They decided to hire private investigator John Milano, also an ex-policeman, to carry out a mission to retrieve back the 11 carat emerald cut diamond ring along with a hefty $5,000 reward to anyone that can return back the lost item.

The couple realised they had lost their ring which was at their home, in the cup on their dresser on the 23^rd of December 2011. Mr Milano was sure that there were people in the house at the time the ring went missing and carried out a polygraph test to the potential suspects.  He also traced back to pawn shops in Martin County, Florida and also New York City due to the high demand diamond market.

After the polygraph test,26 year old Cody Mejias, a cleaner for the house proved to have failed the test and from then, quoted from Mr Milano that, “she was avoiding him after.” He also said: “I hunted her down. She refused to come in so we had to get police involved.”

Cody Mejias was arrested and after charged with grand theft. The affidavit said: ‘Mejias was apologetic and stated she needed the money to feed her children.’ ‘Mejias advised the money she retrieved from the transaction was used for food, gas, Christmas gifts and bills.’

The ring was tracked back and rediscovered in a pawn shop on Jensen Beach Jewellers which is owned by Charles Sarullo. The ring was allegedly sold for $4,800. The Martin County arrest affidavit states: ‘According to Sarullo, Mejias came in on 12/22/11 and stated she received a diamond ring as an inheritance from a recently deceased aunt.’

Mr Milano called Mr Sarullo to offer him the $5,000 reward to return the ring on top of the $4,800 he spent for it. When an item of high price and value is purchased, it is highly advisable to pay the ‘in-comparisonly-low-fee’ insurance to cover any lost, theft or damage. A mistake the couple clearly made. Likewise, hiring a private or corporate detective in this case proved triumph.

Investigators have been given permission to interview developers, their accountants and solicitors, and view full financial records in order to unearth assets which were trying to be kept out of the eyes of the State.

Last year all major NAMA members were forced to swear affidavits detailing their assets and their debts. If it is proven that they lied, NAMA has the ability to impose very tough sanctions on them.

The private investigators will be carrying out asset tracing using the most up to date computer forensic techniques to discover undisclosed wealth. They will also look into more secretive countries through the use of local experts to increase scrutiny of Ireland’s developers who owe the government €70 billion.

On the 14^th of December NAMA invited companies to apply for the work and up to 10 investigation firms will go on the eventual panel. The contracts are expected to run over two years with an option for renewal.

A large number of developers have set up companies abroad, such as the Isle of Man to hide their wealth and it is very likely that this will be a key part of the investigation.

NAMA has made it clear that the investigators hired are obliged to keep in contact with them at all times and they are ultimately responsible for how they operate.

So far NAMA has already reversed transfers of wealth from developers to their children and their spouses. Several hundred million Euros of transfers have been reversed and NAMA is no doubt hoping to find more such cases.

For just over a year the blog article went largely un-noticed. Fast forward to May 2011 and things start to change. Up until that time the original Microsoft scam warning article was being viewed about 30 times a month. In May, it was viewed 152 times, in June 395 times, in July 757 times and in August 2,264 times. Since then the number of views has hovered around the 1,700 mark.

Since the blog article was published there have been 49 comments made by people from across the globe. Conflict International would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has contributed to the blog. Your comments have really helped people avoid becoming victims and have helped raise awareness of this particular scam.

It should be said that the blog article Conflict International wrote was also targeted by the scammers responsible for this. After seeing a particularly detailed blog comment by a George Walker on the 23rd of November the scammers posed as him by adding another comment under his name saying how he had been refunded and that this is no scam. Needless to say this didn’t stay under the radar for very long at all and the post was removed.

However it also demonstrates that the scammer’s cage has been rattled. They resorted to a desperate attempt to misinform our readers and anyone searching for information on this topic. This is because over time the blog article climbed up Google rankings to appear high on the first page for a variety of keywords and phrases around the scam.

It is now December 2011 and from our understanding the scam is continuing and there has been little change in the way they carry it out. You receive the call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft Global Tech Support, or something similar. You are then informed of having malware on your computer, at which point you may be passed on to another ‘department’ or a tech guy. You will then find out that for just a few hundred pounds the problem can be fixed.

