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Carrying a Gun

June 26, 2015 by IPIA Leave a Comment

DetectiveAs a Private Investigator in some countries, most notably perhaps in America, PIs are allowed to carry a weapon (gun). There are situations where PIs in America can carry a weapon, and the rules about how to go about this change from country to country and even, in America, from state to state. Just to make sure you’re being safe and not creating a hazard for anyone in your family, here are some guidelines that can help (Detective).

  1. Make Sure You’re Licensed, Trained, and Properly Permitted.

When you’re carrying a weapon for self-defense, you’re also carrying a responsibility. Make sure that you’ve taken all the steps toward getting your paperwork in order so you can carry that weapon with confidence. Also, make sure and get the training you need to be competent in the use of (and when not to use) that weapon.

Taking a simple test is not enough. You need actual practice. If you don’t know how to handle your weapon well, whether it’s a gun, knife, or anything else, a perpetrator with more practice and confidence than you might well get it away from you or use your lack of knowledge and preparedness against you. Remember that a criminal often has the advantage of surprise attack.

Make sure and go to the range on a very consistent basis and practice until using the weapon is second nature. This can take hundreds, if not thousands, of hours. Also practice taking the weapon apart, cleaning it, and reassembling it until you feel that it’s easy. I can’t emphasize regular practice enough.

Seek out extra training from people who have experience with weapons in action situations. Some of the best mentors to seek out are police, ex-police, military, or ex-military people, because they have training under all conditions and can put you through various scenarios, just like they do in police academies, where you have to think fast and think right (Detective).

  1. Don’t Be a Hot-Head.

You should never carry a gun for emotional reasons. If you’re the type of person who blows up at other people, feels that there are lots of people out to get you, or who has any anger management issues, you might want to seek out training along those lines first. Call it mental agility. To really be effective and safe with weapons, you have to understand what they’re for and what they’re not for. Emotion should not be a factor in your decisions on how to use the weapon, so make sure you’ve got some Emotional Intelligence on your side.

  1. You’ll Probably Never Have to Use It.

Understand that the purpose of carrying a weapon is not to become a vigilante. In fact, most people in the world will never be faced with a weapon used by another person. And when they do, playing it cool will result in no physical violence the vast majority of times. So even if they carried a weapon, the occasion that would require using it would be so rare that most people never would. The best armed person knows the statistics and how rare it is for a weapon to be used.

  1. Make Sure You Store Your Weapons Properly.

Guns and ammo should both be locked up when not on your person. And, they should be locked in separate, secure cabinets where children won’t be tempted to break the glass and play with the weapons or ammo. Displaying a weapon might also tempt a visitor to steal it, so make sure you are smart when it comes to storing your weapon of choice.

  1. Know Verbal Judo.

Statistically, more confrontations are diffused with a favorable outcome by using what police call “Verbal Judo” (www.verbaljudo.com). When weapons are displayed, people get very disturbed and frightened, and those kinds of people are less likely, not more, to use good judgment, including the perpetrators themselves and the victims (Detective).

If you have a confrontation with a perpetrator, chances are that the person is not thinking too clearly in the first place. Verbal Judo is a way to get people to comply with requests and behave more rationally, because it puts several choices in front of the perpetrator or suspect and that forces the him or her to think.

Anytime someone slows down enough to think, it becomes very obvious that his or her outcome is dramatically improved by calming himself/herself down and becoming more cooperative.

Verbal judo is a very targeted way of talking that gets very good results, which is why police forces send their officers through the training. Often, it re-frames a potentially deadly situation to a more orderly and cooperative one.

Here are some reasons you should not carry a weapon:

  1. Not Enough Practice Time.

You really need hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of practice in a good shooting range to get good with a gun. And you need some scientific and mechanical information about how weapons work as well as the kind of scenario training that officers have to experience in able to wield a weapon sensibly. When you’re nervous, and you will be if there’s a confrontation, that’s when things start to go wrong. So make sure you’re very familiar and comfortable with the actual weapon. If you do, you’ll lower the chances that you’ll ever use one in error (Detective).

