Category: Investigations

The Online Personality of Your Subject

Is the online personality of a person different from their in person personality? I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called, “Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.” The docuseries is about a Canadian college student, Elisa Lam, who was a guest of the hotel in 2013. She disappeared and was missing for a period of time around some very unusual circumstances. I won’t tell you anymore, in case you want to watch it.

Her Tumblr account was an open book. Tumblr is a social media platform that was very popular during this time frame. Elisa Lam used it like a diary and in the documentary it is explained in detail what was obtained from the scrubbing of that open source information (OSINT). Her personality came through loud and clear through analyzing her social media posts.

Online Personality

When it comes to pulling online activity from social media, blogs, forums, etc. on your person of interest, personality plays an important role. Everyone in the investigation’s field knows that a person who is narcissistic for example, will provide you with a treasure of information online. In some cases, perhaps even more than you might need.

But what about all those people in between? People approach social media differently and there are many factors to be considered.

Two Major Personality Differences

One would think that an introvert would be non-social but that is not necessarily true. Consider some actors or comedians. Most seem like extraverts by the way they conduct themselves publicly. However, when interviewed, many of them say they are more introverted.

What are some common traits of Introverts?

  • Introverts in social media care about their privacy.
  • They tend to only accept friend requests from people they know.
  • They really don’t care about the number of “likes”.
  • Most likely unaware of friend requests.
  • Will unfollow or delete you.

What are some common traits of extraverts?

  • Extraverts don’t worry about their privacy.
  • They are more inclined to accept invitations from people they don’t know.
  • Extraverts care very much about the “likes” & shares.
  • They do pay attention to friend requests.
  • Most will keep all of their connections close.

 From a psychology point of view we can take a look at “Introvert vs. Extrovert: A Look at the Spectrum and Psychology.  The article points out the following. “How extroverted we are can have a huge bearing on our day-to-day life across a multitude of contexts and it’s important to note that there’s no ‘better’ level of extroversion/introversion – both ends of the spectrum have their advantages and disadvantages but by understanding where we fall on the scale we can address areas in which we’re perhaps lacking.”

Personality predicts what people do on social media.

A large body of research on social media use and personality has focused on the Big 5 personality traits, the most widely accepted trait theory. When people are asked to rate how much different traits characterize them, those traits cluster into five groups:

Knowing and understanding some of this may be of help in your next investigation. It is well worth it to take a look at your subject’s online activity to reveal glimpses into their personality.

Employee Fraud in the Digital Age

In today’s digital world, employee fraud and theft is up and can cost a company a lot of lost revenue. This is an area in which a Private Investigator can be be very valuable to a loss prevention department.

A recent article in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported two employee fraud investigations.

“Home Depot just caught an employee who stole over 100K in electronic gift cards. “Said accused did, between January and November 2018, use his position as a Home Depot employee to send E-Gift cards to email accounts that he set up himself, or were provided to him from a third party, in the amount of $156,330 U.S. dollars,” the arrest warrant states.”

“A teenager was arrested after he was accused of stealing nearly $1 million from the Kroger store where he worked. According to police, 19-year-old Tre Brown created more than 40 returns for non-existent items in December and January, including lottery tickets that were never sold, spokesman Cpl. Collin Flynn said. Those returns, which ranged in price from $75 to more than $87,000, were then placed on several credit cards, investigators said.”

Benefits Pro, an employee benefit firm, recently published an article on the warning signs.

Employee Fraud Red Flags:

• An employee living beyond their means
• An unwillingness to share duties
• Being under pressure on the job
• Family problems or divorce
• Defensiveness
• Past legal problems
• Refusal to take vacations

According to Certified Fraud Examiners, a typical company can lose up to 5% annually to employee fraud. In fact, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners conducted a study in 2018 titled, “Report to the Nations: 2018 Global Study on Occupational Fraud and Abuse.” The study included 2,690 known cases. Many do not get reported due to the stigma and bad public relations to the company itself.

The study goes on to reveal some other commonalities.

  1. The overall amount of loss by men is 75 percent larger than those caused by women.
  2. The most common way employee frauds are discovered is via tips.
  3. Internal control weakness is responsible for nearly half of frauds.
  4. Employees committing fraud who have been with their companies longer stole twice as much.
  5. Small businesses lost almost twice as much to fraud per scheme as larger ones.

Deep Web Research

If the investigator is looking for stolen merchandise, then the web is one of the best places to begin. Conducting a deep web search on a person of interest can provide a starting point. Details may emerge that will provide various emails, phone numbers and user names. Connecting the person with online social media groups, market places, Craigs List, and more may provide you an exact place where the stolen merchandise is being sold.

Auto Parts for Sale

We once worked on a scan for an Investigator whose subject was suspected of selling a very unique set of stolen auto parts. The employee had created an eBay account and made the mistake of using a familiar user name. After the user name was revealed in our Deep Web Scan, we turned our attention to the online websites that sell goods to consumers. We were able to piece this information to that of our client’s subject. A huge catalog of stolen auto parts were on display!

The internet has certainly helped employee fraud. With more avenues to sell stolen merchandise, it can be just the right kind of lure an employee needs to do the unthinkable.

Outdated POS systems, computer programs and data storage entry gaps can be additional areas of concern for many retailers. Being proactive is always your best approach to take away the temptation. Smaller businesses may not have the money for a loss prevention department. That is where a Private Investigator can be a valuable asset to your business, specifically one who deals in computer forensics.