We want to stress that although we do describe the scammers as quite the amateur bunch, this is not the case. They are a well organised group who have successfully conned who knows how many people out of who knows how much money. Underestimating the people behind this scam would be foolish.

As it stands this scam will continue and it is unlikely that any one person or organisation will bring it to an end. It is therefore vital that people share their experience in order to educate and prevent others becoming victims. With this in mind, Conflict International would again like to thank all our readers and the people who have commented on this topic. It is really appreciated and you have helped people become innocent victims of a global scam.

When carrying out undercover corporate investigations or fraud investigations a private detective risks a great deal. If their cover is blown then the legal case which they are working on is going to suffer a major setback. There are those however, who operate in an environment where if they are exposed they are more than likely to lose their life.

This has been glaringly brought to light in the recent New York trial of the ex-Soviet officer, known as the ‘Merchant of Death’, Viktor Bout. Arguably, the biggest industry in the world is arms. This does depend on what you classify ‘the biggest’ however it is safe to say that the weapons and security industry is very big.

The vast majority of the defence industry, though sometimes controversial is legitimate business. There is however a black market for arms dealing. Anyone who has seen the film ‘Lord of War’ starring Nicholas Cage will have some idea of this. In an ironic twist of fate the film was based upon non-other than the man convicted in New York, Viktor Bout.

The trial of Viktor Bout has come to fruition thanks to an incredible piece of undercover work by Carlos Sagastume. In his undercover role he posed as a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC, to coax Bout to travel from Russia to Thailand in March 2008 to arrange to send deadly weapons to Colombian rebels to fight Americans.

Born in Guatemala, Sagastume spent five years in the army specialising in intelligence gathering and then began transporting drugs. According to Sagastume he was then kidnapped by Federal police in Mexico and a $60,000 ransom was paid to release him, after which he contacted the DEA in Guatemala in search of a new line of work. By 1998 he had moved to the United States and was having a lot of success with DEA investigations.

In January 2008 he was then recruited into a DEA sting operation designed to catch Bout who was well known to have supplied weapons in across South America, the Middle East and Africa with clients ranging from Liberia’s Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to the Taliban government that once ran Afghanistan.

Sagastume was assigned to pose as a FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) member who wanted to buy 100 surface-to-air missiles, 20,000 AK-47 rifles, 350 sniper rifles, 5 tons of C-4 explosives and 10 million rounds of ammunition, among other weapons. Sagastume successfully lured Bout to travel from Russia to Thailand in March 2008 to arrange to send deadly weapons to Colombian rebels to fight Americans. The trap was set and the sting operation was a success.

This case highlights just how far and extreme undercover operations can be and reminds us that there are people who work in extremely challenging environments risking their lives. It also shows just how valuable undercover surveillance is because without Sagastume’s amazing work, Viktor Bout would still be fuelling conflicts around the world.

Sadly, as with many industries and technologies there are those who wish to exploit it. The development of applications for our Smartphone’s has grown significantly in the last couple of years and it is this area that criminals are targeting Smartphone users.

To be more specific, the threat to Smartphone users is related to malware disguised as innocent applications, which in fact send messages and make calls without showing up in your phone’s history. The messages can cost as much as £6 per message and can be sent as frequently as one per minute.

As a Smartphone user, you will be completely unaware that any of this is taking place as it is specifically designed to work in the ‘back-end’ of the system. This can result in weeks of malware activity which can land you with a ridiculous phone bill.

However the trouble does not end there. Some malware will enable fraudsters to take control of a user’s phone, which can then be sold on and used for a range of criminal activity. Clearly, criminals realise the potential Smartphone’s can offer them so it is now up to the Smartphone manufacturers, software and application developers and ourselves to protect our Smartphone’s much more effectively.

If you look at computers and the development of viruses and then look at the development of anti-virus software you will see that it is an evolutionary arms race. Someone writes and releases a virus, eventually the virus is understood and the anti-virus software is updated or further developed to counter it and so the cycle continues.

