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Reputation Management: Hire an Investigator

When you think of reputation management, what industry comes to mind? Perhaps you would think of a PR or Communication company. We have all seen commercials on TV around companies that can help you improve your image. They promise to get rid of those bad reviews, gather up good ones, and make you look like you are the best thing out there. But are they missing something? I believe they are. Here’s why.

Chief Reputation Officer

What many companies don’t think about is that reputation management is something that needs to happen proactively, not reactively. A recent Forbes article titled “Five Reasons Your Company Needs A Chief Reputation Officer” explained it best.

“Most companies, including your competitors, are usually only thinking deeply about reputation management after a crisis has hit. They react and try desperately to repair the damage. This is a huge missed opportunity because the damage done was often completely avoidable. Just like no sports team wins a game playing only defense, your company needs to play strong defense and come out with a strong offense.”
Forbes

Where the Private Investigator Comes In

When I speak to Private Investigators, I am amazed that many have not thought about this area as a vital way to grow their business. In my opinion, they should be considered to be part of any good reputation management program or team. In our digital world, they will be able to determine exactly what needs to be monitored and how. After all, they do this type of investigating all the time.

Family law, infidelity cases and divorce depositions have been mainstream avenues for revenue for decades. Some of the PI’s love them, and some avoid them like the plaque. Those that avoid them do so because of the amount of work vs. the amount of compensation.

Promote your business as a firm that covers Corporate Reputation Management services. By doing so, you are in some ways, investigating for a company in some of the same ways you would be investigating for a cheating spouse. Only better, because the work is proactive VS. reactive. If you catch an issue that a corporation has online before it goes viral, you have saved the day.

Back in June, we wrote about Employee fraud and COVID19. In that post, we cited a Fortune 500 company’s loss of over $100,000.00 because of a plant shut down due to a dishonest employee. It happens more than we know.

Proactive Steps to Take

As a service offering, it is smart to offer a corporate client a deep web scan on their business. What does their online profile reveal? Some things to consider:

Reviews are obvious, but many people think of them as Yelp, Google, and Trip Advisor. They are the biggies, but there is much more out there.

2. Location based Monitoring: Does the company have more than one location globally? By creating a virtual fence around physical locations, an added security level is created for any violent social media mentions in the area. Additionally, automatically pull in any negative keywords for reputation management.

3. Employee Revenge. As more and more employees are laid off because of our current pandemic situation, some are understanding and some are not. It is human nature. Just today, I read a post in LinkedIn about a disgruntled employee telling everyone how she was let go from a major company. She went on to say that she mistakenly placed all of “who she was” around this position for the past 8 years and how this was a major life mistake. Her post gained a lot of views and encouraging comments, as it should. However, think about the company’s name there. Most people are left with the impression that the company did something wrong to her. We don’t know the full story, but it can still leave a lasting impression. Glassdoor is a website where current and former employees anonymously review companies. I will bet many don’t even know about that one site alone.

See the possibilities yet? Do you think in today’s online world, this could be something your firm is capable of doing? Email me if you would like to kick around the idea for your firm.

Staying Ahead of the Social Media Curve

One area that OSINT & Social Media Researchers have in common with Social Media Marketers, is the challenge of staying ahead of the social media curve. It seems like almost weekly, social platforms change something. Most of the changes have to do with ease of use for the user or trying to adhere to changing policy regulations.

Facebook Classic VS New Facebook

Facebook recently changed the way your profile looks to a new version. They allow you the opportunity to toggle back and forth if you wish. The New Facebook update is also referred to as FB5. Facebook wants its platform to be centered around group and events more than in the past. It has a white background or you can choose a dark mode.

How does this affect our investigations? How is Facebook 2020 different from Facebook 2019? One area of interest is the emphasis on groups. We have discussed this in the past, but I think it deserves another look and mention.

Pocket-Link reports, “Facebook said the Groups Tab has been overhauled to make finding new groups that you might be interested in even easier. The feed for groups will also serve up recent activity within groups you’re a member of and may even replace the News Feed as the default feed. You’ll also see more connections among groups and the Facebook features you use the most, such as Marketplace or Facebook Watch.

OSINT Facebook Tips

So how does this relate to searching Facebook? While some things may change, others remain the same. Searching for the Profile ID is still the same. Once you receive that information, you are able to use some other methods and tools to make your searching easier. This can be found in “properties” by right clicking on a profile page.

The person’s page ID can never change. Even if they change other aspects of their profile. Once you have this, check to be sure it is correct. In your browser, type in facebook.com/ID#, as a way to verify you have the correct number.

Facebook Market Place

Once you have Market Place as part of your profile, you can easily go and search there for your subject’s name. If you find something, you can see under the person’s name, the date in which they joined Facebook. This may be helpful in identifying when they joined. If you recently joined Facebook, you will not be able to participate in Facebook Marketplace. Another social media curve ball.

In future blogs we will dive into business page profiles and some good information you can glean from it. When doing a corporate scan, this is an overlooked area of interest.

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The COVID-19 Fraud Storm Continues…

When we think of fraud due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we think of individual people committing fraud. After all we are only too familiar with workman’s comp insurance scams & most recently, employee fraud. We have discussed in a previous blog post how one Fortune 500 company had a loss of over $100,000.00 after an employee falsely said they were tested positive for COVID-19.

The story now continues with business fraud. Small businesses across the country have been nearly put out of business due COVID-19. Many have been able to stay afloat from government PPP funding. However, some are sadly starting to take matters into their own hands.