  1. Kids in the House.

If you’re living with children, you should know that they’re very unpredictable. We know for sure that kids can fool their parents, usually in some fairly harmless ways like sneaking biscuits and getting away with it, but they can sneak the key out of your nightstand and unlock the guns as well. Don’t think that just because you’ve taken measures to ensure their safety, they’re not aware of what your methods are and how to undermine them (Detective).

  1. When Not Helpful During Surprise Attacks.

When someone attacks you or another person, it is usually sudden and surprising. Because of this, you may not have the time to get your weapon out in a useful way. Remember that the criminals often think about and time their surprises to make it difficult for you to get to your weapon before they have you covered. And stealing your weapon can bolster their crimes.

  1. When People in Your House are Suffering from Depression.

When people are depressed, they could try anything. Often, you won’t know that the person is suffering. Depressives have a way of suffering in silence until they try something rash, and you don’t want to be caught unawares. That’s because if a person is suicidal, they don’t want you to know so you can undermine their attempts to free themselves with a permanent solution.

By writing this list, I am not advocating that you carry a weapon. Most PI’s do not carry a weapon because it’s generally safer if you don’t, and correctional officers working inside prisons do not carry weapons unless they’re posted in a locked tower, away from any possible personal contact with inmates. I only hope that by reading this, you will choose safety first whether you carry a weapon or not (Detective).

Filed Under: Letters from a Private Investigator, Letters from a Private Investigator, Letters from a Private Investigator, Letters from a Private Investigator, Letters from a Private Investigator, Letters from a Private Investigator Tagged With: tips

Revenge Photos

May 26, 2015 by IPIA Leave a Comment

Detective

Because of technology being what it is, new crimes emerge from time to time, and one of the new crimes that hasn’t been completely absorbed into the various criminal justice systems around the world is that of the revenge photo (Detective).

This is the misuse of nude or provocative pictures taken and exchanged between two people in a loving relationship. After the relationships splits up, one partner uses these photos to humiliate the other one.

For example, a lady that was known as Sandra found out one day that her ex-boyfriend had viciously posted nude photos of her on Facebook! The photos went viral and were shared across many social media platforms. Once the cat’s out of the bag in social media, you can’t control how many places the photo can show up, and this can go on indefinitely.

In some areas, there are laws against posting this kind of photo even if nude or pornographic photos are allowed on a particular platform, because the “model” did not consent to having the pictures displayed publically. In one case, the laws were so lax that the woman who was victimized actually had her breasts copyrighted so she could use copyright laws to force the removal of nude pictures of herself.

Some social platforms, such as Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram, have policies against this kind of revenge, but even when they do, their customer service may not be as attentive as they could be. Therefore, people can send email after email requesting the photos be removed without hearing any response (Detective).

In some areas of the world, there are laws on the books that could be used to protect the victims even if there are no laws specifically targeting revenge photos. For example, in parts of the US, there are civil laws against coercion, stalking, and harassment, so it may be possible to use the civil courts to remove the photos even though there has been no crime under current law. Many other places are passing new legislation specifically targeting these revenge photos because a person’s whole life can be disrupted, knowing that he or she can be recognized anywhere and even barred from getting certain jobs because of the photos.

Exchanging photos between two members of a committed, loving relationship can go horribly wrong when the relationship goes sour and one party has neither the respect, dignity, or ethics to let it go gracefully. Even though it reflects poorly on the character of the perpetrator, the victim is normally the one who suffers the most. Laws with mandatory financial punishments may help perpetrators think twice about posting revenge photos. Sometimes the perp might actually make money by distributing the photos, but money is not usually the motivation (Detective).

While the victim knows exactly who the perpetrator is, it might take some investigation to prove it, and this is often where we would enter the picture to help track down where the photos are going and who’s responsible for releasing them.

Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) along with our sister agency Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) are  fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Filed Under: PI Tips, PI Tips

Reference Checks

April 26, 2015 by IPIA Leave a Comment

Private Investigation

Application forms and resumes from job applicants carry plenty of information on the candidates. They are the documents employers rely on to find more about who the applicant is and whether they are suitable for the job opening that is available in the company. Usually, the resume will have referees given by the applicant in relation to the schools they have attended and previous jobs. The references are used by the potential employers to verify information and even find out more about the candidates (Private Investigation).

The truth is that the resumes and application forms won’t reveal everything about the candidates, but through the references, you can find out additional info apart from verifying what you already have. When conducting job interviews, ask for the consent of the applicant to contact the references given to gather additional information or make verifications. You can then go ahead doing your reference check and here are tips that can help you enjoy a pleasant experience all through.

  • Start with the reference checks early. This should actually be early enough before you make a decision on the candidates. The sooner the better since you will be in a position to give all candidates equal chances of consideration before a final decision is reached. Early checks will save you from fast, quick last minute checks that won’t help you much.
  • Always identify yourself, the organization and your title when you call up the references and then let them know the reasons why you are calling. If they reckon it is a good time to talk, you can go ahead with the check or schedule to call later if they are busy (Private Investigation).
  • Let your references understand that the information they give on the candidate will be held confidential. This will ensure that they feel comfortable enough to disclose all details you need on the applicant honestly.
  • Give the references enough time to respond to the questions you pose to them without cutting them off or filling out sentence on their behalf. The more you can find out about the candidate the better it will be for you. Ask questions related to the candidate’s performance, strengths, weaknesses, team spirit, success in fulfilling duties, job responsibilities, salary, employment capacity, and relation with other employees and reasons for leaving employment in the company in the organization. You can also give the references time to make additional comments on the applicant (Private Investigation).
  • Take down notes as per the response you get on each candidate. You will find it easier to go through all information when you take notes on the individual resumes or application forms to make evaluations swift later.
  • Ask for more references from the references you are already contacting if you feel a need to extend the check on that given individual.
  • Hire the services of private investigators. They offer background checks or investigations and they can physically visit the references or conduct telephone interviews on your behalf to get you all information you need within a short period of time.

Reference checks are important to make employers today in verifying applicant information and also getting to know the kind of a person they are about to hire. Private investigators can successfully help in such checks too (Private Investigation).

Filed Under: PI Tips

Your Son is in Prison

March 26, 2015 by IPIA Leave a Comment

scam

This is a new scam Indonesia Private Investigation Agency has recently come across. In fact after hearing a variation on this story a few times it happened to me personally (Private Detective).

A couple of weeks back I got a call that woke me up about 2 in the morning. It was an adolescent and he was sobbing hysterically. His words were very unclear with noise in the background but he was obviously very upset. He was saying “mama help me”. I tried to calm him and ask him to explain what had happened.

At this point another man came on the line. This man was far more authoritative and calm. He claimed he was a policeman. He told that they had my son and he was in prison on drug related offences. The police would however let him go if I transferred money immediately. They asked for $5000.

I actually do not have a son but still it was actually very realistic. There were police sirens in the background. For a moment I actually thought that they were telling the truth and they had just called the wrong number. Even though I had heard of this scam before I still found the whole scene extremely convincing.

I played along with them and told them I could not travel to an ATM and I did not have $5000. The policeman because very hostile and a dialogue of negotiation started – prices were lowered, they also asked I do telephone banking (Private Detective). The issue they were most adamant about was that the transfer had to done there and then. It could not wait until the morning. Eventually the scammer became very hostile towards me and used some very foul language.

The first time I heard of this kind of scam (before my own experience) was a few months back when a potential client called me and said he had had a call from someone saying they were the police. The story was pretty much what had happened to me. The scammers told the person on the oher end of the phone that they had his daughter in custody who had been found with some drugs. The scammers then offered to release the daughter for a fee of $500.

I then heard a similar tale where the callers pretended to be from a hospital saying a child was seriously injured and money needed to be transferred immediately for medical care (Private Detective).

Both these attempts failed. The first attempt failed because the person receiving the call was able to verify if indeed his daughter was at home or not. The second failed for similar reasons.

This week I received yet another called by a potential client who wanted us to find some scammers. They told us the following story. Unfortunately this woman paid the money.

