November 2015 - All in Investigations

Using Handwriting Analysis to Prove a Forged Will

While a forged or fraudulent will may seem like a plot twist in a novel or movie, it’s a crime that happens more often than people think. For example, a home care aide who takes care of an elderly shut-in decides she deserves more money once the family patriarch has died since she’s cared for him more than his children. She creates a new will and forges the signature of the sick man to scam his family out of some of their inheritance. However, more often than not, document forgery of a will is committed by a relative of the deceased. The family member may feel he is entitled to more assets than what’s outlined in the will, or she may have a grievance with [...]

The Complexity of Cellular Tower Triangulation Affects Accuracy of Evidence

There is a lot of consternation about the accuracy of forensic cell tower evidence. Over the last several years courts have ruled that evidence submitted by authorities has not been precise or correct and people were wrongfully convicted. Here at , our cellular forensics experts would agree that the accuracy of cellular tower triangulation to determine location of cell phones at a given time is a complex business. There are few cut and dried if-then scenarios. For one thing, service providers are not consistent in the algorithms and directions for switching customers’ phones from one tower to another. Nor are they too forthcoming in sharing and explaining their processes. That’s one of the reasons professionals have to be knowledgeable and experienced – just to know [...]

Bail Bond Recovery Agents Use Private Investigators, Too

Fugitive recovery is not something we here at do. We leave the actual fugitive recovery to the bail recovery agent or the local authorities. However, we do work for fugitive recovery agents when they have someone who has skipped out or gone missing. Our involvement is in locating the whereabouts of those “missing” people – and we’ve got a reputation for being good at it. We know how to find a missing person because we have had years of experience doing it and we stay on the cutting edge of technology to know how to use it to its best use in finding people. You would be surprised at all the reasons someone might have for finding a missing person: Estranged family member Former boyfriend, [...]

Do You Think Computer Forensics Conjures Up the Past Like Magic?

Computer forensics is not magic, in fact it is very technical in nature and can be very exacting. People always wonder how the computer forensics experts at can “conjure” up “stuff” from computers that the owners thought was gone. How does forensics data recovery work? When it comes to files, forensic computer investigations and computer forensic analysis works from a three-pronged approach. The first is to recover files as we users know them. For example, a Word document or an Excel worksheet or workbook. These are files that openly exist on the computer. These are not files the user thinks has been deleted or removed. Although some of those could exist in their original form in the recycle or trash folders. The second is the [...]

Are Employees Putting Holes in Your Business’s Digital Security?

As if business owners didn’t have enough to worry about, computer hackers are opening a new can of worms that can affect businesses on the sly. And not only is it a problem, but an embarrassing situation as well. Let me give you an example: There was a site based in Canada called Ashley Madison devoted to allowing people to arrange extramarital affairs. The site was hacked and the identities of the subscribers were leaked out to the hackers. The data was traced back to the subscribers and they were sent emails infected with malware. Where the rub for businesses came in was that many of the subscribers had subscribed to the service using their business email addresses. So after the data leak, the malware [...]

Computer Forensics Done Right – or not at all

Recently the Department of Justice issued a US search warrant to Microsoft in regard to emails sent from an Ireland-based subscriber. According to an article in the Guardian, “The United States government has the right to demand the emails of anyone in the world from any email provider headquartered within US borders, Department of Justice (DoJ) lawyers told a federal appeals court…) While they argue the case in court with Microsoft contending that the DoJ has exceeded its authority, computer forensics firms here in the US are legally bound to obtain permission from device owners and to follow a legal process for cell records in digital forensics investigations. Some may believe that computer forensics investigations are done in the shadows. That may appear to be [...]

Investigation Teaches a Business Lesson to an Unsuspecting Teen

Parenting is a tough job, especially when you want to protect your child and she is a very headstrong teen who thinks she understands everything about the way the world works. At least that was the comment from a worried parent who called . Katy* got her first job at the local ice cream shop and she was so excited. She had visions of money and freedom and a chance to get her own car. Her mom, Sandra* was equally as happy. She felt this was a good step for her 16-year-old daughter to learn the value of working for your money and the responsibility of a job. However, shortly after she started, Sandra was getting “weird” feelings about the job. When she talked with [...]

Is it Employee Embezzlement?

A very depressed-looking business owner came in for an appointment at . We are accustomed to clients or prospective clients arriving emotionally charged, either very angry or hurt, but they don’t usually act like this gentleman. Once talking, he explained that he was “darn near just ready to chuck it all in.” He said he was just confounded by what he knew was going on in his company. He just needed proof of it and confirmation of how deep the damage went. Whew. He explained that because his company dealt with many clients coming in for training from out of town, he maintained an apartment for their use doing their stay. It was fully furnished and maintained. What he had discovered was that it had [...]

Monthly Archives: November 2015