August 2013 - All in Investigations

Slips and Fall Accidents, Fraud and Videotape

Everyone has heard of these cases, we have seen lots of them here at : the ones where a person (the claimant) has slipped or fallen and claims to have injured themselves in a restaurant or store. What you might not know is that there is a huge contingent of repeat claimants. One of the first things an insurance company does when it receives a claim is to run the claimant through an industry database of all insurance claims filed. Only people in the insurance industry have access to that database and when a person comes up as a repeat or a serial claimant that throws up a huge red flag. Many insurance companies and companies who are self-insured have special investigative units (SIUs), but [...]

Medical Provider Fraud Surprises Innocent Patients

You might be surprised to learn that not all insurance fraud is uncovered because of a personal injury investigation, workers compensation fraud investigation, product liability investigation or a long term disability insurance fraud investigation. No, it’s not always the “patient” who is being investigated. Sometimes it is the medical care provider! Not every doctor, physical therapist or chiropractor is committing medical insurance fraud, but some are. Investigators were called in regarding insurance claims coming in from a specific chiropractor. The insurance company noticed that the number of claims had significantly increased from this particular service provider and the services were long-term and fairly extensive. It was the change in the claim history and types of claims that triggered one of those “red flags” for adjusters. [...]

Fishing For Long Term Disability Insurance Fraud

Long term disability (LTD) cases are not decided and then set aside. In many cases, LTD claims are reviewed, especially if an investigation was completed previously but was not conclusive one way or another. Such a case came into an investigator. In this situation, the claimant had been receiving LTD benefits for several years when an adjuster reviewed the file and decided that it was time to take another look. The claimant was a man who had physical restrictions regarding the number of pounds he could lift and the amount of physical activity he could safely engage in at any time. A previous investigation had not been absolutely conclusive that he was committing long term disability insurance fraud, but the adjuster had a feeling something [...]

Full Service Investigators Bring It All to Insurance Fraud Cases

Part of the reason why insurance companies, attorneys and self-insured companies hire a private investigator like is because we can uncover the truth in a wide variety of situations. For example, in one case where a car was allegedly stolen and recovered completely burned out, the insurance company asked us to investigate the owner. The insurance company did not share their file, which is not uncommon, nor did they share why they were asking us to investigate. We were provided with information about the claimant and simply were asked if we could investigate to see if he had been involved in burning the car. After getting the details of the location where the car was burned and the location of the claimant’s home and work, [...]

Fugitive Recovery Requires Finding a Missing Person

Family members are not the only people who come to asking for our help in finding a missing person. Recently we were called by a group of fugitive recovery agents. In this case, the fugitive recovery agent was employed by a bail bondsman who had provided the funds for a person whose bond was set really high. Like many cases, we received only the basic information and few of the details. The accused skipped town and did not show for the first court hearing. The bail bond company was going to have to pay the high bond if they were unable to bring the accused to the court within a specified number of days. After an unsuccessful week, they called us. There was a big [...]

Computer Forensic Analysis is a Tool for Divorce Attorneys and Clients

Computer forensic investigators are bloodhounds for evidence of the truth. The truth could be evidence of a corporate crime or something as personal as relationships between spouses. Divorce attorneys contact often with different requests. One case recently involved a forensic computer analysis. The wife felt trapped in a marriage to a wealthy professional. Everyone thought he was a nice guy who did well at his job and provided a great home. In fact, he drank every night, spent time in his home office and would then go out for a few hours. She considered him a high-functioning alcoholic and was just waiting for the late-night phone call saying he’d been arrested for DUI or worse, had been part of an accident. She was looking for [...]

Handwriting Analyst Can Reveal Forgery

Forgeries of paintings may be the stuff of movies, but forgery of signature on documents happens more often than the public realizes. For example, recently had an inquiry about a home that was being sold on a lease-to-rent agreement. The original tenant/buyer died during the term of the sales agreement. His sister and her husband, who had lived with him for the last several months of his life, were not parties to the agreement. However, when the landlord/seller went to the property to discuss the situation, the sister produced a signed sales contract between her, her brother (the original tenant/buyer) and the landlord/seller and his wife outlining different terms for the sale. Their attorney contacted us because they believed that someone had forged signatures on [...]

Computer Investigation Shows Employee Embezzlement is Digital Now, Too

Theft by employees is a problem for more than retail or restaurant businesses. It is a problem in the office, too. I am talking about more than office supplies and materials here. I am talking about the theft of ideas, processes, client lists and confidential corporate operations. This could include employee embezzlement through accounting or bookkeeping channels from corporate accounts, too. All of these things constitute theft in the workplace; some just look a little different than others. Instead of carrying something physically off, it’s moved digitally. And that is how exactly how it is found – digitally. Computers are the basis of most of the work done in many workplaces so when suspicions arise, a computer forensic investigation is one of the first steps [...]

Cellular Forensics Even Applies to Drop Phones

Data Extraction. That’s what provides the evidence so many of our clients want when they request a mobile phone forensic analysis. Cell phone forensic tools allow a cellular forensics specialist to create an exact image of the cell phone hard drive and from that, complete a mobile phone analysis. The analysis will uncover any evidence on the phone and the data can be extracted as proof. has been doing cell phone forensics for a long while – before the proliferation of smart phones in the hands of just about everyone. For many, mobile phone forensics is new and they don’t understand the extent of the work we can do. We had a case where a woman’s husband had started carrying a drop phone in addition [...]

Monthly Archives: August 2013