The phone rang and the client, a middle aged woman, answered the phone. A man’s voice spoke on the other end of the phone. The voice was anxious sounding and distraught with tears. The person on the phone only blurted: “mama, mama”. The woman then said: “John, is that you?”. Another person (or maybe not) then took over the phone and claimed to be police. The “policeman” (scammer) then said “we have your son John in custody for drug possession”. Once the woman was engaged in the conversation it did not take long for the scammer to offer to help her by saying they would release the son without legal charge for a payment of $2500. There were some conditions to this offer: the money had to be paid immediately via ATM transfer or preferably phone banking (Private Detective). The other condition is the woman had to stay on the telephone whilst she made the payment.  She was not allowed to put the phone down. In this particular case the payment was made.

Of course it did not take very long at all (just a half hour) for the woman to find out that her son, John, was not in prison, nor had he been. Likewise it was not long before the real police were contacted. As it turned out the police were able to do nothing. They did freeze the account where the $2500 was sent within an hour or so but by that time the money was already gone. The account emptied. The victim is of course told she must stay on the telephone during the whole process to ensure that s/he can not verify the truthfullness or otherwise of the statement. I can only presume that scammers must create the con by setting up a bank account with a false id card. In Indonesia it is quite easy and cheap (as little as $50) to get hold of a false id card. With this card anyone can open a bank account. This account will no doubt have minimal funds in it, and the moment the target transfers money this money is withdrawn with whatever other funds can be (minus the mandatory holding fee – usually a few dollars). The account is then basically abandoned and when the police track the owners they come across the false id. The scammers do not exist. They need one bank account per scam I would guess, one false id per scam. The child profile will no doubt be someone in early adulthood – old enough to be pretty much independent to some degree. I do not know the statistics here or the odds, but I would bet that if you made 20 calls to random numbers there would be a pretty high chance that one of the people answering has a child fitting the profile not at home (Private Detective).

Filed Under: scam Tagged With: Scams

Spotting Fortune Telling Scams

February 7, 2015 by IPIA Leave a Comment

fortune teller

The English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelly puts it aptly –

“We look before and after, and pine for what is not”

This is a natural tendency among us humans. We look into the past to see how far we’ve come and look into the future to get a glimpse of where life will take us. More than living in the present, we are concerned about the future. There’s nothing wrong in it. However, there are many conmen taking advantage of our desperateness (fortune teller).

A large number of cases registered with private investigation firms are of those scammed by fortune tellers. A few were coaxed into buying Rolex watches while many others were robbed of their life savings (Private Detective). This is not to say that all fortune tellers and psychics out there are frauds. Here are tips to tell if a fortune teller is taking you for a ride (fortune teller).

  1. There are fortune tellers who line the roads during festivals and special events and those who practice from their offices. A license or a registration is a proof of credibility and accountability. Thus, the fortune teller should have legal permission to do business in your town. Most states do not allow fortune tellers to practice without a license. A licensed psychic with a well-established office is less likely to wrap up his business and leave every time he cheats a client.
  2. Fraudulent soothsayers often demand money to perform special work or prayers to resurrect your troubled life or to keep your loved one’s from suffering. They extract money from you claiming that they have the power to turn your life upside down (fortune teller).
  3. Fortune tellers are skilled at playing with people’s minds. They hold you in a trance-like state and make you accept things you wouldn’t otherwise approve of. Con artists threaten clients that their life will be ruined or tragedy will strike if they do not obey their instructions.
  4. A fortune teller tells a client to purchase Rolex watches as the timepieces would turn the tide for her. You need to watch out for such fortune tellers. Buying items in not restricted to valuables but can also include simple items such as a blessed candle, crystal or some additional, expensive reading. You might also be asked to buy supplies for the completion of a particular ritual (fortune teller).
  5. The nature of the person can give you hints about his integrity and honesty. They tend to be over-sympathetic and mothering. In reality, it is their excellent acting skills to get out more personal information that they will simply reword for you in the coming future and make you believe that they have some divine powers.
  6. Be cautious if the clairvoyant makes repeated demands for money. The demands are small initially, but being repeated it amounts to a few thousand dollars.

