Law Enforcement Archives

OSINT Research: The Devil’s in the Details

For those unfamiliar with the term OSINT Research, it is explained this way by Wikipedia

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of information that is gathered from public, or open, sources.^[2] OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and business intelligence functions and is of value to analysts who use non-sensitive intelligence in answering classified, unclassified, or proprietary intelligence requirements across the previous intelligence disciplines.

OSINT sources can be divided up into six different categories of information flow

Media, print newspapers, magazines, radio, and television from across and between countries.
Internet, online publications, blogs, discussion groups, citizen media (i.e. – cell phone videos, and user created content), YouTube, and other social media websites (i.e. – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). This source also outpaces a variety of other sources due to its timeliness and ease of access.
Public Government Data, public government reports, budgets, hearings, telephone directories, press conferences, websites, and speeches. Although this source comes from an official source they are publicly accessible and may be used openly and freely.
Professional and Academic Publications, information acquired from journals, conferences, symposia, academic papers, dissertations, and theses.
Commercial Data, commercial imagery, financial and industrial assessments, and databases.
Grey literature, technical reports, preprints, patents, working papers, business documents, unpublished works, and newsletters.

OSINT Resources Reveal the Details From the Deep Web

Many times our clients want to better understand the difference between a social media scan and a deep web scan. Taking a close look at the image above explains a lot and kind of surprises most people in terms of the data on the web that is openly available.

eChatter Case Study Examples of Deep Web Details

Recently, we were trying to find out whether a POI (person of interest) was married. He had no Facebook clues other than he was in a relationship. After conducting a deep web scan we found a local newspaper article in which he was named along with “his wife”. The wife chose to keep her maiden name.
A deep scan was ordered by a client to determine what happened to a deceased person’s body. We found an association letter that was published online indicating the person was cremated and buried at sea.
A client needed to know if their POI had any business affiliations that wasn’t disclosed in a divorce settlement. After a deep scan was conducted, we located quite a few businesses tied to the POI.

Does it always work out this way? Not at all. Mainly because some people are much better at hiding this than others or because they were advised to delete everything online by advice of counsel. However, these are the kind of details OSINT research is all about. You will not find this in a Google search.

Wait…Where Did That Social Media Post Go?

What happened to that social media post you saw yesterday during your recent online investigation? Are you kicking yourself that you did not capture that post when you saw it? It can happen and very often does. The old adage, what is here today, is gone tomorrow, is something that happens all of the time, especially in social media. It may suddenly be changed from “public” to “private” at any point. The user’s entire profile can be deleted at any time. Where will that leave you and your investigation?

Largent V. Reed

Back in 2011 this was not an issue as social media was just starting to grow. In a personal injury lawsuit, Largent v. Reed, the plaintiff claimed that a recent accident had left her with severe physical and mental pain. During the trial, defendants presented her post-accident photos posted to her Facebook profile. These photos revealed the plaintiff was clearly feeling well enough to engage in her daily activities and exercising at her gym on a regular basis.

Fast forward to 2020 and things have changed. People are more aware of what they post and use user names that are different than their real name. Let me give you a recent example. One of our clients requested a deep scan from us for a case that involved fraud. We conducted the scan and produced the report capturing the subject’s Facebook account. Scans include live URL’s as well as screen shots showcasing all publicly available data. Once given to the attorney, he had a question about one of the posts specifically. When attempting to click on the link within the profile post, he came to a dead end. We did capture a screenshot, which in most cases is sufficient for investigative purposes. However, time is critical when conducting this type of research. Looking a little more closely at one of the posts was no longer possible.

Web Preservation

Preserving digital data is something many attorneys are starting to take a serious look at and in some cases are requesting from their private investigators. Judges are getting stricter when it comes to allowing social media as evidence in court. Not all cases make it to court of course, but preserving social media may be that extra step that your clients may want you to take.

Social media posts can be altered quickly, often at the advice of opposing counsel. Be sure not to wait too long to capture the data you need and in some cases, be sure to preserve that data.

Secrets About Social Media Monitoring That Nobody Will Tell You.

By now most people have heard of social media monitoring in one form or another. Social media monitoring is something that companies do in order to maintain a good online presence and to monitor their online reputation. Restaurants, retail stores, doctors, lawyers and more are smart to hire a company to conduct this ongoing research on their behalf. It can reveal a lot about the company and its competitors.

In the investigation world, social media monitoring can take on an entirely new dimension. If you advertise that you conduct social media investigations, this added service could be a great new source of revenue for your company. A recent case study provides a good example of what we are talking about.

An investigator’s client (who is an attorney) was interested in locating an individual involved in a case she was working on. She wanted the individual’s social media watched for updates, as he was not able to be found using traditional surveillance methods. The investigator needed social media monitoring in order to watch for location clues in as close to real time as possible.