In the coming years you can expect the area of Smartphone security to expand significantly as more and more people use Smartphone’s the more threats we will see and have to counter. Until then there are a few things you can do to help keep your Smartphone secure.

1. Check reviews, ratings and developer information before downloading any app
2. Malware can seriously impact battery performance so if you phone drains its battery exceedingly quickly this may be the cause.
3. Check your phone bill regularly for any suspicious activity

Private investigators understand how attached we can get to our phones. There have been several reports of private detectives hunting down celebrity’s lost phones but what we hear less about is how government security agencies invest in securing their phones.

Below are some words from the Event coordinator, Alina Velius.

“In September 2011 the Transeuropean Centre of Commerce and Finance was delighted to foster a meeting between Conflict International and representatives from high-profile Russian companies.

Heads of Security and Fraud divisions in Rosneft (Russia’s leading extraction and refinement company) and Uralkliy (one of the world’s largest potash producers) enjoyed learning about the British experience in investigation and intelligence.

The representatives remarked on Conflict International’s profound expertise in this field and noted that the experts’s competent answers to the questions related to their current challenges were very useful.

Both sides had a chance to exchange contacts and continue the heated discussion over lunch. Transeuropean Centre will be delighted to welcome Conflict International in the future events involving high-profile Russian delegations.”

Alina Velias
Event Coordinator
Transeuropean Centre Ltd

However the reach of social media goes beyond a bit of cyberspace chit chat. In a recent court case in the United States a defendant tried to impeach the credibility of a key prosecution witness by turning to Facebook.

The witness stated that she had no contact with the accused after he was charged with stabbing another teenager at a party. However, the defendant was able to show that the witnesses Facebook page contradicted her testimony.

This was an inspired moment from the accused. Perhaps a first of what will become increasingly widespread. Unfortunately for him it was met with an answer which could also become increasingly common. The witness did not deny the postings were from here Facebook account, but she denied ever writing them.

The witness claimed that her Facebook account had been hacked into and somebody else posted the messages. Although this might sound about as convincing as an eight year old telling her teacher the dog ate her homework it did create enough doubt in the mind of the judge to rule the Facebook messages inadmissible as evidence.

As of yet there is no consensus regarding the validity of Facebook in legal matters. At this stage there seems to be one major factors preventing Facebook and other social media sites from being heard in court. Simply put security. A court must be one hundred per cent certain that whatever evidence is being submitted is totally authentic, which in this case means knowing that the witness was the only person with access to her Facebook page, knowingly or unknowingly.

Law enforcement communities and private detectives understand the impact social media can have. For example in the recent London riots, which then spread to other parts of the country, Facebook and other social media sites were heavily used amongst the young people who made up the majority of those rioting.

The police and judicial response to the riots have been swift and strong which includes arresting and charging individuals who encouraged violence, disorder and looting on social networking sites such as Facebook.

A private detective service today has to be familiar with technology and communication. The police, the judiciary and the government have all seen the rise of social media. What they must also understand is that it is more than just a communication tool for many. It represents freedom of expression and opinion which need to be handled accordingly.

London private detectives

A recent report by the Security for Business Innovation Council (SBIC) suggests that for most businesses and organisations it is a case of when rather than if, they will be targeted by an advanced cyber threat. Whether it is corporate espionage or hackers, large corporations in particular have been warned to shift their focus toward damage limitation. In other words a multimillion dollar business that spends millions on cyber security cannot guarantee it will never be compromised and therefore one must consider how to limit the damage and recover the situation.

The SBIC is made up of 16 top security experts from the Global 1000 who discuss the latest security concerns and how cyber security can respond. The people who make the SBIC include the Chief Information Security Officer at Nokia, the Chief Information Risk Officer at JPMorgan Chase, the Chief Information Security Officer at Coca Cola and thirteen other high profile information security experts.

The SBIC report is a good representation of the cyber threat to large corporations because the people who make up the board deal with information security in large organisations. In 2011 we have seen the NHS, Citigroup, Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Sony, Playstation Network and the European Space Agency become victims of hacking.

