British property developers into investing in a holiday development in the sunshine state. One victim, Doug White, lost more than $240,000, money which Tringham used to buy his then girlfriend Barbara Abrass a new house in Florida, court documents say. With the British investors struggling to find out what had happened to their money Tringham continued to target more victims in America and across the world. US investigators believe he had at least one middleman in Europe, who recruited new clients for his schemes. As he settled into the lifestyle of a successful businessman, court judgments were handed down in numerous states against him. But he stayed one step ahead, forcing some victims to hire a private detective to pursue him in New York, Florida and Los Angeles. By 2005 he was living in Los Angeles, and had set up the investment scheme which ultimately led to his downfall, persuading investors to part with some $7.3m to place in his company First National Ban Corp. Most of the funds, however, were used to enrich Tringham. Now dating a new, much younger girlfriend, Hui Wang, he used $1.5m from his latest con to buy her a luxury house in an expensive neighbourhood of LA, and a new Land Rover. By now the American authorities were catching up with him. But Tringham continued creating new companies to carry out further frauds. Jeri Tulipan was one of his last victims. She parted with $1m which was part of a $9m fraud targeting investors in Germany and the US. When she threatened to go to the authorities, she received a string of threatening emails. Like the majority of investors, she has never got her money back. “He presented himself as intelligent and knowledgeable,” said Tulipan. “I met him in an impressive building and the company signs were up outside. He was in a three-piece suit, and had a British accent, he was very convincing. Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/01/why-you-cannot-trust-a-british-accent http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/04/01/why-you-cannot-trust-a-british-accent 1270133836 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Choosing the right private detective can really depend on the purpose of their objective. For some, the reasons are personal and in other cases it is purely in the interest of a business, for example investigating business or corporate fraud it is typically someone who works for the organisation that is guilty. Ultimately the hiring of a private investigator will be for legal purposes, which means with good information you can carry out your legal work effectively. You private detective must be meticulous, dependable and resourceful. There have been cases where people have been misled by poorly trained investigators so we want to try and prevent this from occurring as much as possible because it could jeopardise the success of a legal case and it damages the credibility of highly trained and experienced private detectives such as Conflict International. Step 1 Ask colleagues or friends if they know of a reliable private detective. A referral is the best way to get to the good ones in your area. Knowing someone who has used a private detective before will help give an insight into the experience and course of action. However if the reason for hiring a private detective may involve colleagues or friends it is probably best to not mention anything. Step 2 Search membership directories of professional associations if you can’t get a referral. Conflict International is a member of The Institute of Professional Investigators and the Association of British Investigators. Our advice is to only work with a private detective company with these memberships. Furthermore at Conflict International, investigations are conducted and managed within the guidelines of RIPA (The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) following on from The Human Rights Act 1998. We are also registered with the Data Protection Act and The ICO. This ensures all investigations are carried out within necessary guidelines; ensuring operations are conducted with knowledge and expertise and in accordance with appropriate protocol. Step 3 Ask about the detective’s training and education. Legal knowledge from law school can be helpful if you’re hiring for litigation. Journalism school may have taught the detective to be persistent and creative. Business education can help when doing company due diligence. Step 4 Take note of a private detective’s experience. Many come from a law enforcement background, which is great for legal work but may not help you with investigating a company. Others may have a military background and others may be extremely specialised in surveillance. At Conflict International our array of experience and training gives us the ability to offer a thorough range of services. We have worked with many lawyers specialising in many areas such as divorce, corporate fraud, and due diligence from which we have learned a great deal and used to improve our ability. Step 5 Inquire about the private detective’s area of expertise. A background screener isn’t suitable to draw up a balance sheet of your ex-husband’s assets. You’re better off with an investigator who specializes in tracking down hidden accounts and creative financial dealings. Step 6 Ask about work the private detective contracts out like surveillance and asset searches. This will give you an idea of the type of work the investigation agency carries out, but don’t expect to hear specific details because they should not be disclosed. Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/30/how-to-hire-a-private-detective http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/30/how-to-hire-a-private-detective 1269963342 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International, the licensed private detective agency is glad to hear that a businessman who passed off up to 100 million battery hen eggs as free range or organic in a multimillion pound fraud was jailed for three years. Keith Owen, 44, repackaged the eggs and sold them on to unsuspecting suppliers before they ended up on supermarket shelves across the UK – including Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. Owen netted £3 million from the scam between June 2004 and May 2006 before he was caught by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) after a tip-off. Sentencing Owen, Judge Toby Hooper, QC, said he had “cheated the public” and had been “corrupted by greed”. The judge also orderd a £3m confiscation order and imposed £250,000 in costs to be paid over 12 months. Owen was banned from being a company director for seven years. Charles Bourns, of the National Farmers’ Union, said the court had sent out a strong message that such activity would not be tolerated. “Thankfully, cases like this are few and far between,” he said. “Consumers can be reassured that, with new procedures in place, the eggs they are buying are genuine. The Lion mark helps ensure the highest standards of traceability and labelling.” The court heard Owen started the scam in June 2004 when he bought caged eggs for 35p a dozen from suppliers with his business Heart of England Eggs. He destroyed documents that came with the eggs proving their origin and stamped them with false production numbers from fake companies – describing them as British Lion, although they came from abroad. The eggs were then sold on to distributers for 75p a dozen – a more than 100 per cent profit for Owen – as organic and free range. Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/30/man-jailed-over-free-range-egg-scam http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/30/man-jailed-over-free-range-egg-scam 1269963304 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International, the licensed private detectives, have learned about a 19-year-old conman has walked free from court, despite a six year history of using false credit accounts to defraud over £250,000. Those of you who have seen the film ‘Catch me if you can’ will understand that to con people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds is a very skilful, risky and dishonourable game to play. To get away with it you have to be incredibly lucky or a genius of epic proportions. In ‘catch me if you can’ Leonardo Di Caprio plays the role of Frank Abignale, perhaps the greatest con artist in the 20th century. It is somewhat ironic that rather than going to prison he helped the government and created many financial security barriers which we still use today. If you haven’t seen the film it is highly recommended and we have also read some great reviews about the film ‘I love you Phillip Morris’ which depicts another infamous conman. The title of ‘greatest conman in the 21st century’ is still wide open and there is plenty of time, but early contenders are Bernie Maddoff and Allen Stanford. James Cameron, who modelled himself on the 2002 film ‘Catch Me If You Can’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio, used false credit cards to systematically scam everyone from chauffeurs to models in order to maintain his entrepreneurial fantasy. He first began deceiving at just 13-years-old when he set up a website purporting to sell plasma TVs. Since then the teenager had been posing as a businessman working under the aliases, James Blake, Blake Cameron and Chris Benson, running up enormous bills on false credit cards wherever he went. He led a flamboyant and luxurious lifestyle involving top models and strip clubs. Despite his previous 2007 conviction where, following a £250,000 scam, he was sent to a young offender institution for 6 months, Cameron received only a 50 week suspended sentence and 200 hours of community on Tuesday. He defrauded 11 victims of approximately £82,000 across London. Two other offences were also taken into account, amounting to £21,000. Prosecutor Charles John-Jules said in court: “He used the services of his victims and basically had no intention to pay for them. He was just using these people to fulfil an apparent fantasy of being a successful entrepreneur.” Judge James Wadsworth, who gave Cameron the suspended jail term five months ago, said: “If I had known when I first sentenced you that the amount you had defrauded was in the region of £100,000, I have very little doubt indeed that I would have put you straight inside, despite your plea and despite your age. “And such is your abuse of other people’s money and such is your arrogance in doing so, you deserve it. However I bear in mind your age and, above all, that in the time that has passed since your last sentence, you have stayed out of trouble.” After walking free, Cameron said: “Of course I am full of regret and remorse. It’s something I began when I was 13 and something I continued to do until I found an alternative, which was education. I have turned over a new leaf and I’m not going to do it again.” Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/25/catch-me-if-you-can-teenage-con-artist-escapes-prison http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/25/catch-me-if-you-can-teenage-con-artist-escapes-prison 1269536952 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International, the licensed private investigators, understands that four people have been sentenced to over 15 years in prison for their involvement in a £6m false mortgage scam yesterday. It is particularly disheartening to hear about a scam like this because a mortgage is perhaps the biggest financial investment you will ever make in your life. Southwark Crown Court heard how Ruth Ayinde-Azeez (26), Isaac Matthews (42), David Hunter (35), and Jason Mercer (36) targeted a number of properties across the UK, provided false mortgage applications for them and using the loans to fund luxurious lifestyles. Ayinde-Azeez, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to acquire, use or have criminal property and one count of removing criminal property. She was sentenced to four years in prison. Matthews pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering and transferring money out of the UK and was sentenced to six years in prison. Hunter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. Mercer pleaded guilty to money laundering and was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison. Ayinde-Azeez owned a 20% share in a brokerage business, M Solutions and Financial, which played a significant role in the fraud. The business passed false mortgage applications to a firm of solicitors. Once the mortgage was approved by a lender, the money would be sent to the solicitors client account and then on to two business accounts controlled solely by Akinyele and Matthews. Their businesses, ‘Isaac and Isaacs’ and ‘Zikkito’, have now been dissolved and financial enquiries revealed that over £6m went through the accounts during the six week fraud. Detective Constable Terry Lambert from the Economic and Specialist Crime Command of the Fraud Squad, said: “This was a meticulously planned fraud with involvement from a number of different criminals using seemingly legitimate businesses to launder huge amounts of money in a very short space of time. “The luxurious lifestyles they were living shows a complete disregard for the law and it also makes Ayinde-Azeez’s defence that she did not know anything about the laundered money laughable.” Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/25/four-jailed-in-6m-mortgage-scam http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/25/four-jailed-in-6m-mortgage-scam 1269536487 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International, the licensed investigation agency, has recently learned about a scam operation which has already claimed a string of victims. We want to try and make as many people aware of it as possible so please encourage people to read this because it could save you hundreds of pounds. The reason this scam has been successful is because it is done in an intelligent way. You do not have to be a trained private detective to avoid obvious attempted fraud scams. Even to the untrained ear it is can be quite obvious that when someone calls and asks for all your details, it is probably someone trying to scam you. The reason why this scam has been so successful is because they provide you with all the information except the one piece that they want. By understanding how the VISA and MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you’ll be better prepared to protect yourself. The scam works with by someone calling and saying “This is (name), and I’m calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I’m calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank) did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for £497.99 from a Marketing company based in London?” When you say “No”, the caller continues with, “Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from £297 to £497, just under the £500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?” You say “yes”. The caller continues – “I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number listed on the back of your card and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. “Do you need me to read it again?” Here’s the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works. The caller says, “I need to verify you are in possession of your card.” He’ll ask you to “turn your card over and look for some numbers.” There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he’ll say, “That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?” After you say, “No,” the caller then thanks you and states, “Don’t hesitate to call back if you do”, and hangs up. You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number. What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don’t give it to them. Instead, tell them you’ll call VISA or MasterCard directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you’re receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you’ll see charges for purchases you didn’t make, and by then it’s almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report. The police and other private investigators have said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening. Please pass this on to all your family and friends. By informing each other, we protect each other. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/23/urgent-warning-another-very-dangerous-scam http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/23/urgent-warning-another-very-dangerous-scam 1269361078 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International, the licensed investigation agency, has recently learned about a scam operation in Lancashire which has already claimed a string of victims. We want to try and make as many people aware of it as possible so please encourage people to read this because it could save you hundreds of pounds. Residents are advised of an incident involving cold calling traders which occurred on Monday 22 March 2010 in an established No Cold Calling Area (NCAA) in Thornton Cleveleys. Two UPVC window salesmen entered the signed No Cold Calling Area and informed householders that they had been authorised by the local police to enter the zone. When challenged by one resident, they gave him a police log number which they claimed exempted them from the usual NCCA controls. The resident rang the police in front of the salesmen, who then ran away. The log number was of course bogus. We have no details of the window business the salesmen were from. Any proffesional private investigator will offer the same advice to both NCCA residents and non NCAA residents, which is not to be taken in by this ploy and to continue refusing all business with cold calling traders. Wherever you may live, it is recommended that you don’t under any circumstances deal with Cold Calling or door to door salesman. Police are warning members of the public to be on their guard against door-to-door salespeople claiming to be from the Probation Service, which demonstrates just how far some people will go and how little you can believe from a complete stranger. We urge the elderly to be particularly vigilant because they are typically more targeted because the scammers believe they are easier targets. If you do live next to anyone elderly we urge you to keep an eye out for them and if you do see them to warn them about the scams. However legitimate it may feel at the time remember that when you were young and your parents said “never trust strangers”, well there was a good reason. Officers have received a number of calls from residents reporting that men have called at their door and tried to sell household items such as tea-towels and dusters. PC Amy Littlejohns of York Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “The Probation Service have not authorised such a scheme and we advise residents not to be taken in by the salesmen.” Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/23/cold-callers-are-not-to-be-trusted http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/23/cold-callers-are-not-to-be-trusted 1269361040 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International recently wrote a blog on the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh titled “Dubai assassination was a master class in intelligence”. It discussed why the operation, despite being headline news around the world was still a success because they achieved their objectives and were well prepared for the media backlash. More recently Conflict International, the London private detective agency, has learned that Dubai has widened its search for the killers of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, with officials confirming that at least six of the Hamas commander’s assassins remain unaccounted for. Police in Dubai have issued international arrest warrants for 11 suspects in the case, but now believe the team behind the murder numbered at least 17. What this demonstrates is just how complex the operation was and the level of planning and preparation needed. If the assassination was carried out by Mossad they would be under strict orders to leave no trace back to Israel to ensure deniability. The identities of the 11 named suspects have already been discredited. The identities of six British citizens living in Israel appear to have been stolen. Officials in the Gulf state say the fake passports were used for travel in Europe and Asia in the months preceding the murder. Dubai police are also understood to be questioning two Palestinians arrested last week in the Gulf state in relation to the killing. Their identities are unknown but they are believed to have provided logistical support for the murder operation. The long-time Hamas commander made a video two weeks before his death in which he admitted to the kidnap and murder of two Israeli soldiers, Ilan Saadon and Avi Sasportas. The video was broadcast on the al-Jazeera satellite television channel this month. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister said that the evidence was circumstantial but he did not deny Israeli involvement. “There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief,” Mr Lieberman told Israel Army Radio. He brushed aside the suggestion that the operation might deepen Israel’s diplomatic difficulties with Britain, saying: “I think Britain recognises that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game.” The high-profile use of British passport identities has caused concern in Israel. Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, called in a commentary for Major General Meir Dagan to quit as head of the Mossad over the operation, which it said had abused the “real, living, innocent civilians” whose identities were stolen and had left Israeli open to diplomatic reprisals from abroad. Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader who is also a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Government should summon the Israeli ambassador to provide an urgent explanation. But a Foreign Office spokeswoman said that no official representation had been made to the Israeli ambassador in London. The Government would decide what to do next only once it had finished investigating the use of British passport identities, the spokeswoman said, but she added that the inquiry was still at a very early stage. Conflict International provides professional private investigators in Dubai. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/18/dubai-assassination-part-2-police-hunt-six-new-suspects http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/18/dubai-assassination-part-2-police-hunt-six-new-suspects 1268921472 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The annual Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report, the latest of which was published on Thursday includes some scathing words but nevertheless gives an insight into the world of British intelligence. Quite recently the big controversy that came into public view was the Binyam Mohammed case, which highlighted the way, suspected terrorists were treated and the covert cooperation by the British and the Americans intelligence communities. The aftermath of the Binyam Mohammed case is rumoured to be behind Hillary Clinton’s visit to Argentina to discuss the Falkland Islands dispute, something the British government didn’t appreciate and has now resulted in increased tensions between two countries which have already been at war over tiny islands. There is no question that the Falklands are much closer to Argentina than the UK however the population of the islands are British and it is those people that should have the right to decide who they are governed by. Whatever the outcome neither country wants to fight a war, diplomacy is the only way forward. The report brought to attention a major the weakness of the intelligence community to secure their own IT equipment, which holds vital security information. In the case of GCHQ, 35 laptops were unaccounted for, including three certified to hold top-secret information. The government said these were believed to have been destroyed but that this had not been properly recorded. In an even more remarkable story, it turns out that highly classified MI6 data made its way onto the eBay auction site thanks to some shortcuts used in an overseas station. In 2004, the MI6 station was still using floppy disks to transfer files but staff decided it would be quicker to use the memory capacity of a digital camera to transfer large files. This was a breach of procedure. The memory stick was not labelled or held securely in the MI6 station nor was it destroyed. Standards slipping? On a more serious note, the committee continues to warn that the struggle against terrorism means other priorities are slipping – particularly counter-espionage, the catching of foreign spies. This has been a long-term concern for the ISC. The committee also warns of a growing danger from electronic attack and with the Olympics just around the corner and the huge security operation that will be part of it, failure is not an option. But the edge to the reports came as we learned that relations between the ISC and the government are not exactly harmonious at the moment. The chairman of the ISC, Kim Howells MP, noted in his press release that “given the seriousness of the issues that both reports cover, the government will give proper consideration to our recommendations and conclusions and accept the changes we have proposed rather than seek to provide excuses for maintaining the status quo.” Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/16/private-detective-agency-a-snapshot-of-spies-and-their-accountability http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/16/private-detective-agency-a-snapshot-of-spies-and-their-accountability 1268732525 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml It is organisations such as Mossad, Mi5 and the CIA that have led the way on intelligence gathering, and as a result an investigation agency such as Conflict International have been heavily influenced by these organisations. Many of the best private investigators or private detectives around the world will have firsthand experience of such organisations. It is not exactly the kind of career that can be taught in a classroom. There have been enormous and dramatic changes in the use of passports and visas over the last 10 to 15 years. It is no longer so easy to counterfeit, and it is also much harder to alter such documents. The recent assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai is a glaring example of how identities were stolen and used for lethal purposes. The organisation believed to have carried this out is the national intelligence agency for Israel, Mossad. The history of the organisation does fit the bill. In 1972 eleven Israeli athletes were murdered at Munich Olympics by the terror organisation Black September. Mossad’s retribution was severe, and they set up special teams dedicated to hunting and killing those responsible for the murders. Today – ironically, in order to prevent terrorists travelling – passports and visas now have RFID (radio frequency identification) chips embedded, making them much harder to forge. These were first embedded by the Malaysian government in 1998, and since then it has been widely adopted around the world, including most European countries, America, Australia and many more. But what does this mean for international espionage? Well, a lot of the lower-level kind of forgeries will diminish and in future it will only be the high-end counterfeiters who will operate. But this will also mean it will be more difficult for the high-end intelligence agencies to operate. In the future, they will have to obtain documents through bribery and malfeasance. We will see intelligence agencies such as Mossad using documents stolen from people who bear a resemblance to the operatives that they want to send out. In Pakistan, for example, this is already commonplace: jihadist groups get people to surrender their passports and then use people who look as much as possible like the original holders. This avoids the necessity to try to alter the pictures. As far as relations between Britain and Israel are concerned, this is unlikely to be a big problem. There may well be some sort of “knock it off” warning from the British to the Israelis, but any big repercussions are doubtful. Things like aggressive Israeli spying against the UK would have much greater repercussions. In relation to the Dubai operation itself, looking at the tactical breakdown of how they did it gives a glimpse into a very dark world of secrets, lies and cover ups. Some would say that the operation was a complete disaster, after all hitting the front pages cannot be a good thing if you’re a state sponsored spy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality of it is this operation was an absolute success. It is somewhat amusing overhearing some people describe it as sloppy or badly executed operation. The team had excellent intelligence, they were well prepared, and their behaviour was as cool as a cucumber. These were highly trained operatives who knew exactly what they were doing. They completed their mission and have since scattered around the world with new identities. The target itself was a current and very serious threat to Israeli security. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s death will upset the flow of arms from Iran to Hamas. He was also wanted by the Israeli government for his part in the kidnap and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 which he celebrated by standing on one of the corpses. In a video, taped two weeks before his death, and broadcast on Al-Jazeera in early February, Mabhouh admitted his involvement, saying he had disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew. As for the future, the uproar will simmer down and Mossad will just get better and change its tradecraft and its counterfeiting, and probably the countries that it uses for cover. Israel will probably look in Latin America and also possibly Mediterranean countries such as Lebanon, Cyprus, or even Italy. They will have to work illegally – but they know how to do it. Conflict International provides professional private detectives in Dubai and around the UK. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/10/dubai-assassination-was-a-master-class-in-intelligence http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/10/dubai-assassination-was-a-master-class-in-intelligence 1268213528 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International understands that guards at the Tower of London, affectionately nicknamed ‘Beefeaters’ and famed for their guided tours of tourists. What is less well known is that the Beefeaters also gave private evening tours. They have been accused of charging £50 a head for unauthorised nocturnal private tours of the crown jewels at the Tower of London. The allegations were made by a security firm called in to investigate the guardians of the Tower. It found that late-night tours, which ended up in the Tower club, a private bar run by the Beefeaters, were commonplace. One Beefeater is even accused of taking female tourists back to his grace-and favour apartment in the Tower for sex. Allegations were also made that one Beefeater grew cannabis for his own use in his garage at the Tower, while another let his house out to tourists after advertising it on the internet and secured a seven-day pass for those staying there which allowed access to private facilities not open to the public. As part of the undercover surveillance strategy hidden cameras were placed around the Tower during the investigation by London private detectives, in conjunction with the Metropolitan police, chaired by the former commissioner Lord Stevens. It was called in by the governor of the Tower, Major General Keith Cima, when he took over in 2006. A Tower spokesman said: “The governor was made aware of some allegations relating to the residents’ social club, known as the Tower club, and evening tours. “He took these allegations very seriously and immediately instigated a full and thorough investigation, conducted by an independent, external company.” Private investigators spent months monitoring the Beefeaters. One whistleblower stated that: “I was called into the new governor’s office and he asked me what the hell was going on. “He could see there was a lot of money and said he’d walked around the Casemates [where the Beefeaters live] and seen expensive cars. One Beefeater had a top-of-the-range Mercedes SLK. The frequency of the private tours was getting silly — every night — and the governor said he knew certain things were going on.” The daughter of a Beefeater who was suspected of helping the inquiry was allegedly assaulted. No action was taken against any individuals because of lack of evidence, but a spokesman for the Tower said: “The investigation concluded that weaknesses in the operation of the Tower club and poor administration could have left members open to allegations of impropriety. “However, allegations of individuals making personal gain could not be substantiated by hard evidence. “Subsequently a series of recommendations were implemented to improve the operation and administration of the Tower club and evening tours, measures which continue to this day.” The damaging allegations come after revelations last year that the first female warder in the Tower’s 1,000-year history, Moira Cameron, was bullied and harassed by two yeoman warders, who were later sacked. She said the bullying caused her “unprecedented stress to the extent that my hair fell out”.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/05/secret-tours-at-the-tower-exposed http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/05/secret-tours-at-the-tower-exposed 1267800016 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflict International understands that an undercover investigation by BBC Newsnight has exposed fraud at the heart of the student visa system. Student Visas are now regarded as a soft system that is easy to exploit and needs overhauling. This is particularly relevant as students in the UK have already been told that there will be a significant shortage of places for 2011. The programme was able to buy two bogus visa documents which would have virtually guaranteed entry to the UK. One cost £200, the other just £150. Overseas students coming to study in Britain have to obtain a formal invitation from one of nearly 2,000 colleges on an approved list run by the Home Office. These official documents, called visa letters, are issued by a range of institutions, from major universities to tiny private colleges in rows of shops. Under the UK Border Agency’s points-based system, a visa applicant requires 40 points to get into the country. Thirty points come from having a valid visa letter for a UK college. Another 10 are awarded for having several thousand pounds in the bank for 28 days – which could easily be borrowed. Secret office Information from a source prompted an undercover investigator to research a small, private college in west London called Gateway2uk Education. The college, with a campus at Hayes, has been operating with an A rating from the UK Border Agency. But Newsnight was told that people linked to the college were selling bogus visa letters for cash from a secret office in Wembley Park in London. Newsnight set up a covert observation point nearby and undercover surveillance uncovered deals taking place. We watched as a succession of young men came and went. One even counted his cash outside. They left with A4 white envelopes. Using undercover investigators, they managed to buy two bogus visa documents and filmed the process. One of these was sold by a former administrator at Gateway2uk Education. The administrator later went to India. When traced there, they said they bitterly regretted getting involved in the fraud and had been a minor player, directed by the then owner of Gateway2uk Education, Indian entrepreneur Darpan Shah. Darpan Shah denies this account. Through his solicitor he said he had very little overall control of the business and he could not comment on the activities of the administrator who sold us the documents. ‘No knowledge of fraud’ Darpan Shah says he only owned Gateway2uk Education for 25 days in January. But he was a director until 5 February 2010 and Newsnight’s bogus letters were bought while he was still there. Newsnight took the bogus visa letters to the Hayes campus of Gateway2uk Education to ask the academic principal for his reaction. Principal Jeremy Coulton was visibly shocked, saying he had no idea that visa letters were being forged or that a private detective had been keeping such a close eye on the matter. The following day he found a box full of bogus visas – almost 160 – which had been left in the office. They were sent from a company in Baroda in India called Krish Immigration. The company is owned by Darpan Shah. Mr Shah says he has been unwittingly caught up in two frauds, in the UK and India. On both occasions, he argues, people working with him have acted wrongly without his consent. He says he has now sold the Gateway2uk Education College. Earlier this month, the UK Border Agency suspended Gateway2uk Education’s licence to take in new students. Its premises were inspected on Tuesday. On Monday the government introduced a new electronic system to help tackle student visa fraud. But given the huge sums of money involved – £8bn a year – the industry will continue to attract those who seek to exploit weaknesses in the system. Conflict International provides professional private invetigators in London and around the UK. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/05/undercover-investigation-exposes-student-visa-fraud http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/03/05/undercover-investigation-exposes-student-visa-fraud 1267799887 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml At Conflict International we use our extensive experience and training to ensure effective and successful investigations. However any great military commander or successful sports coach will tell you, the key to victory is a well thought out and detailed plan. On the 6th of June 1945 General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allies into Hitler’s ‘fortress Europe’ and he was chosen for this task not because he was military tactical genius hardened in the trenches of the First World War, but because in the previous high commands he held, Eisenhower showed his great talents for organisation, leadership and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action himself, he won the respect of front-line commanders. To carry out successful covert surveillance requires a variety of disciplines, but none is more important than research and planning, but especially so if you are planning to tail a target or conduct a stakeout. You need to know the layout, activity level, and suitable travelling routes or surveillance locations. It is very important to be familiar with your surroundings and highly familiar with your targets habits. Taking different routes to get to your target location is advised. Humans are indeed creatures of habit but as a professional private detective this must be suppressed. By picking up habits such as using the same route all the time the operation is put in jeopardy. If you’re using a car or van for a stake out, ensure you look as inconspicuous as possible – take seat in the passenger or rear seat, read a book, study a map, just do something that gives the impression you are waiting for someone. Do not wear distinctive clothes or carry distinctive objects. Blending in to the environment is absolutely crucial. If using public transport, roaming tickets are ideal for any journey – you have flexibility over your route and will keep your options open. Any experienced private investigator will say there must always be a ‘plan B’, and sometimes it’s worth having a ‘plan C’. Any eventuality must be thought of in advance and prepared for. Therefore the ability to identify different levels of risk and moments of opportunity are crucial. Our in-house surveillance teams can deploy covert surveillance cars, vans, motorcycles, and licensed taxis dependant on a number of variables such as the nature of the task, the area the operation will take place, the method of travel etc. Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/26/the-key-to-successful-covert-surveillance http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/26/the-key-to-successful-covert-surveillance 1267185077 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Mishcon de Reya’s family department launched Creativity in Conflict, a collaboration with Central Saint Martins College to award prizes to its top MA fine art students. The event took place at the Imagination Gallery in Store Street and the acrobatic fire jugglers performing outside signalled that something distinctly odd was afoot. Inside nothing was quite what it seemed. The rationale of the award was that the process of marital breakdown could be represented as a creative art. However, the reality of that Conflict reference was the presence of serious guys in suits from “Conflict International — Investigation, Security, Intelligence” that puts former gunslingers into car boots to monitor your movements and former Met officers to trawl through your garbage. Not that it wasn’t fun. Staff posing as lawyers turned out to be writers of film scores and I was pleased to meet the artists Emily Lockren and Stephen Ford who had turned their backs on the gimmickry of Damien Hirst to pursue the virtues of hard work and high skills. Meanwhile, David Lister, apparently a real Mishcon solicitor, entertained the crowd by cavorting with a bottle of champagne balanced on his head. It was that kind of crazy evening. That the Mishcon website carried nothing about the prize or the launch merely confirmed that it was all a bit of an illusion. Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/24/conflict-international-featured-in-the-times http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/24/conflict-international-featured-in-the-times 1267028350 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The University of North Texas is simplifying the process required to become a private investigator with the launch of the state’s first training program that will qualify participants for the Texas private investigator licensing exam. Prior to this program, becoming eligible for the state exam required a degree in criminal justice or at least three consecutive years of investigative experience. Last month, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Private Security Board passed a regulation based on presentations by the developers of the UNT program, making individuals who earn a certificate from UNT eligible for the exam. “During my time on the Private Security Board, I became aware that approximately 50 percent of all private detective companies fail in their first year of business. These failures occur primarily because the new licensees have no idea what is required to succeed,” said John Chism, chairman of the state Private Security Board. “Programs like UNT’s will provide a sound footing for a new licensed private investigator to succeed and better serve the citizens of the state of Texas.” UNT’s program will not only train participants in the theory and practice of private investigations, but will also cover the business side. Upon completion of the program, students will be able to launch their own private investigations businesses or work in a variety of fields such as insurance, law and business. The program will be administrated by the Professional Development Institute at UNT, and will be offered in Dallas and in Houston. Dr. Scott Belshaw, UNT professor and former owner of a Houston-based private investigation firm, and Karen Hewitt, UNT alumna and co-founder of Hewitt & Cowden Investigations in Dallas, developed the program’s curriculum. They were committed to developing a program that was comparable to a four-year degree. Participants will be required to complete 12 courses, for a total of 220 hours of instruction. Upon completion, students will earn a certificate in professional private investigations. “These students will have every advantage as they work toward becoming quality private investigators,” said Belshaw. “Our instructors will include professors, private investigators from the community and even former FBI agents.” The Dallas program will begin on March 19 at the University of Dallas, and the Houston program will begin on March 26 at the University of St. Thomas. The program will be taught in an executive style with classes on Friday evenings and all day on Saturdays. The program lasts for approximately four and half months. Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/23/university-of-north-texas-launches-private-investigator-program http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/23/university-of-north-texas-launches-private-investigator-program 1266920236 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml A Chinese-born aerospace engineer was jailed for more than 15 years Monday after being convicted of selling technology related to the US space shuttle program to China, officials said. Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 73, was convicted last year of stealing trade secrets from Boeing and Rockwell during a three-decade career where he was also working as a Chinese agent, a justice department statement said. Federal Judge Cormac Carney jailed Chung for 188 months at a hearing in Santa Ana, outside of Los Angeles, telling the former engineer it was not possible to “put a price tag” on national security. Chung was found guilty of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country, one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China and one count of making false statements to the FBI. A native of China and a naturalized US citizen, Chung held a “secret” security clearance when he worked at Rockwell and Boeing on the space shuttle program, according to prosecutors. He retired from the company in 2002 and returned to Boeing as a contractor the following year until 2006. During his trial last year, prosecutors alleged Chung stole Boeing trade secrets relating to the shuttle and the Delta IV rocket. “Mr Chung betrayed his adopted country and endangered our national security,” acting US attorney George Cardona said. “This case demonstrates our resolve to protect the secrets that help protect the United States, as well as the important technological advancements developed by scientists working for companies that provide crucial support to our national security programs.” The case against Chung was uncovered during a probe into another Chinese espionage case involving the sale of sensitive military information to China. What this demonstrates is that fraud can take place in almost any business. The security checks on Dongfan Chung will no doubt have been extremely thorough but were unable to identify him as a possible threat to the US national security. This also highlights just how important governments around the world consider technological progression. Technology has been the driving force of many economies around the world post World War 2, which has resulted in the world we live in today. We exist in a world were technology has become so integrated into our lives, one must ask, would we be able to live without it? Conflict International is the premier London private detective company which uses the latest technology and the most professional and experienced investigators. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/09/us-jails-chinese-born-engineer-for-spying http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/09/us-jails-chinese-born-engineer-for-spying 1265716651 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml John Terry is the latest, in what seems to be a never ending string of very high profile sportsmen who have been caught cheating on their partners. First it was Beckham, then Ashley Cole, then Tiger and now John Terry. Could it be that they have something in common? Well, all are highly talented sportsmen who have had an impact on the game they play and they earn a lot of money. David Beckham can cross a football today just as well if not better then when he was at Manchester United. At United Beckham earned a fortune and become a legend winning just about every piece of silverware possible. He went to Spain enjoyed tremendous success under Fabio Capello at Real Madrid, and then went to America where it seems like things are going well for him. Apparently there was also some little tiff he had with Victoria about cheating on her which was quickly resolved and his public image has remained intact. As for Ashley Cole he didn’t something most Londoners would advice against. He went from Arsenal to Chelsea, something that will never be forgiven by several thousand in the capital and many more around the world. That however wasn’t his biggest mistake. One night Ashley got drunk and cheated on his wife with a hairdresser. The reason this infuriated so many people is quite simple, he is married to quite possibly the prettiest thing that has ever or will ever come out of Newcastle. Quite frankly Ashley Cole is the luckiest man in the world and the only way the country will ever forgive him is if he set up the winning goal in the World Cup final. Tiger took a slightly different route to David Beckham and Ashley Cole. He travelled around the world winning the biggest golf tournaments and in doing so becoming the first reported sportsman worth ‘$1 Billion’. He also got married to a beautiful blonde (Elin Nordegren) and had a few kids when he came home to visit. So whilst Tiger was gallivanting around the world enjoying his success he slept with……well who knows really? It could be argued that any female, with a heartbeat and a functional brain may well have been enticed, and to be honest, I don’t blame them. Tiger Woods is a good looking and athletic man who made golf what it is today, and in the process he made a fortune. He made so much money his wife, Elin Nordegren had to hire a private investigator just find out how much. Finally it was John Terry’s turn. Captain of club and country, he is the role model for a whole generation of children who would sacrifice all their pocket to see him lift the World Cup in South Africa this summer. Exactly how long the affair was going on for we can’t be sure of but it seems Terry was doing everything right as a husband and father, he was even voted ‘Dad of the year’ in 2009. The woman he had the affair with, Vanessa Perroncel, judging from recent press, was a committed footballer’s girlfriend, so much so that she worked in a nightclub frequented by footballers and in between John Terry and Wayne Bridge managed to sleep with several other premier league players. There is no question that John Terry should have known better, so should Tiger Woods, Ashley Cole and David Beckham because in today’s world if you are celebrity nothing will stay a secret for very long. With insatiable public demand for information, the power of the media and private detectives has demonstrated that no secret is safe. Conflict International is the premier London private detective company which uses the latest technology and the most professional and experienced investigators. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/04/sports-stars-secrets-are-no-longer-safe http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/02/04/sports-stars-secrets-are-no-longer-safe 1265281660 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The National Fraud Authority reckons tax, insurance, online and other fraud is now costing the UK £30bn a year – a deficit that has to be made up through higher taxes and prices. But although this might sound like pretty grim news to the vast majority of us, it’s apparently a good time to be a private detective, with firms reporting a big spike in work as financial problems drive us to steal from our employer and cheat on our spouses. When we think about private detectives, our thoughts naturally turn to Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Simon Templar, Magnum PI… But rather than smoking pipes or driving red Ferraris, the modern-day private investigator is more likely to be found lurking in a red Escort outside their local Travelodge, trying to catch philandering spouses red handed. Still, it seems recessions are good for business With UK companies reporting £2.1bn of fraud in 2009, according to BDO, companies should have no shortage of corporate clients. This is emphasised by January’s NFA report, which suggests that about 30% of these fraud losses came in the private sector (the rest was in the public sector, mostly via tax dodging). Financial services was unsurprisingly worst hit, losing £1bn to mortgage fraud, another £2bn to insurance fraud, and the best part of another £1bn on credit cards and online scams. Consumers are being encouraged to take preventative measures to avoid becoming the victims of mass-marketing scams. Advice line Consumer Direct suggested that taking time over any deal would help, but anything that appeared too good to be true, usually was. People should ensure that they have as much contact information as possible for any trader they are dealing with, such as a full postal address and landline telephone number. If ordering on the internet, consumers should follow basic security measures, such as taking care when offering bank details. Purchases of more than £100 receive extra protection if the buyer uses a credit card. Tackling this massive problem is something governments around the world are trying to achieve. Recently for example Icelandic authorities confirmed that they searched four premises in the UK with the help of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and City of London police in an inquiry linked with alleged irregular transactions made by Exista. There were also eight searches in Iceland connected to a separate SFO investigation into Exista’s alleged dealings with JJB Sports. A number of people are being questioned in Reykjavik. Olafur Thor Hauksson, Iceland’s special investigator, said: “It is a very big operation with 30 people working on the cases here and four of our people are in the UK.” Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/01/29/fraud-costs-the-uk-30-billion-a-year http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/01/29/fraud-costs-the-uk-30-billion-a-year 1264779529 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml If there was ever any indication that Tiger Woods and Elin will be getting a divorce, it’s this. Troubled wife Elin Nordegren has hired a private detective to probe the extent of his wealth. Nordegren has piled on the punishment by refusing to allow Woods to see his children on Christmas Day, forcing him and his mother to post their Christmas presents. It is reported that Nordegren, who plans to divorce Woods in California rather than Florida due to the state’s more generous laws, wants to know exactly what he is worth. Woods is believed to be worth almost $1 billion, but his fortune is spread across the globe, with money likely in several different tax havens, so estimating his exact worth will no doubt be a difficult task. Adding fuel to the fire, Woods’ mistress No1, New York party planner Rachel Uchitel, boasted to friends that Woods promised to buy her a nightclub. She reportedly told them: “I’m his soulmate and we have a special connection. We will get back together – he promised.” “Elin knows hiring a Private Investigator is a smart move. Her lawyers want to make sure she gets every penny she’s entitled to. Elin is devastated, but now she’s decided to end their marriage she has the future of their children to think about,” said a source. She has also hired Sorrell Trope, 82, a partner in Californian law firm Trope and Trope who has represented stars like Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Britney Spears. Finance expert David Marchant of offshoreAlert.com said: “Tiger will be hiding money legally in tax havens.” Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/01/13/tiger-woods-wife-goes-on-the-rampage http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2010/01/13/tiger-woods-wife-goes-on-the-rampage 1263384526 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Anyone looking for a step-by-step approach to conducting lawful corporate investigations can steal some ideas from the Association of Corporate Counsel. The ACC presented a panel discussion on internal investigations during its annual conference in Boston last week, and posed the following hypothetical: One of the company’s office managers has received an anonymous e-mail, where the writer claims to have compromised the salary and bonus information of several executives. The writer also claims to have stolen proprietary software from the company, whose customers are mostly manufacturers, and plans to give it to a competitor. You, the general counsel, must investigate. How do you proceed? First, said Marcia Narine, deputy general counsel and vice president of global compliance and business standards of Ryder System, is to confirm whether the information—in this case, the salary data or the software the writer mentioned—is accurate. Once you confirm that the threat appears real, the next step is to assemble a small team to help the investigation. Your first call should be to outside counsel, the second to the chair of the audit committee, Narine advised. As to bringing other internal employees into the investigation, proceed with caution. John Lewis, senior managing litigation counsel for Coca-Cola Co., said general counsels must consider “the architecture of the case” before deciding who can be trusted for help. For example, who would have had access to that salary data in the first place? It could be anybody from the IT, payroll, or human resources departments, Narine said. “You have to be relatively suspicious.” “The company owns the information inside the employee’s head and has a right to know it and to impose consequences if the employee doesn’t comply.” —John Lewis, Senior Managing Litigation Counsel, Coca-Cola Co. In addition, be prepared to answer questions employees might ask (such as how the perpetrator obtained the data) before alerting them to the existence of the investigation—because once they know about it, Narine warned, the company is taking the risk that one of them will report it to regulators. Ralph Martin, a former district attorney in Massachusetts and now managing partner at the Bingham Consulting Group, did quip that regulators aren’t “twiddling their thumbs” looking for investigations to launch; they already have much to do and generally want to take a case only when others have done the preliminary work. In this particular case, he said, the e-mail alone did not contain enough information to spark a regulatory probe. Maintaining Control Handling investigations internally, rather than notifying regulators, has other advantages. Foremost, since you already know the organization, you can identify where to start gathering evidence much more discreetly, determine the true severity of the threat, and pinpoint where the risk exposure exists, Martin said. Contrast that efficiency to the time regulators would spend simply getting acquainted with your enterprise—“and that is purely advisory on your part, because you don’t control it,” Martin said. “Once you go to the authorities, you give up control.” Also remember that some situations do call for immediate regulatory attention: if someone’s life is in danger; if valuable assets are lost; if certain laws or regulation, or even internal corporate policies, require immediate reporting. Lewis noted that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act does give companies the ability to launch investigations quietly, by using SOX audits as an excuse to check internal controls. For example, a SOX audit can review how shared financial resources work, who codes them, and who has access to that data. This act of “sleuthing” can eventually lead to those individuals, resources, and geographies that will narrow your investigative search, he said. Expense reports are another lucrative area for investigation. Compare employees’ reports to records from vendors or customers to find any disparities, Martin said. Also watch for suspicious behavior, such as two employees expensing a company lunch when there is no business reason for it—those can be the sort of events where data is transferred from one computer to another, Narine said. “You never know how these things are going to work out.” Companies can also search numerous public records, such as court judgments, debt and bankruptcy filings, and new business registrations. Personal credit reports are not on that list, Narine said, but they aren’t always helpful anyway; thieves can still have good credit. Do be wary of the rules of electronic communication. If you’re going to conduct a search of employee data, the company must have a policy that clearly states the employee has no expectation of privacy in workplace communications, experts say. Sooner or later, however, most serious internal investigations eventually are passed along to regulators; once that happens, the company has a new level of complexity to handle. Lewis’s advice: “When you notify regulators, you have to assume you’re going public.” That means the small team that did the original investigation should be prepared for media scrutiny, so the company must, in turn, prepare that team. For example, Narine said, the corporate communications department should be able to supply the team with official statements. Conflict International Limited is a detective agency specialising in Surveillance and Private and Corporate Investigations, providing private detectives in London, for firms, banks, companies and private individuals. Learn more about Conflict International’s corporate investigations services. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/22/conducting-ethical-corporate-investigation http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/22/conducting-ethical-corporate-investigation 1261482009 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Arsenal’s boardroom is gripped by fresh tensions, with Alisher Usmanov set to confront Ivan Gazidis over claims that advisers to the club’s directors ordered an investigation into Usmanov’s prison past in the Soviet Union. The Russian is the second-biggest shareholder at Arsenal, and his purchase of £75m-worth of the club’s shares two years ago was met with resistance from fans, shareholders and directors alike. But despite that past hostility, revelations on Channel Four’s Dispatches programme on Monday night that a private investigator was hired by a company working for the Arsenal board came as a shock to the oligarch. The investigator visited Tashkent, where Usmanov spent six years in jail, while working on a brief to uncover details about his conviction and its subsequent annulment by Russian and Uzbek courts. After working on the case for six months, she drew a blank amid “official obfuscation” in Uzbekistan. Usmanov will seek to find out from Gazidis, Arsenal’s chief executive, whether any shareholders’ funds were used to pay for the investigation. He will also want to know if it is standard practice to probe shareholders and whether a similar study has been carried out on Stan Kroenke’s background. Gazidis is likely to tell Usmanov that the report was not directly commissioned by the board but by a third-party adviser and privately the club were yesterday at a loss to explain how the investigation had come about. News of the inquiry comes at a time when Gazidis had restored serenity to the directors’ box. Even Nina Bracewell‑Smith, who was expelled from the board 12 months ago, was invited to take up a seat there during Sunday’s defeat by Chelsea. Investigations Direct is a multi-disciplined, UK-based private detective and private investigation agency serving the private and public sectors, banking, legal and insurance companies. Our private investigators and detectives are highly experienced operatives. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/09/arsenal-set-for-a-new-boardroom-row-over-alisher-usmanov-investigation http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/09/arsenal-set-for-a-new-boardroom-row-over-alisher-usmanov-investigation 1260360473 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Private Detectives are being increasingly used in the City Law companies, more than any other profession, call in private detectives to combat internal fraud or to trace missing assets. Mike Lacorte, is associate managing director of Conflict International, a London based, international private detective agency, has said that 25 per cent of their business comes from solicitors. Mr Lacorte, believes fraud in solicitors’ offices has increased, making companies more security conscious. There were also salutary lessons from the recession that have left senior partners keeping a tighter rein on partnership finances. “Some solicitors have substantial debts and employ us for asset-tracing and fee recovery work, especially where they need to recover funds outside the jurisdiction,” he says. Another well established Private Investigator firm in London is Investigations Direct. They recently acted directly for a City law firm. In that case, Investigations Direct was asked to investigate the commercial strength of a smaller firm to pave the way for a merger offer. Jon Fawcett, managing director of Investigations Direct, says: “They (law firms) are the first to advise the client to employ a corporate detective, but they don’t always do it themselves. Why should solicitors be any different from anyone else? They tend to work on the basis that theirs is an upright and honourable business.” Mr Fawcett says the important part of investigating a law firm is discovering the partners’ true view of the merger. “Unlike any one else, the work tends to follow the solicitor around. If the partners are unhappy about a takeover, the merger isn’t going to be so worthwhile.” Mr Fawcett says this is always the danger in corporate takeover bids. Most partners may be happy with the proposed deal, but the “key profit- making department” might intend to walk out as soon as the deal is completed. “It’s important that our client knows this,” he says. Mr Fawcett will not say how detectives canvas such opinion without giving away the fact that the firm is being investigated. “That would be giving away tricks of the trade.” The key to a successful corporate investigation is not being found out, he says. “Sometimes, the first the firm knows about the investigation is when I’m giving my evidence in the witness stand. That’s a great feeling.” About 75 per cent of Investigations Direct’s work comes from solicitors, mainly City and big provincial practices. “Law companies work closely with corporate detectives when they’re advising on due diligence and pre-acquisition searches,” Mr Fawcett says. “If figures don’t add up after an auditor’s valuation or the lawyers simply aren’t comfortable about what the directors are telling them, it usually means initiating a corporate investigation.” Investigations Direct and many of the other companies would like this to become standard practice rather than only acting after suspicions have been aroused. Mr Fawcett says that, “whenever we’re advising in a defensive capacity, we always check the boardroom for bugs.” Conflict international can assits bueinsessesn by helping to counter phone tapping and bugging within the organisation with TSCM. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/08/bugs-in-the-boardroom http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/08/bugs-in-the-boardroom 1260267095 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says it will use phone tapping and video surveillance to uncover British companies involved in corruption abroad. The SFO says companies have one last chance to come clean before the new powers are introduced. About 15 UK companies are already under fraud investigation, according to the SFO. Last month the engineering firm Mabey and Johnson admitted bribing officials in Jamaica and Ghana and breaking UN sanctions against Saddam Hussein. The 15 companies are said to include major household names. The SFO has set up a team of 100 investigators to look into British firms who use bribes to win foreign contracts. The SFO’s director, Richard Alderman, is writing to UK contractors, telling them they have one last chance to admit breaking anti-corruption laws. An SFO spokesman said: “What we’re saying is, don’t brush it under the carpet. If a firm co-operates then we’ll look at civil action to recover money rather than criminal prosecutions.” He said firms now had the chance to enter plea bargains with investigators: “If we find out a company has known about corruption, then we can now take stronger action. “Cover-ups at senior levels within companies aren’t acceptable.” Mabey and Johnson – which constructs bridges – admitted trying to influence foreign officials to win lucrative public contracts in Jamaica and Ghana. It also paid more than $200,000 (£123,000) to Saddam Hussein’s regime, breaking UN sanctions imposed on Iraq under the Oil for Food programme. Last year, the construction firm Balfour Beatty agreed to pay £2.25 million after it admitted financial irregularities by a subsidiary company in Egypt. Conflict International provides the services to identify whether an individual or organisation is being followed or investigated, which include, but are not limited to resolving problems associated with phone hacking and video surveillance. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/07/corrupt-firms-face-phone-tapping http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/07/corrupt-firms-face-phone-tapping 1260201931 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml BlackBerry mobile devices are open to attack due to a certificate notification flaw in the smartphone’s software, according to Research In Motion. The problem lies in the BlackBerry Browser, specifically in the dialog box that alerts users if the URL they have clicked on does not match the domain they are being sent to, the company warned in an advisory on Monday. To exploit the flaw, a hacker could craft a malicious website that spoofs a trusted website, then send users a link to that site using text messaging or email. If the malicious domain name contains a null character and the user chooses to access the site, the certificate-handling software on the device will note that there is a mismatch, but the warning dialog box will not display the null character in the link. For example, the URL ‘zd[null character]net.co.uk’ will generate an alert, which will tell the user they are about to visit ‘zdnet.co.uk’. BlackBerry users may ignore this alert, as malicious websites could appear benign, RIM said. “RIM recommends that BlackBerry device users exercise caution when clicking on links that they receive in email or SMS messages,” the company said in its advisory. “If a user visits a site that causes a BlackBerry Browser dialog box to warn the user about continuing the connection, the user should select Close connection.” BlackBerry Device Software from version 4.5 onwards is affected. RIM has provided a software update, available from the BlackBerry updates site, to mitigate the issue. The Private Investigator agency Conflict international offers undercover investigaions regarding mobile counter surveillance  to determine whether an individual is being followed or investigated. Learn more about surveillance services offered by Conflict International. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/07/blackberry-smartphones-open-to-sms-attack http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/07/blackberry-smartphones-open-to-sms-attack 1260180011 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml AN EAST London resident who was defrauded after making an online purchase may have stumbled onto an international racket after hiring a private detective to help him. François Eales, a natural medicine practitioner who lives and works in Gonubie, said that last Thursday he bid to buy an Apple iPhone cellphone and a Sony Vaio laptop on a an Internet auction website. “I’ve made over 300 purchases in the past through the site and have never had a problem before.” Eales’ bid on the iPhone was not accepted, but his bid for the laptop was successful. “I contacted the seller and got his details,” said Eales. “He told me he was moving to Australia.” Eales deposited the money that afternoon into his account and arranged with his parents, who lived nearby, to collect the laptop the following day. However, they could not get hold of the seller on the cellphone number provided. Eales said he then turned to the internet again to find a reliable private investigator to help him trace the individual. “I discovered the account was held in Namibia, in the name of someone else and that it had quite a substantial amount of money in it.” Eales said police were looking into the matter. The private detective agency, said that from preliminary investigations he suspected a larger syndicate could be at work. “It’s possible the bank account in Namibia could be a money-laundering scheme where fraudsters deposit money and give a commission to the account owner,” he said. Operations manager for the website, said it was unfortunate that people used the site to commit acts of fraud. He said 99 percent of the transactions on the website were legitimate Conflict International is a Private detective agency that provides investigative services for corporate and private clients. It’s global operation covers London, Europe and the rest of the World. Learn more about fraud services offered by Conflict International here. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/01/are-auction-sites-fraud-with-danger http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/12/01/are-auction-sites-fraud-with-danger 1259686743 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Conflicted out Times may be hard but the love affair between the law and the arts goes on. Last week, for example, Mishcon de Reya’s family department launched Creativity in Conflict, a collaboration with Central Saint Martins College to award prizes to its top MA fine art students. The event took place at the Imagination Gallery in Store Street and the acrobatic fire jugglers performing outside signalled that something distinctly odd was afoot. Inside nothing was quite what it seemed. The rationale of the award was that the process of marital breakdown could be represented as a creative art. However, the reality of that Conflict reference was the presence of serious guys in suits from “Conflict International — Investigation, Security, Intelligence” that puts former gunslingers into car boots to monitor your movements and former Met officers to trawl through your garbage. Conflict International was recently featured in “The Times” for their work with the Mishcon de Reya’s family department’s launch of Creativity and Conflict, an award ceremony for top MA fine art students.  Check out the whole article here-http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/columnists/article6930296.ece Conflict International’s team have a wealth of experience in dealing with corporate, commercial and private investigations from a diverse range of clients, including multi-national corporations, legal firms and high net worth individuals. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/26/conflict-international-featured-in-the-times-2 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/26/conflict-international-featured-in-the-times-2 1259232048 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml CHICAGO (CN) – An investigation agency claims it was ruined by a firm that did a slipshod background check on “reality” TV star Ryan Jenkins, who allegedly murdered his wife, dismembered her body and then killed himself. Collective Intelligence says it was hired to screen contestants for the VH1 show “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” but could not check Jenkins’ background in Canada, so it hired defendant Straightline International to do it. Collective says Straightline told it Jenkins had no criminal record, though in fact he had a conviction for domestic assault on a girlfriend, according to the complaint in Cook County Court. In August, Jenkins killed his wife, model Jasmine Fiore, dismembered her body, then fled to Canada and killed himself in a hotel, according to the complaint. VH1 canceled the show, as well as “I Love Money 3,” on which Jenkins also appeared, to distance itself from media scrutiny, the complaint states. Collective claims that Viacom, which owns VH1, CBS and MTV, ended its relationship with Collective over the mistake. Collective says Straightline did not request a background check on Jenkins from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as expected, but instead got its erroneous information from a court clerk in Alberta. Collective claims Straightline will not answer or return phone calls and will not provide it with more information about the background check it did on Jenkins. Collective claims it has more than 90 clients in the entertainment industry and now its reputation is tarnished. It says that Viacom, ABC and NBC have since rejected it as a screener for their shows. Collective seeks damages for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, negligence, fraud, and tortious interference. Investigatioins Direct knows the importance of background checks in todays society whether it is for looking into the criminal history of an potential mate or to screen employees.  