Insurance Archives

Social Media Search vs. Social Media Investigation: What’s the Difference?

In the world of digital intelligence, the terms social media search and social media investigation are often used interchangeably. But make no mistake—they are not the same. Understanding the difference is crucial if you’re looking to uncover actionable information for a legal case, insurance claim, background check, or workplace inquiry.

At eChatter, we offer both services, and our clients often ask: “What’s the difference?” This blog breaks down the key distinctions between a basic search and a full investigation so you can choose the right approach for your needs.

What is a Social Media Search?

A social media search is typically the initial step in locating a person’s online presence. It’s a surface-level scan of publicly available information across social media platforms such as:

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter/X
TikTok
LinkedIn
Snapchat (when content is public)

This search aims to identify whether a subject has an online presence, what platforms they use, and some general details like profile names, photos, and bio information. It may also include:

Profile creation dates
Recent posts or visible activity
Basic connections or followers

Use Case: A social media search is ideal when you’re trying to confirm identity or determine if deeper investigation is warranted.

What is a Social Media Investigation?

A social media investigation goes far beyond the basics. It is a comprehensive, analytical deep dive into a subject’s digital activity, using both manual review and AI-powered tools to uncover patterns, behaviors, and inconsistencies. These investigations can include:

In-depth analysis of posts, photos, and comments
Geolocation data pulled from images and check-ins
Associations with other individuals or groups
Timeline building for specific dates or events (e.g., after an injury)
AI-enhanced facial recognition and image matching
Archived or deleted content (when available through legal means)
Behavioral or sentiment analysis

Use Case: A social media investigation is used in legal claims, fraud detection, workplace misconduct, background screening, and civil or criminal litigation. The output often includes a documented report with screenshots, metadata, and analysis suitable for courtroom or internal use.

Key Differences at a Glance

Feature	Social Media Search	Social Media Investigation
Purpose	Locate basic profiles and content	Uncover detailed, case-relevant information
Depth	Surface-level scan	Comprehensive review and analysis
Tools Used	Manual searches, open web	Advanced AI, geolocation, facial recognition
Output	List of profiles, general info	Detailed report with screenshots, timelines, associations
Recommended For	Preliminary review or ID confirmation	Legal evidence, fraud investigations, litigation

Which One Do You Need?

If you’re simply looking to find out whether someone has a digital footprint, a social media search may be enough. But if you’re trying to gather evidence, verify claims, or identify behavioral patterns, a full social media investigation is the way to go.

At eChatter, we specialize in both services. Our AI-powered tools and trained analysts ensure that no relevant detail is missed—especially in high-stakes cases.

Need help choosing the right level of investigation?

Contact us today for a free consultation, and we’ll help you determine whether a search or full investigation best suits your needs.

eChatter is a digital intelligence company providing OSINT and social media analysis to law firms, insurers, investigators, and businesses across the U.S.

Conducting Online Corporate Research

Conducting an online investigation on a corporation involves gathering information about the company from a variety of online resources. It is used for many purposes; some of which include, gaining insights to its operations, financial health, reputation and more.
A PI investigating a corporation typically follows a systematic approach to gather information, uncover potential wrongdoing, and provide valuable insights to their clients. This includes collecting publicly available information about the corporation. Researching its history, key personnel, financial records, public statements, news articles, etc…
There are several different reasons why a corporation might hire an Investigator to conduct online research. Some of the most common are listed below.

Due Diligence: Investigations on corporations for potential investors, partners, or clients. This might involve verifying financial information, assessing the company’s reputation, investigating key executives, and uncovering any hidden risks.
Intellectual Property Theft: Looking into cases of intellectual property theft or industrial espionage. PIs can gather evidence to identify culprits and prevent further theft.
Competitive Intelligence: Assisting companies by gathering online information about their competitors, including market strategies, product developments, and potential vulnerabilities.
Corporate Security Assessments: PIs might be hired to assess a corporation’s security protocols, vulnerabilities, and potential threats, helping the company improve its security measures.
Insurance Fraud: Private investigators can assist insurance companies in investigating potential fraudulent claims made by corporations, such as property damage or liability claims.
Litigation Support: Private investigators can provide evidence and information that supports legal cases involving corporations, such as in cases of contract disputes, intellectual property infringement, or wrongful termination.

Online Resources to Use

We use several online resources, but the few mentioned below are worth mentioning. Like any other deep web dive, each site potentially offers breadcrumbs that can be used in your investigation.