The list of corporate hacking victims is only set to continue as hackers and hacking groups have proved to be very intelligent and capable. Believing that your cyber security is impenetrable is naive at the very least. As the SBIC has stated it is equally important to consider and plan for what happens in the event of a hack.

Private detective London

Setting up the right protocols and procedures for the worst case hacking scenario can make a big difference in recovering the situation and potentially even retrieving the data itself. Private detectives with experience in the corporate information security environment are just one resource available to such organisations.

The increased threat of cyber attacks and cyber terrorism has forced individuals, businesses and government organisations to rethink their security measures and procedures. The IMF will no doubt be reviewing their own security after what they described as a major cyber attack.

The IMF is not alone. The Sony Playstation Network hack and Lockheed Martin are examples of other major cyber attacks which have brought the matter of digital security under the spotlight. The major concern is that a successful cyber attack has the potential to seriously damage power, finance, security and government systems.

For some individuals the recent cyber attack news has been so nerve raking that they have cancelled accounts on social networks, reset passwords wherever possible and delete any sensitive information stored online.

Some detective agencies and private investigators have great experience in counter electronic surveillance and digital security. Simple things like regularly changing your password and ensuring it is nothing obvious like your pet’s name is a good start.

Businesses and government organisations face cyber attacks on a daily basis. Cyber security is like many of the great arms’ race in history. It is a never ending game of cat and mouse and neither side shows any sign of quitting.

Investing in cyber security, whether you are an individual, business or government organisation should be a top priority. It is also vital to learn from your mistakes and more importantly others mistakes.

The legislation proposed is designed to track the movements of domestic violence offenders who repeatedly break restraining orders. Protecting vulnerable individuals in a community is key aspect of a civil society as it reflects humanity, compassion and concern for others.

The bill proposes that once and offender is fitted with a tracking device the State Department of Corrections would monitor the movements and alert the victim and local law enforcement agencies if the offender enters a restricted area which would be identifies in the restraining order.

Approving this legislation will require US lawmakers to consider all aspects of the bill, such as the right to privacy and the cost of actually implementing and managing these changes. The main group concerned about this legislation are fathers due to custody battles.

Going through a divorce and losing the right to see your children can break any man. In some cases individuals lose control and target their former spouse. In other cases domestic violence can be the product of drugs or alcohol. Whatever the reason, society has a duty of care and protection which thanks to GPS technology is made much more effective and easier.

You need only to read the recent news to find examples of where this technology might have been useful. In very recent news, a UK mother, Chrissie Chambers and her two year old daughter Shania, were murdered by David Oakes. He was the ex-partner to Chrissie and the father of Shania.

What is particularly upsetting and aggravating about this case is that Chrissie Chambers showed the police over one hundred threatening text messages just days before she was murdered. David Oakes and Chrissie Chambers were also going through a custody battle and the murders took place just hours before a scheduled court appearance.

In America they are considering adding legislation that would allow GPS tracking for domestic violence cases. Perhaps the UK judiciary should consider what exactly constitutes being in serious danger or when does a threat become a life threatening. Clearly these are difficult questions to answer but they are extremely important, perhaps even a matter of life or death.

Remember though that this type of legislation is for protecting the vulnerable. It is not for the benefit of private detectives, private investigators or the law enforcement community. It is for the protection of those who need it and GPS can help.

As the internet has grown, so too has the volume of data stored on it. Internet users, businesses and governments alike have grown to trust it enough to store a range of sensitive information and data. And while security measures are rigorously tested and put into place, the potential rewards for cyber criminals is so great that the risk is an afterthought.

The recent hacking of the PS3 Network had demonstrated just how determined and intelligent cyber criminals are because the gaming market is huge. Online gaming in particular has seen spectacular growth, as more people play and spend money online it made a perfect target for cyber crime. It is estimated 77 million users had personal data stolen, making it one the biggest data thefts in history.

The way we communicate is also changing dramatically thanks to software such as Skype which allows an individual to have a meeting in New York without having to leave their London office. The bulk of communication in business is now done through e-mail. Meanwhile, social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have had an equally big impact on our personal lives.