People have gone bankrupt getting caught in the traps laid out by such conmen. They lose their life savings and all their valuables (fortune teller). When they realize, it is often too late. If ever you run into a fraudulent fortune teller, hand them over to the police immediately (Private Detective).

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: letters, letters, letters, letters, letters, letters, letters, letters, letters, Scams

Lets Kill All the Lawyers?

January 21, 2015 by IPIA Leave a Comment

Letters from a Private Investigator

lawyers

Lawyers and Private Investigators  

In Shakespeare’s ”Henry VI,” Part II, Act IV one of the characters famously states: ”Let’s kill all the lawyers.”  This sentence is often misinterpreted. I have seen it quoted as an indication that lawyers are for example not to be trusted or only after money, or unethical or corrupt.

Shakespeare’s exact line ”The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” was actually said by Dick the Butcher. Dick the Butcher was a follower of the rebel Jack Cade, who thought that if he disturbed law and order, he could become king.

Seen this way Shakespeare was actually illustrating a positive view of lawyers – they instill justice in society.

In our line of work lawyers and private investigators often collaborate. Despite being proficient and trained in our respective professions, we cannot function entirely on our own. We require the assistance of others. This might include professionals within our field of specialization or individuals from other professions. Lawyers and private investigators share such a mutually beneficial relationship.

Although a lawyer has several skills, resources and techniques at his disposal, working with a resourceful private investigator can make the difference to how and how soon he or she is able to crack a case.

Listed below are a few reasons why a private investigator can be a lawyer’s best friend.

  1. Interviewing witnesses –

Provided with police reports and other necessary documents, a private investigator does his best to locate all possible witnesses and thereafter interviews each one of them. A witness is not legally bound to talk to you or provide answers to your questions. Most of them detest lawyers and try to stay away from them. A Private investigator, with his persuasive manner, gets around witnesses and secures the desired information.

  1. Locating witnesses –

Often prosecutors and the police tend to overlook potential witnesses because the process is tedious and time consuming. A private investigator scours the place or case for additional witnesses and thereby unearths facts previously unknown to the lawyer, prosecutor or police. A private investigator does not only help locate witnesses but also relatives and friends involved in a case for an example an heir.

  1. Conducting a thread-bare analysis of recorded statements –

After recording statements by witnesses, PIs sit down to compare and contrast these statements recorded by witnesses. They analyze the recorded statements in order to judge the integrity of the witness in question. A detailed scrutiny of the recorded statements helps them catch flaws and areas for exploitation.

  1. Tracing assets –

Private investigators can help in tracing lost, hidden or robbed assets on behalf of an attorney associate for his customers. Assets include locating real estate property, vehicles, antiques, collectibles, jewelry, artwork and important documents. PIs also help in locating illegal off shore and domestic bank accounts. They also monitor trademark and intellectual property goods for counterfeiting and improper diversion.

  1. Reviewing crime scenes –

The facts are the meat of any case; it can make or break it. Often, lawyers observe that there are discrepancies in the reports at different levels. These differences make it difficult to proceed with the case. Instead of depending on the reports created by the officer-in-charge, a lawyer can hire a private investigator to go review the crime scene. Many PIs are trained in police procedures and can attend crime scenes to make sketches, take pictures and notes, videotaping and the likes. These details might seem minor, but they are crucial because they reveal inconsistencies.

  1. Recovering electronic evidence –

In our age of computers and technology, looking up diary entries and letters to clues does not suffice. Private and confidential information is stored in password –protected files on computers. A Private investigator is trained in the skill of securing electronic documents including email correspondence as well as deleted files and messages.

Above all, by outsourcing tedious and time-consuming tasks to a qualified professional investigator, you have more time to strengthen your case from the legal angle. Investigating, interviewing and documenting might take up hours for you, but for them it’s easy. So, capitalize on their expertise and come out looking good.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Counterfeit Goods

December 11, 2014 by IPIA Leave a Comment

Protecting Your Business Brand

counterfeit

Every business works hard to create a brand that instills confidence in the minds of its customers. However, counterfeiting can shatter it all in moments.