What the Experts Predict

Data analytics provider Verisk has alerted folks that COVID has created opportunities to commit medical billing fraud and abuse. In April, the company said its data reported a 14% increase in claims linked to suspicious billing practices.

Verisk said its Insurance Service Office MedSentry team has identified several COVID-19 medical billing schemes. Among them:

Unlisted lab tests. There was no specific ICD-10 code for COVID-19 until April 1. Prior to then any COVID-19 tests were likely coded as “unlisted laboratory tests.” Claims for a patient who has received both an unlisted laboratory test and a COVID-19 test may be cause for scrutiny.
Hands-on therapy charges. Many providers eliminated in-office visits and began to offer telehealth sessions. Verisk said bills for hands-on therapies such as chiropractors, physical therapists, and massage therapists should be examined.
Unnecessary durable medical equipment. Insurers should be wary of misleading claims for gloves, face masks, thermometers, and similar items, especially for patients who have not been tested for COVID-19 or have tested negative, Verisk said.

Social Media Monitoring

Work is being done to create a software that allows the user to find unapparent connections between all people in a claim to uncover potential scams. While it has a way to go in development, if created, it would be an excellent resource to help investigators identify potential scams and link the culprits.

Google Search – Trending

Google searches can be very revealing and a good indicator of what people are thinking of doing. The question, “How to Burn a Car” has increased 125% since January of this year.

Not surprising, Google is showing some strong trending in Employment Fraud. The graph below shows Google trends over the last 90 days.

We will continue to report our findings during the pandemic.

Social Media Regulation & Section 230

Will Social Media sites ever be regulated? Should there be a social media regulation policy? You can’t stop people from giving their opinions. That is called free speech. Social Media is the place where we all take part in free speech. What is up for debate is whether or not expressing your opinions on those sites falls under our First Amendment rights or not.

This week it comes front and center once again because of a Tweet from President Trump that Twitter added warnings to. Trump did not break any Twitter rules, however the social media site added its own opinion on the subject. It is no secret on how liberals feel about Trump’s Tweets. They despise them. I am certain that even some of Trump’s followers cringe at many of his Tweets. The problem here, in my opinion, is not the subject matter but the way in which Twitter did it. Should the owner of a social media platform be able to censor an opinion of anyone? And where does it stop?

What did Twitter Do?

Twitter said that the tweet about mail in voting fraud fell into a gray area of misleading content that the company deems as being important to call out. The platform rolled out its new fact-checking approach on May 11, around misinformation about COVID-19 which can be very dangerous. There is a lot of false statements made on all social media platforms and I think when it comes to public health this is very important. I am glad they have this safeguard in place.

However, did Twitter go too far this time? What does the law say? When this is talked about, Section 230 is always brought up. But is it out of date?

What is Section 230?

Section 230 was actually is part of federal legislation that was created 20 years ago. It has a total of 26 words. A recent Forbes article explains it this way:

They are the “26 words that created the Internet,” says Jeff Kossett, a cybersecurity law professor at the U.S Naval Academy and one of the foremost experts on Section 230.

Most fundamentally, Section 230 provides immunity to social media companies like Facebook and Twitter against being sued over the content on their site. This allows them to operate and flourish without needing to moderate content.

“Section 230 set the legal framework for the internet that we know today that relies heavily on user content rather than content that companies create. Without Section 230, companies would not be willing to take so many risks,” Kosset says.

Has social media gotten too big to regulate? Should it even be considered? What about censorship in the media? How does one ever really fact check these days when so many news outlets have their own agendas?

What do you think?

Linkedin Loop Holes: How to Use Them in Your Search

Could Linkedin be an OSINT analyst’s secret weapon? Whenever we speak to Private Investigators about OSINT techniques, we always point out that each social media platform can be used like a search engine. Trial and error is the course of action many of us experience when searching for a business or person in social platforms and Linkedin is not an exception. This can be time consuming but if you hit it right, it can reveal a lot about a business or person. Linkedin indexes pages within the platform to Google.

Facts About Linkedin

As of 2017 Linkedin got rid of their advanced search option.
There is a difference of what you will uncover if you have a free version vs. paid subscription.
You can use Boolean Search techniques.

When I conduct manual searches, I like to use whatever string of words I can to highlight, right click and search Google. The same holds trues when you are in LinkedIn. In other words, don’t be limited to the name of an individual or their profession. Another rule of thumb here is to think outside the box. Not everyone puts their title in their description field. In fact, many people will place all kinds of info there, depending on where they are in their career.

This result was found by searching “looking for a new opportunity” in Linkedin. It is a good example of what I am referring to.

Recently, a team member was working on a potential fraud case for a client. The individual was a Pharmacist. He did not list his name as “John Doe”, rather he used his middle name. He listed himself as “Ryan J. Doe” and instead of using “Pharmacist”, he used Pharm. That was a tough one, but when someone doesn’t want to be easily found, they will use all kind of name combinations. When I search for a white collar professional, and I can’t find a Linkedin profile, I figure something is off. That is when further digging can really pay off.

Don’t Forget About Image Search Using Linkedin

Many times the photo that a person uses for their Linkedin profile. they use in other spots on the web as well. Take advantage of that by doing a reverse image search on your POI.

The above example shows my photo being linked to an article in Customerthink.com , where I commented on the article written by someone else. This is also an example of how you can find information in the deep web. A recent blog post, “The Devil is in the Details” explains more about deep web searches.