Do not be a victim of  inaccurate background checks, at Investigations direct we will provide in depth reports regarding the desired individual. Learn more about Conflict International’s background check services. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/04/shoddy-background-check-on-reality-tv-star-alleged-to-ruin-agency http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/04/shoddy-background-check-on-reality-tv-star-alleged-to-ruin-agency 1257336145 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml by Angus Kidman Wednesday, 21 October 2009 Increasing rates of workplace laptop use mean that it’s inevitable that cyber-criminals will turn their attention from attacking banks to profiting from corporate fraud, a security expert has warned. “The same kind of threats that are hitting the financial sector will start expanding to additional verticals,” said Uri Rivner, head of new technologies, identity protection and verification for RSA, during a press briefing at the company’s RSA Conference Europe gathering in London. “Fraudsters have an easy way in because of infected endpoint machines.” The majority of current online fraud concentrates on accessing financial information such as credit card numbers and online banking logins, Rivner said. Sophisticated trojan software — often silently installed on unpatched PCs as part of a ‘drive by download’ when visiting a legitimate web site — routinely logs all information on a machine and transmits it via the Internet for processing to access useful details. “Everything that is being transmitted to you online is being recorded and sent — and that’s the most basic trojan,” Rivner said. The business of developing and marketing trojans has proved highly profitable. “Zeus today is the biggest-selling trojan kit around the Internet,” Rivner said. “It sells for around $1,000.” While attacking individual machines has been the main modus operandi for criminals to date, the increasing prevalence of laptops that are used in both home and work environments means that those trojans are now also recording significant amounts of information from corporate networks. “If you have a trojan that’s on an enterprise computer, they can see whatever is going through,” Rivner said. Over time, criminals will likely start mining and exploiting that data, he predicted. “Already the fraudsters have a huge percentage of corporate data on their trojan motherships,” Rivner said. “They’re sitting on a pot of gold.” The blurring of work and personal equipment represents a major security headache for companies, though experts suggest that the trend is hard to counter. While online crime against banks and other financial institutions remains a significant problem, the sector has done a good job of trying to combat it, Rivner said. “The threat is very high but the financial sector has adopted a good defence strategy,” he said. “The trick is to put in multiple lines of defence, not to have a single point of technology.” Conflict International Limited is a London detective agency specialising in Surveillance and Private and Corporate Investigations, providing a bespoke private detective service for firms, banks, companies and private individuals Learn more about our corporate fraud investigation services. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/work-laptops-to-trigger-wave-of-online-business-fraud http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/work-laptops-to-trigger-wave-of-online-business-fraud 1257175136 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml The former lawyer, who is chief executive of Nardello & Co, a corporate investigations company with offices in London, Milan, New York and Washington, says that business executives often ask investigators to tap phones, hack into computers or obtain bank details illegally. “It’s just stupid,” he bellows. “One of the challenges we have is explaining to clients that they need to be careful what they ask for, because they may get it and once they have they can’t put the genie back in the bottle. We need to educate clients that illegal and unethical means aren’t a short cut — it’s a source of tsuris [Yiddish for aggravation]. There are ethical means, you don’t need to be all cloak and dagger, and, frankly, it’s not as effective, anyway.” He says that his investigators — a mixture of lawyers, former prosecutors, former journalists and forensic accountants — prefer to rely on tactics such as talking to disgruntled ex-employees, boardroom leaks and obtaining information that is in the public domain “by creative means”. Yet, he warns, there are lots of sub-contractors and investigators who are willing to be “sloppy, unethical and illegal”. “We had this guy in London who would ring. His pitch was he could obtain bank account information illegally. You get a lot of that sort of thing, particularly in London. I don’t know why.” Corporate work, he says, can be every bit as exciting as his Southern District days, without the need for wire-tapping and hacking, and he is still exposing Wall Street scandals. “The difference between the Mafia and the bankers? The bankers are better-coiffed, but the motivation is often the same. You’re dealing with very high stakes and interesting people. It’s different but it’s a lot of fun.” He recounts a recent $100 million fraud case in which teams of investigators spent three years chasing “a bad guy” around the world. “The people we came across, the schemes we uncovered and the places that we got to go were incredible.” And business is booming. Mr Nardello is hiring staff and looking to open new offices. “When everything goes pear-shaped, typically litigation follows, but this time round it is different.” He says that during this recession civil litigation is down because companies cannot afford the costs. If there are costs, they prefer to settle quickly out of court. Criminal litigation is buoyant, especially for white-collar crime and, in particular, security fraud. Other areas of work that are holding up include “self due diligence” on people or companies going into capital markets, crisis management, internal investigations and asset tracing. The growth in work for investigators such as Mr Nardello is a combination of trends, among them the extra-territorial reach of American prosecutors and regulators, greater emphasis on transparency, more cross-border cooperation and more countries adopting anti-bribery laws. “The UK has been slower than most in adopting anti-bribery legislation,” Mr Nardello says. British legislation is going through Parliament. “This law will not be a formality. The pressure and the competitive temptation to pay bribes in jurisdictions where that is the cultural norm is great and it is bad … Corruption causes imbalances in the workplace, inefficiency, it’s a huge problem. It’s also a matter of aesthetics. How could the UK go without it? Even Italy is ahead on this one.” The law alone will not change anything, he argues, but a few high-profile cases should “inspire corporate executives … There are three compelling things in life: illness and death; the end of a love affair; and criminal prosecution.” ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/hey-uk-plc-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-clean-up-your-act http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/hey-uk-plc-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-clean-up-your-act 1257172528 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Reporting from Sacramento – A storm of protest has erupted over the Schwarzenegger administration’s push to require prospective home health aides for the elderly and disabled to begin undergoing criminal background checks next week. Social service chiefs in counties throughout the state have warned that they aren’t ready to begin the time-consuming new application process — and the delay could mean some elderly and frail patients would go without care. Advocates for the elderly and disabled say the administration’s rush to begin the checks, part of an anti-fraud effort Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pushed during last summer’s budget negotiations, seems to have an ulterior motive: dissuading new patients and providers from participating in the $5.5-billion government-funded home healthcare program. “This is just a disaster in the making,” said Deborah Doctor, legislative advocate for Disability Rights California. “I don’t want to overdramatize this, but it could have the same effect as cutting people off the program.” A legislative oversight hearing is slated for today to address the concerns and potentially make a push to delay the start of the new process, which would apply starting Monday to all new applicants for home health aide jobs. The state’s more than 376,000 existing care workers would have to undergo the new background checks by June. “This has created chaos and uncertainty for frail elderly and disabled people,” said Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, who wants a three- to four-month delay. Administration officials referred queries about the program to the state’s Department of Social Services, which has been hustling to start the new application process. Lizelda Lopez, the department’s spokeswoman, said the looming deadline was set by the Legislature during budget negotiations and should come as no surprise. “Nobody denies these were very aggressive time frames,” Lopez said. But she said the department has been working with the counties for months to enact the new procedures. “We didn’t start talking to them yesterday.” The In-home Supportive Services program has been caught in a tug-of-war between the Schwarzenegger administration, which contends that it is rife with potential fraud, and Democrats in the Legislature who see it as a humane and cost-effective alternative to nursing homes and other institutionalized care. Coloring the debate is the fact that the in-home program is a big growth sector for labor unions, which traditionally have supported Democratic candidates and causes while reliably opposing those backed by Schwarzenegger and other Republicans. Schwarzenegger tried during the summer budget fight to cut aid to 90% of the program’s participants, but Democrats kept the program largely funded while going along with the anti-fraud effort. “My question is whether this is an attempt by the administration to do what the Legislature would not allow it to do,” Evans said. County officials said the new rules have caused confusion and concern for patients and their healthcare providers. “Our lobbies are flooded, telephones ring continuously, and staff have insufficient information to provide answers,” Linda Haugan, assistant administrator for San Bernardino County Human Services, said in a letter to the state. “This has created a major disruption.” County officials say there are several key logistical problems. The new rules require prospective healthcare workers to undergo an orientation session that will require counties to hire new staff and office space. Meanwhile, some counties say the new enrollment forms haven’t been provided yet. Officials in Los Angeles County, where more than 185,000 people receive in-home care, said they received the latest instructions just a day ago, giving them a week to prepare. With more than 4,000 new applications each month for in-home care workers, the inability to approve new providers “will create an extreme hardship on aged and disabled individuals,” Philip L. Browning, director of the county Department of Public Social Services, said in a letter to the state. Conflict International can compile detailed background check into an individual’s employment history, lifestyle and financial background. A search will uncover employment status and check for adverse credit history. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/planned-background-checks-for-in-home-healthcare-workers-are-criticized http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/planned-background-checks-for-in-home-healthcare-workers-are-criticized 1257169928 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml One of the reasons that auto insurance coverage can increase for everyone is fraud. Recently, the California Department of Insurance announced that an alleged fraud ring was broken up in the state. In all, eight men have been arrested in the auto insurance fraud case, which involved staged automobile collisions. The alleged ring leader of the scheme, 31-year-old Chula Vista resident Jay Stoney Anderson, faces 28 counts related to the scheme. In all, the eight men face 83 counts of insurance fraud. California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner noted that insurance fraud involving staged collisions endangers the lives of innocent people. “Through the diligent work of our fraud detectives and a tireless effort by this department and our partners, we have broken up a crime ring that has caused more than $200,000 in damages,” Poizner said. “This department will not rest when lives are placed at risk by these types of criminal enterprises.” According to the Insurance Information Institute, insurance fraud costs the industry about $30 billion a year. Those costs can lead to higher auto insurance rates for all drivers in the form of bigger premiums. Conflict International Limited specialise in uncovering fraudulent insurance claims. Evidence is produced as a comprehensive report, detailing times/ dates etc and disclosing the subject’s movement. High quality photographic, video and audio evidence will be presented in the desired format. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/staged-collision-ring-busted-by-california-investigators http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/11/02/staged-collision-ring-busted-by-california-investigators 1257162387 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Firms have been reminded of the importance of safeguarding against fraud after investment bank Seymour Pierce was hit with a £154,000 fine by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The FSA found that the bank had failed to implement effective controls and because of this an employee was able to steal around £150,000 from the firm’s internal and private client accounts over a period of three years. It was not until after the unnamed worker was dismissed that the activities were discovered. Margaret Cole, the FSA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “Fraud seriously undermines the integrity of our markets, so this fine is a timely reminder of the consequences for firms that fail to have in place robust systems and controls to prevent unlawful transactions of this sort.” If Seymour Pierce had ensure the right controls were in place, then the fraud would have been picked up much sooner, she added. Recently, KPMG predicted that the economic downturn would help propel UK fraud levels to a record high this year. Protect your company from being a victim of fraud, Investigations Direct’s fraud investigators will provide in depth fraud reports for clients who suspect illegal activity within the workplace. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/10/26/fsa-fines-seymour-pierce-over-fraud-failings http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/10/26/fsa-fines-seymour-pierce-over-fraud-failings 1256576156 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml As they build a case of alleged insider-trading by Galleon Management LLP co-founder Raj Rajaratnam and others, prosecutors will have to prove whether the information they traded on was gleaned from legal research or from someone who had an obligation not to provide it. Trading on nonpublic information that could move the markets is not enough to prosecute someone for insider trading, though trading on information provided by an individual who had an obligation to their employer or its shareholders not to provide it is. As a result, prosecutors in the case of Raj Rajaratnam–who has been charged along with five others of using inside information to garner roughly $20 million in trading profits–will have an easier time winning a conviction if they can prove that the corporate secrets he traded on were provided by people he knew had an obligation not to provide the information. The investigation into allegations of insider trading by Rajaratnam and the others comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun increasingly focusing on hedge funds and has increased surveillance to look for patterns and trends in trading. Yet despite this increased focus on hedge funds, hedge funds are still tougher to prosecute for insider trading because they typically trade in and out of a security several times. As a result, authorities often find it difficult to prove that a hedge fund used inside information in its decision to make a particular trade. Conflict International’s team will conduct a full corporate investigation into potentially harmful employees, which includes surveying your premises assessing the threat and providing professional strategies to give complete peace of mind. A comprehensive report detailing the technical search and our recommendations will be presented on completion. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/10/22/being-inside-can-have-a-downside http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/10/22/being-inside-can-have-a-downside 1256232337 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml From their first day at Moody’s Investors Service, junior analysts are warned against sharing confidential information with outsiders. They are even told not to mention company names in the elevators at the credit-rating firm’s Lower Manhattan headquarters. Federal prosecutors now allege that a former junior analyst, identified by a person familiar with the matter as Deep Shah, breached that trust in July 2007 when he passed on inside information about Blackstone Group’s pending $26 billion takeover of Hilton Hotels. Mr. Shah and other employees of the ratings firm, owned by publicly traded Moody’s Corp., had advance notice about the takeover as part of a standing practice to prebrief credit analysts about planned deals. Prosecutors allege that the junior analyst shared the Hilton information with an unidentified third party, who in turn passed the tip to Galleon Group’s Raj Rajaratnam. The tip enabled Mr. Rajaratnam to reap $4 million in profits from trading Hilton shares, a federal complaint alleges. While Mr. Shah’s role in the alleged insider-trading affair is small, his link to the third party — now a key cooperating witness in the probe — could shed light on how investigators uncovered the trading ring. Unusual trading in Hilton’s shares was one of the first events that attracted scrutiny from regulators in 2007. The same cooperating witness was friends with an executive at Polycom Inc. and also passed on information about Google Inc. The complaint said the cooperating witness arranged to pay $10,000 to the Moody’s associate analyst, a title that describes staffers who aren’t considered full analysts but assist them in analyzing data. Mr. Shah hasn’t been charged with a crime. It isn’t known if he is under investigation or if he will face charges. Mr. Shah couldn’t be reached for comment. A Moody’s spokesman declined to comment on the alleged role of Mr. Shah. He reiterated the company’s statement last week, saying that the alleged wrongdoing by one of its employees “would be an egregious violation” of the rating firm’s policies. Moody’s has drawn flak in the past year for inaccurate credit ratings on mortgage securities and has had to battle recent accusations from a former employee that it still issues inflated ratings on complex securities. Throughout the financial crisis, however, Moody’s credit ratings on corporate bonds have largely conformed to expectations. Still, critics say the Hilton incident may raise questions about whether ratings firms should be privy to inside information. Companies often inform rating analysts about mergers, acquisitions or other transactions ahead of time, to let analysts digest and analyze the information and announce rating actions soon after the deals become public. Like law firms and investment banks, credit-rating agencies have policies and controls to limit the number of people privy to inside information. “But you can’t watch everyone all the time, and if someone is determined to violate the law they will do so,” said Scott McCleskey, a former Moody’s compliance officer who is now U.S. managing editor of Complinet Inc. Mr. Shah, who is in his mid-20s, left Moody’s more than a year ago and is believed to have returned to his home country of India, according to former colleagues. One ex-colleague described him as “mellow.” He joined the ratings firm in an entry-level position, and worked with analysts who rated companies in the technology, lodging and gaming sectors, according to Moody’s reports that listed Mr. Shah’s name from 2005 to early 2008. According to the U.S. attorney’s complaint, Hilton executives contacted a Moody’s lead analyst by phone on the afternoon of July 2, the day before Blackstone Group announced it would acquire Hilton. The complaint said that, shortly afterward, an associate analyst “involved” in the rating called the unidentified third party three times from a cellphone with information that Hilton was to be taken private. The information was passed to Mr. Rajaratnam who traded Hilton’s stock, according to the complaint. As an associate analyst, Mr. Shah would have been paid roughly $90,000 in annual salary, plus a bonus that could reach $30,000, according to former Moody’s employees. Conflict International offer an industry-leading corporate investigation company that can provide services such as a Technical Surveillance Counter Measures sweep, utilising the latest radio and telecommunications line analysing equipment.  Conflict International will conduct full corporate investigations to help protect companies against foul play by employees or partners. ... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/10/22/moodys-analysts-are-warned-to-keep-secrets http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/10/22/moodys-analysts-are-warned-to-keep-secrets 1256231115 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml Liz Chong, The Times THEIR customers include governments, leading investment banks, hedge funds, private equity houses and FTSE 100 companies, but few would admit that they have ever hired corporate detectives, let alone met any. It would be too embarrassing to reveal that a firm had enlisted the help of a private detective to dig up the dirt on an opponent or client, or disclose that they had been duped by an employee or partner. Business investigation and intelligence, globally, is on the rise, driven by an array of legislation introduced by the US Congress in an attempt to clean up corporate America. The laws impose heavy duties on directors, accountants and lawyers. Directors, perhaps not surprisingly now that they are personally liable for any financial scandals, want to avoid falling foul of prosecutors, who have zealously pursued white-collar crime in recent years. Mike Lacorte, chief executive of the Conflict International, a “corporate investigations and detective agency”, identified the regulatory burden as “the biggest substantive driver for growth in business intelligence”. The decision by the US Justice Department to prosecute the lawyer James Giffen under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has also made companies increasingly nervous about the background of prospective partners. Giffen was accused of funnelling $60 million in bribes to the President of Kazakhstan on behalf of several oil majors, including Mobil Oil, Shell and Chevron. Although the legislation dates from 1977, American authorities were previously slow to pursue any companies or individual Americans who had broken anti-bribery laws. The plethora of bribery and corruption legislation has made it common practice for investors to hire detectives to look at the hedge funds they may invest in, or for private banks to hire companies that examine the background of a new client from Eastern Europe. The end of the Cold War has also proved a catalyst for the growth of corporate investigations, as companies expand into new markets, including Russia. Western companies that are unfamiliar with the business culture in Eastern Europe and Russia have nowhere to turn for help but to companies such as Conflict International.... http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/08/05/private-detectives-are-all-the-rage-in-%e2%80%98well-managed%e2%80%99-city-firms http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/2009/08/05/private-detectives-are-all-the-rage-in-%e2%80%98well-managed%e2%80%99-city-firms 1249474858 http://www.conflictinternational.com/blog/feed/feed.xml