Open Corporates (https://opencorporates.com ) Collects and aggregates data from various public sources, such as company registers, government records, and other official documents. The platform then organizes and presents this data in a standardized format, making it easier to search and analyze. Users can access information about a company’s legal status, ownership, financial history, and more.
Ripoffreport (https: ripoffreport.com) is a consumer complaint website that allows individuals to post complaints and reviews about businesses, products, and services.

Glass Door (https://www.glassdoor.com) This site is a job and recruiting website that allows employees and former employees to anonymously review companies and their management, provide salary information, and share insights about the interview process.

LittleSis (https://littlesis.org/) This site is used for tracking and researching the connections and relationships among powerful individuals, organizations, and corporations in the United States. It allows users to create and access profiles of influential people, companies, politicians, and non-profit organizations. These profiles include information on their affiliations, board memberships, political contributions, financial interests, and other relevant data.

Crunchbase (https://crunchbase.com) is a platform that provides information about companies and startups, including their funding, key personnel, products or services, and other relevant business details.

Corporate Case Study

We were hired recently to conduct several deep web scans on companies and their C-Suite executives. The Investigator worked with a client who was about to do some major business with three businesses and wanted to know everything about them before jumping into a business relationship. When completed, one could get an excellent picture of the overall reputation of the companies. The group of companies were business to consumer, so there were a lot of online reviews from various sites from Amazon to Yelp. Social media played a significant role. Newspaper articles published online were included as well as company generated press releases. As you can imagine, it was a large report.

Don’t forget About the Employees

The next step in our corporate case study was to identify online profiles and information on key executives in each organization. Why was this important? By conducting this research, it revealed how the employees felt about working for the company. It also ruled out any social media violations in the workplace. Our research included looking for any of the following areas of interest.

Sharing Confidential Information: Posting sensitive company information, trade secrets, financial data, or proprietary information on social media platforms without authorization.

Harassment and Bullying: Using social media to target, harass, or bully colleagues, supervisors, or other individuals within or outside the organization.

Discriminatory Remarks: Making discriminatory comments, including those related to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics, which can create a hostile work environment.

Defamation and Libel: Making false or damaging statements about the company, coworkers, or management that could harm their reputation or result in legal consequences.

Negative Publicity: Sharing negative opinions, complaints, or criticism about the company, products, or services, which could potentially harm the company’s image or business relationships.

It always amazes me what people will post online. Even in the age of increased privacy awareness, people get carried away sometimes with the personal information they post online. It may have been posted years ago but can come back to haunt them in an investigation.

You Shouldn’t Post That Here

By now we have all been schooled on what we shouldn’t post publicly in social media and why. In fact, you can read all over the internet why it is not a good idea to post your COVID vaccination card. It is also not a good idea to post about vacation plans.

When it comes to insurance fraud, a claimant’s social media posts plays an important role in any investigation. When someone is trying to claim an injury when there isn’t one, they need to lock down. You would think that the fraudster would be careful when they post publicly in social media. This is not always the case. In fact, recently we performed a deep web scan on a person suspected of insurance fraud. This was a workman’s comp case. A friend of the person actually cautioned him about a post he had recently added. She came right out and told him to be careful what he was posting. He answered her post by saying, “I not. I know how this works.” The original post was deleted, so we never knew what he posted to make her say that. It was suspicious however, that he left this exchange up on his profile page. In other words, he knew he might be watched in social media.

“Checking social media accounts has become one of the first things an insurance company or adjuster will do when you file a claim,” says Frank Darras an attorney from California who specializes in law suits against insurance companies.
Source:Auto Insurance Quote

What to Look For in Social Media

When we conduct a deep web scan, we start with the data points that we know to be true on an individual. Name, address, date of birth, employer, address and email addresses. They are all critical pieces of information because each one may hold an attachment to something online about our person of interest. It is also important in authentication. We need to be certain we have the right person.