Counterfeiting of goods has become quite a serious concern today. It is so common that 1 in every 10 products sold is a spurious one. This underground trade has caught up on almost all products right from pricey technology goods to the humble toothbrush. Each year, counterfeiting results in a loss of millions of dollars. Once a product has been counterfeited, it can be difficult to remedy the problem. Hence, taking the right precautions to prevent it is important.

Steps to Prevent Counterfeiting

  • Limit Outsourcing

Outsourcing has been looked upon as a very promising option in the past few decades. The cost benefits are one of the main reasons for it. However, officials investigating the counterfeiting issue have outlined this as one of the main causes promoting counterfeiting. When companies outsource production to less developed countries, they put their designs and plans into another’s hand often resulting in the production of inferior counterfeit goods. Companies should outsource production only if absolutely necessary.

  • Assign a Dedicated Team

Protecting your goods from counterfeiting is a full-time job. In the midst of fulfilling core business activities, it is natural for your attention to get diverted from monitoring and protecting company assets. However, this temporary period can cost you a lifetime of effort. If you have a dedicated team to handle the task, you can rest assured and concentrate on other key tasks.

  • Brand Protection Solutions

There are many companies that specialize in protecting business brands against counterfeiters. They use varied brand protection solutions such as unique security coding technologies. Their team of employees research and develop

The world of counterfeiting is expanding at an uncontrollable rate. Products are being recreated and copied and sold within a few days of the launch of the original product. The bigger problem is that these inferior quality goods are sold at a fraction of the original cost. There is no silver bullet to fix the problem. However, a few brand protection tools can provide some level of security to your business and your brand.

  • Tour the Market

Many companies do not realize for long that their goods are being counterfeited unless it is brought to their notice by others. Counterfeit goods are identical, but with a few distinguishing features. Touring the market will not only help you find out if your goods have been counterfeited, but also give you a hint of the location from where these counterfeit goods are being sold. In addition to this, you should monitor the web regularly. You should check the search engine results for product brand name as well as your company name.

  • Register Copyrights  

Registering copyrights for the product or its components is a relatively inexpensive brand protection strategy. Organizations such as IACC (International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition) and INTA (International Trademark Association) give brand owners as well as others a deeper insight into the Infringement Protection law. A better understanding of the law will make it easier to go about the process. If you still think you will be incapable of handling the issue independently, you should work with a lawyer with experience in your industry as well as having experience in copyright and trademark laws.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Intelligence or Espionage?

November 14, 2014 by IPIA Leave a Comment

Letters from a Private Investigator

espionage

Competitive Intelligence or Corporate Espionage?

Corporate espionage is not new to us. We’ve had a taste of it in films, television series and books, but not many of us are aware of its prevalence in the real world. Big and small corporations are willing to pay exorbitant sums of money to get their hands on a competitors trade secrets whether its information about their next lineup of goods or their secret recipe.

Money does not matter to them because this information can guarantee double and triple amount in returns if they manage to gain ground and dominate the market shares. This is the information that can literally take them from rags to riches.

There is another method of information collection called competitive intelligence. Many mistake competitive intelligence and corporate espionage to be the same. The most important point of distinction is that one is legal and the other illegal.

So what is the difference between competitive intelligence and corporate espionage?

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Competitive Intelligence is looked upon as a healthy and legal business practice. Unlike a few decades ago, the market for goods has become highly competitive. There are hundreds of companies manufacturing the same product only with a slightly different design and a few added features. If a business has to survive this competition, it is necessary that it keeps itself abreast with information about its competitors. This is where competitive intelligence comes in.

Competitive intelligence is an ethical method of gathering, managing and analyzing information about one’s competitors. The process is not a secretive one. The required information is collected from public sources including trade events, corporate publications, patent filings, company websites and news bulletins. The information that is gathered is used to the advantage of their business. Competitive intelligence is more like market research.

