Letters from a Private Investigator IV

In our last post (Facebook: The PI Friend) we already covered how useful Facebook and other social media sites can be as private investigator tools, and indeed anyone wanting to carry out their own “research”.

Most people probably think of state of the art spy tools when they think of private investigator tools. This is true to some extent – IPIA and our sister agency BEPIA  uses advanced cameras and recording equipment, bionic ear dishes and portable voice changers. We also have access to forensic laboratories

The foundation of a private investigator’s work though is really built on tools that are common and available from many places (if not free) and not just specialised shops. Without these tools it would be difficult to operate.

Five Private Investigator Tools Anyone Can Use

Advanced Google Searches

You can find almost anything on the web, and therefore Google may seem like an obvious choice  as a private investigator tool considering it is by far the most popular search engine out there.

Similar though to IPIA’s post on Facebook as a private investigation tool (Facebook: The PI Friend) not too many people know how to take full advantage of the advanced capabilities of Google.

For example the “Around” feature will search for two terms within a specific number of words near each other, the “site” operator will search a specific website for terms and the “-” (minus sign) operator will exclude a term.  These are  just a few of many advanced search operators that you can use with Google.

Skype for Private Investigators

Skype of course is good for free skype to skype calling, very cheap international calls and video conferencing where you can have a video chat with many people.

Additionally, Skype as a tool for private investigators has various third party add-on’s. One of the best is the ability to record phone calls.  IPIA uses different free add-on applications that can turn any conversation into a MP3 recording.  Be careful here though – you could be breaking the law if you try this yourself. Laws vary in different countries with regards to recording phone calls.

Digital Scanner

This may be an off the shelf private investigator tool but it is not that cheap. Still it is openly accessible to anyone. Having the ability to scan hundreds of pages of documents in a matter of minutes used to be the kind of stuff you would see in James Bond movies, but not anymore.  Scanning hundreds, if not thousands of pages of documents into searchable digital files, can save hours of  looking over paper documents.  Our private investigators use the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500; it’s portable, scans both sides of the page in one pass and it’s fast and reliable.

PDF Converter and OCR Software

Converting documents into PDF compatible files can be very useful.  In Indonesia in particular most cases produce lots and lots of paper. Therefore having the ability to store digital files into a searchable format can be a huge timesaver and can help you find documents quickly and easily.  IPIA uses the Adobe Acrobat Standard, which is reliable and very functional, despite a hefty price tag.

Google Desktop

Having hundreds (if not thousands) of digital files can be a problem for a private investigator if you don’t know where they are.  Google Desktop constantly scans your hard drive, Internet history and your emails so you will never “lose” anything ever again.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) along with our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) 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.

Letters from a Private Investigator III

Facebook: The Private Investigator Friend

Facebook can be a very good friend to a private investigator or anyone that wants to do their own investigations IF you know a couple of  tricks.

It took our private investigators quite while to work out how to really squeeze Facebook.  Perhaps you are like me – at first I just could not find people.

Well it was easy enough to find people I was not looking for. BUT the problem for a private investigator with Facebook is there are many many privacy settings.

Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, all the new social media sites, are  playing a bigger and bigger role for private investigators, and there is no bigger site around at the moment  than Facebook.

With 800 million active Facebook users, it’s more common for someone to be on Facebook than not. Social media sites such as Facebook offer a massive amount of information that might be relevant to a private investigator including an asset investigation or a business or personal background check.

In fact just last week I had a client that asked me to get pictures of someone’s family and also find her work history. My client wanted surveillance but I suggested first I just use some “magic” private investigator tools. Approaching it this way we could reduce the amount of surveillance needed and therefore make it less expensive for the client. Within an hour or so through some Facebook tricks I had all the pictures she was after along with the target’s curriculum vitae. This was then verified with the minimum surveillance needed.

As i said one of the big challenges for private investigators (or anyone for that matter) to find somebody on Facebook is all the privacy settings that people use so that they can not be found. But there are ways around that, which we will go into below.

Here are four ways to find somebody on Facebook:

Facebook Search

The obvious place for a private investigator to start is Facebook’s own search feature. Here you can search by the person’s name, school or company. You must have an active account in order to access this feature. In order to find a person on Facebook, the person you are looking must not have their privacy settings turned on so that the person can be looked up by name or contact info.

Email Address

For most social networks, Facebook included, you can find somebody by typing in an email address. So even if a user profile has been set up under a completely false name, a private investigator can still find the person by typing his or her email address into the Facebook search engine.

Site Operator

The big secret about Facebook that perhaps not everyone knows is that even if privacy settings are set any comments a person makes become public.

So what you can do is use the site operator in Google. This will search all pages that have been indexed by Google. If you include site: in your query, Google will restrict your search results to the site or domain you specify.

So, for example, lets say a private investigator is looking for Tom Cruise, you would type “site:www.facebook.com Tom Cruise.”

Search Friends, Family and Colleagues

You can of course control your own privacy settings, but not other people’s. Facebook even has its own family search, where a private investigator can search by family last name. If friends, family or colleagues don’t change some privacy settings, you may be able to find the person by looking through the friend lists of friends, colleagues, family and coworkers.

So What Next?

If you have found the person’s profile, well done.

But the person may have set their privacy settings so you can not look at the person’s wall or pictures.

Don’t give up. Think like a private investigator. We have found that people often leave their friend lists open, which can help you find other information.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) along with our sister agency  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) 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.