Legislation protecting data has however remained reasonably static as it has failed to keep up with rapid technological development. In the US the Electronic Communications Privacy Act was put in place in 1986 and is woefully out of date.

However amendments to this act have been proposed which offers more legal protection for the privacy of data, with particular focus on cloud computing due to its growing use. The proposed amendments would require law enforcement agencies to obtain court-ordered search warrants before accessing electronic data stored on third party cloud providers.

The proposed changes would also impact on geolocation information, and it would require law enforcement agencies to notify suspects within three days that the government has accessed their data. Furthermore digital surveillance and undercover surveillance will create additional issues for those proposing the amendments.

Some argue that the proposed changes will only make it more difficult for the likes of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to protect the American public and maintain national security.

The proposed amendment to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act requires further debate due to the significant impact it would have on law enforcement and user privacy.

At this stage it is difficult to predict the impact of the proposed changes for private detectives and private investigators. Because they are not strictly part of the US law enforcement community the changes might not affect them.

However any overwhelming changes to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act will inevitably have some kind of impact, it’s just too early to say if it will be positive or negative.

The death of Osama Bin Laden will undoubtedly raise many political questions however it has also resulted in the biggest intelligence in a number of years. The Special Forces team was able to recover five computers, ten hard drives and over 100 other storage devices such as DVDs and flash drives.

That data captured will now be in the hands of the US intelligence community and agencies such as the CIA will already be well into trawling through the data for further information on Al Qaeda and affiliated groups. The information gathered will help in further understanding the terrorist network, the individuals within and any plans that may be in place.

Computer forensic experts and analysts will be using all their skill and training to extrapolate as much information as possible. However with such a large haul of data this will most likely keep many computer forensic experts busy for a very long time.

In countries like the USA and the UK the intelligence community will put great effort into counter electronic surveillance and protecting valuable information and data. On the other hand Al Qaeda is unlikely to have the resources or the expertise to protect their sensitive material in the mane way.

What this highlights is the value of information and data. The expression ‘knowledge is power’ has never been so true and over the coming months and maybe even years the United States will use this new knowledge against the terrorist organisation.

The field of computer forensics and data analysis has never been so important. These highly skilled individuals are in demand from businesses and governments around the world as the roots of the digital age grow stronger spread further and wider.

The case study will be used on the UKTI website, for testimonials,presentations, events, exhibitions and press material.

Download the case study

Some might be shocked and surprised and others may be less so. The least surprising aspect of this is the technology. The iPhone and other smart phones have tremendous capabilities such as surfing the web and satellite navigation. And it is this very technology which enables Apple to track every iPhone user’s location history.

As with most things the hardest question to answer is why. Why would Apple want that data. Perhaps Apple doesn’t want the data and just sells it off to the highest bidder. As of yet there has been no explanation from Apple as to why this is happening.

Perhaps Apple is in cahoots with private investigators, or perhaps even the government? Until there is a full explanation conspiracy theories will surface and this may damage their traditionally loyal customer base.

Trust is incredibly important, be it in business or your personal life. Businesses work incredibly hard to build up trust between themselves and their customers in order to grow loyalty. When people are misled, particularly when it comes to privacy issues the impact can be quite severe.

However Apple has such strong brand loyalty that in all likelihood this will hardly make a dent in their profits. In fact some people will not care in the slightest and will actually want to see this data themselves, which is now possible thanks to some keen hackers.

Private detectives have been using tracking systems for as long as they have been around. It now turns out that if a cheating spouse has an iPhone it might contain all the data needed.

The same can be said of many other busy international cities such as New York and Paris. However in developing countries and emerging economies the same cannot be said. There may be a domestic private investigation industry but it is unlikely to posses the same level of skill, experience, training and technology.

In some places around the world just being a private detective is extremely difficult. In Dubai for example it is illegal to hire a private detective. This essentially forces the private investigation services underground, which many find less appealing due to the risk of being arrested.

If you live in Pakistan and wish to hire a private detective it could take a while to find one. This is because the government is considering shutting down the country’s first private detective company. According to reports, the company in question is illegal and unconstitutional.