Corporate Espionage (CE)

Corporate Espionage is deemed unethical and illegal. This is the type we get to see in movies and read about in books. The objective of corporate espionage is to acquire private and confidential information about a commercial organization. The process is illegal first because of the information that is traded out and second because of the methods used to do the same.

Unlike competitive intelligence, it involves getting important trade secrets using black hat techniques. Either the information is stolen or is obtained by bribing an employee working with the organization. This employee is usually a person who holds a position of authority and has unlimited access to the company’s confidential information. In some cases these top-level employees are blackmailed to obtain the information.

The kind of information usually sought includes product designs, manufacturing techniques, trademark recipes and formulas, sales and marketing strategies, pricing, customer data, R&D strategies and company policies not publically available. They might also try to obtain information about company bids in various projects.

Corporate espionage is basically spying and usually takes place between corporations while CI involves following ethical business norms and follows legal guidelines. There is however one similarity that we tend to overlook between the two – it is done without the knowledge of the target company. Corporations can use both competitive intelligence and corporate espionage to run their business.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Filed Under: Letters from a Private Investigator

Traitor In Your Company

October 5, 2014 by IPIA Leave a Comment

traitor

Detecting Fraud in the Workplace

As an employer, understandably you think it is your responsibility and moral duty to empathize with and trust those working for you. Indeed most of the time that makes the most sense. However, as much as this is important, it is also necessary to at least be aware that there is always the possibility that your employees may get involved in deceitful activity under the garb of honesty. Most employers realize very late that there was a traitor operating right under their nose. And the saddest part of all is it often turns out to be one of their most trusted employees (traitor).

It is necessary to detect and solve the problem of occupational fraud because it not only costs you thousands of dollars but can also result in confidential company information being given out. This article discusses how employers can protect themselves against occupational fraud by identifying behavioural flags at the right time.

First, it is very important to understand what we mean by occupational fraud. It involves using one’s occupation fraudulently for personal gains. The employee in question might steal company money, sell company property (including secrets), and fabricate financial documents or misuse corporate assets.

Why does it happen?

According to criminologist Donald R. Cressey, there are three factors that might instigate an employee to go down the wrong path. It includes incentive, opportunity and rationalization. The incentive is the factor that drives the person to commit a fraud. The first is the desire to live a luxurious life which requires money. The second possible motivation could be economic distress.

Speaking about the aspect of rationalization, the perpetrator tries to justify his actions. In some cases, he is in dire need of the money. He steals the money secretly with the intention of replacing it later before it is known to anyone. However, he gradually goes deeper and deeper not realizing it (traitor).  Second, he chooses to steal because he believes it to be his right. He believes he is not being paid for what he deserves. Finally, he thinks he has earned it.

The third aspect according to Donald R. Cressey is opportunity. The employee in question looks for the right opportunity to commit the fraud. This is either when no one is around or when the fraud controls are relaxed.

Behavioral Patterns (Traitor) That Ring the Bell for You

  • If you have an employee that works extraordinarily hard. You will notice that the person rarely takes time off or works odd hours to complete tasks assigned to him. Also, he or she rarely goes on a vacation. He is planning the whole thing, covering up for it or waiting for the right opportunity.
  • If you have an employee who lives way beyond his means. For example, an employee who finds it hard to meet his monthly budget has recently purchased a pricey car or a luxurious mansion.
  • If an employee is in economic distress. Everyone faces some form of financial crisis. It could be an exorbitant medical bill or a house mortgage. However, there are some who are deep in debt and desperate for money. If such a person is given charge of the cash or checkbooks, you are tempting him to steal.
  • If an employee has specific addictions. It could include substance abuse, alcohol or gambling. These people are always in need of money and they would do anything to get money.
  • If an employee is a real complain box. There might be employees who feel they are underappreciated or under paid and look for other ways to enrich themselves.
  • If there is an employee who becomes suddenly very secretive about his actions and refuses to let anyone else take charge of duties.
  • If there is an employee who is unnecessarily close with stakeholders, vendors and clients.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Filed Under: PI Techniques

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