Tag: social media investigations

Fake Profiles & Online Impersonation

When watching my local news the other evening, I heard of a case that really surprised me. A Town Commissioner of a small town in North Carolina, disagreed with his fellow board members over a specific topic. So much so, that he decided to create a fake Facebook profile and use it to harrass and argue with residents. Later, he admitted using a Charlotte area businessman’s real name & real profile picture. The surprising part of this is that we expect this from scammers, but not someone who would be sitting on a board of a city or town. It seems that these days, anything is possible. Being proactive is a must.

Online Impersonation Tricks

  1. Facebook Marketplace: Fake ads on the site have become a real problem. Some of the ads look like they are from legitimate businesses such as Home Depot, Lowes, etc.. They make the post look very real, using lots of pictures. The Better Business Bureau says the fake ads are common and they get thousands of complaints each year. “Impersonation is one of the key factors of what scammers love to do,” Sarah Wetzel of the BBB said. “They love to impersonate those well-known companies because that way they already have a foot in the door with the consumers.”
Source: Digital Information World

2. Rental Scams: Scammers ( who operate anywhere in the world ) can advertise a fake rental online. Next, they add a sense of urgency to attempt to get a deposit on the property. They will use excuses as to why they can not meet you in person. They also make sure to tell you that several people are looking at the property. Nationally, over 230 rental scams have been reported this year, up from the same time last year. Victims report losing an average of $550.

Better Business Bureau offers these tips:

  • Do an online search for the landlord’s email and phone number. If the same ad is listed in other cities, that’s a red flag.
  • If you can’t see the property in person, try to find someone you trust to go and confirm the unit is what’s being advertised online.
  • Don’t fall for deals that are too good to be true. If a unit is well below market rate or promising extra amenities than normal, it could be a red flag.
  • Be wary of required payments through cash transfer apps. Peer to peer apps are meant to be used with people you know.

Use the Better Business Bureau’s scam tracker as a tool to both report and prevent scam.

3. Catfishing: When someone creates a fake identity online for the purpose of starting a relationship. They then use this as a way to gain interest and confidence so they can scam the person out of money. Social Catfish is a software company that works to help people who believe they have been the victim of catfishing. It is one of the many software platforms we use at eChatter when conducting online research. They also have a great reverse image tool within the platform.

Impersonation of a Business

This is sometimes called Domain Spoofing. When done correctly, it can damage a business’ reputation while scamming consumers who fall for their pitch. All while impersonating the business. Two of the most common ways is cybersquatting and typosquatting.

  • Cybersquatting: Scammers use already established business websites and copy them to look just like the real website. They then sell counterfeit products.
  • Typosquatting: Scammers register a domain name similar to that of the legitimate business. They purposely use typo errors to change it but at first glance, people take it as the legitimate company’s website. This is sometimes used to redirect someone to a competitor’s website or try to collect ad revenue.

This just scratches the surface of the many ways scammers use the web and social media. It is a subject we will continue to write about in the future, so check back often for updates.

Workmans’ Compensation Claims and Social Media

Next to surveillance, social media discovery has been the Investigator’s best method for disproving workman’s compensation claims. Because fraud is so prevalent in these cases, insurance companies make it a point of investigating claims. The National Insurance Crime Bureau reports an estimated $7.2 billion in annual costs towards workers’ compensation fraud, making it an expensive problem for insurance companies.

It helps to first understand the types of fraud insurance companies investigate.

3 Types of Workmans’ Comp Fraud

Claims Journal describes three types of Workmans’ Comp insurance fraud:

Policy-Related Fraud: Policy-related fraud occurs when a company intentionally manipulates or withholds information from its insurance company in an attempt to lower its premium payment. For example, it is fraudulent for a business to inaccurately report the size of its workforce, misclassify employees or re-emerge as a new company on paper in an attempt to obtain a lower experience modification factor rating—a factor that adjusts the premium based on claims history.


Claim-Related Fraud: Claim-related fraud typically occurs when an employee falsely claims a work-related injury or illness in an attempt to gain a workers’ compensation insurance benefit. This type of fraud can be committed if an employee is injured outside of the workplace, but claims the injury occurred at work. It can also happen if an employee exaggerates the severity of an injury in order to receive a greater benefit.