The private detective company has also been accused of espionage, intercepting and recording telephone conversations and taking video and photographic surveillance in their attempt to build evidence. The company in question denies these allegations.

Based in Lahore, the company did claim to be the country’s first fully licensed private detective agency and was registered with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). Sadly there is no regulatory law for private detectives in Pakistan which makes the claim somewhat illegitimate.

In the UK private detectives will use their undercover surveillance skills to gather evidence to be used in court. They are also used for counter electronic surveillance, background checks, corporate investigations, fraud investigations and more. Clearly the UK has a highly advanced private detection industry and Pakistan has a long way to go.

What was once a healthy working relationship between the two companies quickly descended into fierce rivalry after Oracle bought Sun Microsystems in 2009. This brought them firmly into the server hardware market which was the area that the two companies had previously worked so well together in.

The allegations made by HP clearly demonstrate just how important data, information and k knowledge are in business. Putting procedures in place to prevent industrial espionage cannot prevent an individual with expert knowledge moving job and taking it with them.

In fact for many senior positions in large businesses and corporations, previous experience is a highly significant factor. Perhaps the best example of the power of knowledge occurred towards the end of World War 2.

Wernher von Braun was the greatest rocket engineer of the 20^th century. He designed the Saturn 5 rocket which took America to the moon. However under Nazis Germany von Braun designed the V1 and V2 rocket which rained down terror on London.

Despite this the allies needed to capture him alive because his knowledge was so important and they didn’t want him to fall into the hands of the Russians. There are obvious differences between Von Braun, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle. However the principal of exchanging information remains.

It is for this reason that private detectives and private investigators are essential for businesses in certain industries such as technology. Services offered by a skilled private detective include undercover surveillance, GPS tracking, data security and counter electronic surveillance all of which are invaluable tools in helping to protect sensitive material.

Conflict International has effective proven capabilities in Cyprus, Dubai, Malta, and Saudi Arabia, with locally skilled correspondents in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.

Conflict International is associated with the only online database in Cyprus offering unrivalled access to companies registered with the Department of Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver.  We are the premier source of financial information in the Cyprus market for over 240.000 Registered Companies in Cyprus, and all listed overseas companies operating in Cyprus.

Our Databank covers over 700,000 registered companies across the Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council. Through strategic agreements with comparable Databases, Conflict International is able to offer business information on companies anywhere in the world.

Our services include:

• Personal Data Protection
• Credit Report
• Structure Report
• Structure Report Enhanced
• Relationship Report
• Company Shareholder
• Defaulting Debtors Enhanced Report
• Due Diligence Reports

Read more about our services in Cyprus and around the world.

The event starts at 6pm and we are looking forward to hearing from guest speaker Mark Scot who is the Chief Executive of Cello Group PLC which has 760 staff and its 2010 results show headline operating profit of £5.9m on a turnover of £126.7m.

Its strategy is to build a portfolio of companies around two specialist platforms, each operating within a different niche of the UK research and consulting sector: Research and Consulting (‘Cello’) and Response Communications (‘Tangible’). With a growing international presence in key markets – especially in pharmaceutical and healthcare - and a proven acquisition strategy.

There will also be ‘advice zones’ which look at Capital Markets, Corporate deal making and exporting or expanding overseas. With advice from the likes of UK Trade & Investment London (UKTI), the event is sure to be success.

For furthe rinformation on the event please follow the link http://directorbar8march2011.eventbrite.com/. If you are attending the event we look forward to seeing you there.

Because of the increased risk levels, private detectives operating in the area typically charge higher fees. However there are many private detectives who work on a truly global basis and will therefore be based in city hubs such as London, New York and Hong Kong and from these locations private detectives can reach areas such as Dubai with relative ease.

The demand for private investigators in Dubai mostly comes from suspicious wives who need evidence in order to successfully divorce. Local law states that a woman is required to have at least two witnesses or documents proving abuse or mistreatment in order to apply for separation. Professional private detectives are capable of providing this service in a challenging environment.

In order to conduct a successful investigation in Dubai there are certain techniques which are adopted to ensure that local authorities are not alerted. For example it is very rare for private detectives to meet their client face to face in Dubai. Much of the investigation work conducted is surveillance oriented and the techniques used here come from expert training and experience.