In the social media/ online world, things can change in a second. What is sometimes here today, will be gone tomorrow. That is where monitoring comes in. When an investigator uses social media monitoring, they are getting updates in real time. This type of online surveillance can be handy as it allows the investigator to get a clear picture and an update day to day on the whereabouts of his poi. This allows an investigator to act “in the moment” to better target resources to serve the person as needed, or to even find a missing person.

While conducting social media monitoring for this investigator we were able to locate the person. Within their instagram stories, we could see that he was on vacation and wanted to share his experiences. Looking at the background of an image can reveal a lot. We could see that he was visiting a very popular tourist destination. With this added information, it allowed the investigator to target more effectively. This may not be true in every case as some people don’t use social media at all. However, they are in the minority.

So next time you think about social media investigation ask yourself this question:

Would it be of value to my client to conduct social media monitoring for this case?
Some examples include:

Jury monitoring before, during and after a high profile case
Locating a missing person
Threat monitoring

The bottom line to all of this is to begin with the purpose & be certain it is well justified and that you are monitoring open source data only. When needed, this is an additional step in your investigation that may save time and money in the long run. People love to share their experiences online and this will never change. Learn ways to use it to your advantage.

Cyber Crime: The Rise of Sextortion in Video Games & Chatrooms

Sexual predators will use any means available to lure innocent kids into doing what they want. The scary part is that they do their homework first. The FBI reported about a man recently, in his 40’s, who actually worked as a youth Pastor to learn how kids talked and interacted with each other. Next he created fake social media profiles to lure boys to take videos of themselves. He was caught and is now in jail.

Video games is another avenue with which predators attempt to communicate with kids and it is perhaps the most dangerous. The reason for this is because parents don’t always understand the nature of the video games their kids are playing. This puts them at a disadvantage and is one reason why the FBI started a school campaign on the dangers of talking to strangers online.

So, what resources are out there to help educate parents and educators help prevent this crime? One great resource we can recommend is Thorn.

Thorn was born in 2012 by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. When they learned about sex trafficking in Cambodia, they started to dig deeper. Its then that they realized it was happening in the US as well.

Today, Thorn is thriving with a lot of wonderful partners and continued education and promotion.

Facebook has adopted Thorn, and created The Stop Sextortion Hub as an additional resource for people. On this site, Facebook offers a great selection of information.

Meet the staff at Thorn and reach out to them if you are interested in getting involved.

Our success is measured by how many children we’ve helped save, how many cases we’ve contributed to solving and how much harm we’ve prevented. Through focused and persistent effort, we can stop online child sexual abuse.”
From: About us on www.thorn.com

If you are wondering who is most vulnerable, read “Online Predators: What Every Parent Should Know” . Many times parents think that kids are in their room, in their home, playing video games and they are safe. However, there are warning signs parents need to know.

Resources You Need to Know
Chatrooms Community by Talk With Stranger is like a social network of strangers. Discuss topics, follow people, chat with people, make friends & share everything for free! We have 1000s of online users waiting to chat from every corner of the world.

Discord is a proprietary freeware VoIP application and digital distribution platform designed for video gaming communities, that specializes in text, image, video and audio communication between users in a chat channel. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and in web browsers.

If you are reading this blog, please share with parents and people who can make a difference. Education is key to stopping these predators.

The Dark Side of Facebook

Facebook is a place for online predators to stalk, engage and eventually lure an innocent kid to meet up in person. We have heard these stories too many times.
In this month’s newsletter, we want to cover some areas you may not be aware of, things that Facebook doesn’t really speak publicly about.

Facebook Groups Used To “Friend” Kids: When a person creates a Facebook Group, they have the choice of making it public or private. Facebook Groups can house all kinds of crime from fraud to drugs to sex trafficking. Kids who have a low self esteem or don’t have many friends are the ones who are the most targeted because of their vulnerability. They then get lured in by pimps offering them all kinds of fun and/or material things. Facebook has had numerous lawsuits filed against them over the years because of this. Newsweek published an article on one such case. A child of 12 years old was supposedly groomed online (in social media) for over a year. Facebook now has a very clear policy for this, with excellent resources in case anyone runs across a tip on a victim.

Photos Used For Extortion: A scammer can potentially sift through photos on Facebook, capture and download them and then conduct a reverse image scan to see if any married people are on any dating or swinger sites. They then can use it for blackmail.

Friend Requests: Romance scams are on the rise. Friend requests come in from a handsome man or pretty woman and many people will say yes to the request. Sometimes it may show that he or she is friends with some of the people they know, which makes it all seem more believable. Next comes the “online courting” stage and pretty soon they are asking for money. Catfishers set up elaborate fake profiles to make them appear to be real which hooks someone looking for love online.

Facebook Fraud: Targeting young women, a scammer once again took Facebook images of a victim and then created a post that said she was missing. Then 20 of her friends were duplicated and her “missing’ post was shared on all of their fake profile timelines. The scammers then blocked the real Facebook profiles so the victims couldn’t even see the fake profile of themselves.