Medical Provider Fraud: Medical provider fraud is committed when a medical provider deliberately attempts to profit off the workers’ compensation system by unnecessarily performing services on a claimant solely to collect an insurance payment. Fraudulent billing and kickback schemes with pharmacies or medical specialists are other examples.

Claim Related Fraud

This is the most common fraud case that most investigators are hired for. We have conducted hundreds of deep web scans on individuals who are suspected of fraud. Many times we identify contradictory photos posted in social media. For example, a claimant has back related issues, but can be seen in a social media post water skiing.

If attorneys are involved, many times the claimant is advised to be careful what they post in social media. They may be instructed to tell their family and friends not to tag them in any photos. The set their privacy settings high.

In fact, there is even software out now that can help attorneys monitor their client’s social media accounts for them. It is called Private Footprint. They describe their software as, “Client Social Media Monitoring for Personal Injury and Disability Lawyers”. It is an interesting approach and I wonder how many attorneys are using it.

In any case, it makes it more difficult for the investigator. We can always tell when a person has been advised to lock down their social media. Even so, there are times when photos are out there on friends and family members social media that the claimant does not remember.

In the end, people over share in social media. This can be a key factor in gathering evidence in a case and it is always worth it to check. You never know what you will find until you look.

Fraud Update: Online Sales and Marketplaces

Many criminals continue to turn to the internet to unload stolen goods. Some sites require more information than a thief is willing to part with, which then leads them to other sites that have less security. Because of the anonymity some sites offer, it is important to search for the type of goods being offered on the site. User name searches are not always fruitful. Searching for items may back you in, if you will, to the criminal’s information.

Equally important is the rise of employee fraud. We wrote about this earlier this year. In Employee Fraud in the Digital Age, we discussed a case study. 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.

Online Sales

According to Web Retailer, “47% of ecommerce sales were made through online marketplaces in 2020, amounting to nearly two trillion dollars. They also list 155 marketplaces that have more than one million visits per month, internationally.

How did this explosion in online selling happen? Over time it evolved, of course, but within the last couple of years, more and more people rely on it due to the Pandemic. Each online platform works differently, making it very difficult to find the scammers. Let’s take a look at a few of the top marketplaces to start.

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook noticed that its users were buying and selling things in groups across the platform. In 2016, it created a dedicated hub where people could post items for sale in order to reach interested buyers. They created what is now known as Facebook Marketplace, and they grew it to 1 Billion users.

The volume alone dictates that it will be a breading ground for fraud and scammers. Facebook is well aware of the issues they have and have publicly stated that they use software as well as outsourced people to review listings flagged by the software and to answer user complaints.

Most recently, you can find fake COVID vaccine cards for sale. However, for the most part you can find just about anything here.

Amazon Online Sales

It is a little more difficult to sell on Amazon. You can either sell your products to Amazon or on Amazon.

As a consumer, it is important to pay attention to who is selling an item. For example I recently purchased a specific style of shoes. I didn’t think much about it and when it was delivered it was an obvious counterfeit. It even had a very strong chemical smell. It was obvious I was a victim of a seller of counterfeit goods.

The Washington Post recently had a great article titled, “How to tell real products from scams when shopping online.” They actually listed out some good OSINT research tips, such as doing a reverse image search on the item you are looking at. It is also smart to research the company name.

eBay Online Sales

When it comes to online sales fraud, you most likely think eBay. eBay has been around since 1995 and it is no stranger to these issues. While there are many other marketplaces, It is still a gigantic places to sell all kinds of used and new products. When conducting research on a person or company allegedly selling stolen goods online, it is still the best place to start.

A couple of OSINT tips when searching eBay:

  1. Search the site for every known user name. You may even want to mix it up a bit by mixing user name letters and numbers. For example, consider the following fictitious user names; @windycity146, @tom.day, @daytom – I would search each of these but then combine to create new ones that the user may be using on eBay. Such as @tom146, @day146, etc..
  2. Search the site by utilizing the “Advanced” button, which will display new options for searches. Toggle to “show results” and then “items near me”. From here you can plug in a zip code up to 10 miles or more. This is an excellent way to search if you do not know the user name of your suspect.