Some tips we have learned along the way that may be of help to you include the following:

Check for multiple profiles. You just found your person of interest’s Facebook profile and you think you are done there. Not always so. Many people have secondary profiles. They may have set them up, forgot about them or they use each one for different things. Believe it or not, you may discover them by looking through their friends list. This is especially true in Facebook.
Tell a Story: Across all social media platforms, it is important to check the dates of posts. When you put them altogether, they can tell a story of a person’s activity. Just by combing through this information, you may find an inconsistency in their story or claim. Perhaps they are claiming to have taken a fall at work. Yet, a social media post may show them complaining about back pain days prior. Connecting the dots doesn’t mean they are automatically guilty, but can mean that a deeper investigation is needed, just to be sure.
Proof of legally attained social media posts: That is where meta data comes into play. If you find something in a person’s social media profile, you are going to want to extract that post and gather the intelligence behind it. Remember, screenshots can easily be altered.

Video is the Golden Child

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube are all examples of social media known for their videos. People post videos of all kinds of things there. Searching these platforms can be very lucrative because of it. Just remember, if you do find something important there, you will want to not only obtain the meta data, but extract the actual video to keep as evidence that is admissible in court.

Keep in mind that we can extract videos and photos as well as capture the meta data from the post. Timing is everything however, and what is here today can be gone tomorrow.

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is an English language adage meaning that complex and sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image, which conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a mere verbal description. (Wikipedia)

I couldn’t help but think about how pictures in social media are worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to investigations. We wrote a blog back in February, 2020, about how important photos are in Instagram for an investigation. However, since COVID-19 hit, with people working form home more than ever before, the opportunities to capture an important photo have increased significantly. Look for the details!

This week, Joe Biden announced his running mate and released a photo of himself on Zoom with Kamala Harris. Did you happen to catch it? It is a great example of the importance of paying attention to what is in the background of a photo.

What Biden’s Photo Reveals

The media mocked him for several things that were picked up in the photo. It appears that he may have had a script or notes of some kind. There was a third person on the call by way of the cell phone. A cartoon was on his desk in the background and that drew attention as well. According to the Business Insider, The comic is a simple two-frame piece from Dik Browne’s “Hägar the Horrible,” a 1970s-era comic strip of a charming viking from the Middle Ages, according to comics subscription website Comics Kingdom. “Hägar the Horrible” has appeared in numerous advertisements and pop-culture references, in addition to nearly 2,000 newspapers.

In Biden’s comic, Hägar appears stranded in the sea as his ship burns in the background during fierce storm. The viking bellows out to the sky, “Why me?!,” to which the clouds responds with, “Why not?”

Biden said he kept the cartoon on his desk for decades and that it humbled him in times of need, according to PBS.

Geofencing Photos

Let’s take our photo investigation one step further. Imagine creating a virtual fence around an area of the world using software. Once set up, this software can then run for a predetermined amount of time. This can be used for monitoring of infrastructure, crisis management, or executive protection. Once it is captured, it remains available within the platform, even if the user takes it down.

Pictures like this really are worth a thousand words! They bring huge value to any investigation.

Crime Never Sleeps- COVID-19 Online Schemes & Insurance Fraud

Sadly, in times of crisis, some people use it as an opportunity to make money. COVID-19 is not an exception to that rule, and the FBI is already seeing a rise of Coronavirus fraud schemes. The FBI is warning Americans to be especially careful during this pandemic hitting our country. Always check your sources when receiving an unusual email. Do not click any links that appear suspicious.

Insurance Fraud

As business owners and employees are starting to learn what is covered under insurance and what is not covered, panic is setting in. Couple the fact that many people are out of work for an infinite amount of time, desperation can set in. People begin to do things for money that they never would have under normal conditions. We found this to be true in the beginning of the Great Recession.

According to to the FBI, “The total cost of insurance fraud (non-health insurance) is estimated to be more than $40 billion per year. That means Insurance Fraud costs the average U.S. family between $400 and $700 per year in the form of increased premiums.” This is something that affects all of us one way or another.

If past behaviors are an indicator, we know that we are most likely going to see a surge in insurance fraud. SIU Investigators are going to be overworked in the months ahead. A surge in slip and fall cases for example will occur. The claims are bound to pile up.

Online & Social Media Research

As a company who specializes in online research for fraud assessments, I can not emphasize enough how important it is to conduct your research as soon as possible. What is here today may be gone tomorrow . People will begin to clean up their social media posts.

If you think that Google and Facebook are all you need to check, you could run the risk of losing your client or employer a lot of money. When steaks are as high as this, a deep web search will serve you best. That is because people love to share online. They may leave crumbs that lead you to the exact place you need to be.

In conclusion, it is an excellent time to get in front of your insurance clients to let them know you are there and ready to go if and when we start seeing fraud increase over the next months.