Technology has become a key tool for private detectives, many of whom now have the ability to hack into computers and phones to retrieve e-mails, text messages and voicemails. GPS technology, which is increasingly miniaturized, also plays a key role in undercover surveillance. A private detective can find out exactly where the vehicle is going and can therefore conduct highly accurate surveillance.

There are local private detectives in Dubai however but if you compare them to a UK private detective there are notable differences. Military or law enforcement experience and training is very common amongst UK private investigators. Undercover surveillance requires a lot training, skill and patience which a local Dubai private detective may not have.

The National Fraud Authority (NFA) has said that fraud costs the UK economy £38 billion a year, half of which within the public sector. That is a huge figure but what does this mean to the average Joe. The NFA has said that “if the total cost was broken down, every UK adult would be £765 worse off.”

Few areas of the economy are completely immune from fraud. Corporate fraud, insurance fraud, online fraud and individual fraud all cost the taxpayers’ money at a time when the taxpayer is already under plenty of financial pressure.

For London private detectives and the private investigation industry as a whole, fraud is a constant thorn for both individuals and businesses. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and The Serious Fraud Office are working hard to reduce the level of fraud in the UK and face a huge challenge with relatively limited resources.

The National Fraud Authority is absolutely right in saying that the UK needs to develop a stronger counter-fraud culture. Being a victim of fraud is an incredibly frustrating experience. Individuals and families in the UK have lost life savings and there is no guarantee they will ever see that money again.

For a business, insuring yourself against fraud is now almost common practice. However if we do not tackle the issue of fraud then the insurance premiums paid by businesses will only increase. The same applies to individuals. An individual’s insurance will also suffer increased premiums due to widespread fraud.

Businesses and individuals need to be much more aware of fraud in the UK. Both parties need to communicate with the police better and share more information. Hopefully the government will further invest in the battle against fraud which if won could make a big difference to the UK economy.

Economic growth can be measured in all sorts of ways such as GDP or government borrowing levels, but a real sign of a growing economy is growing employment. According to the Office for National Statistics unemployment is approximately just under 8%. The coalition government will no doubt be keen to see that number fall over the next 3 years.

The coalition government will inevitably offer incentives for businesses which will be aimed to create jobs. There is significant pressure on the government for this to happen because public service budgets and staff are going to experience cutbacks. The government is adamant that the private sector can grow sufficiently enough to prevent unemployment rising significantly further.

Performing background checks has previously been considered an important practice by employers. Now that there is an even bigger pool of candidates to choose from, it could be argued that background checks are even more important. With more people looking for the same job the competitiveness increases and individuals may be inclined to exaggerate or lie on their CV’s or about previous experience.

Due diligence is more important than ever in business. Preventing fraud from the most common source, your own employees, is a difficult but necessary task. This applies to some industries more than others but nevertheless the last thing any employer wishes to experience is internal fraud.

Private detectives haves been used by all kinds of businesses to perform background checks. Some private investigators also have the ability and experience of conducting undercover surveillance within organisations. Employers have at their disposal all they need to ensure that when hiring new employees it will not turn out to be a bad decision.

If on the other hand you are a New York cab driver who has been caught up in the recent scandal then GPS is probably a piece of technology you wish was never invented. According to the New York Daily News a city investigation last year showed that 36,000 New York City taxi drivers overcharged passengers an almighty $8.3 million over 1.8 million fares.

The investigation, carried out by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, ran for 26 months and used new electronic trip data gathered from GPS tracking systems. The results of the investigation are enough to scare the average New Yorker and tourist so much to never trust a New York Cab driver.

Of the 47,000 licensed New York medallion cab drivers, 75% have overcharged customers. With such a high figure you would be fair to argue that the scam is endemic and part of the New York City cab culture. Some drivers were able to make significant sums of money from the scam, with one driver reportedly earning an extra $40,000 a year from it.

The scam itself was in fact a very simple one. As with many other taxi systems around the world, the car has a meter and when the passenger enters and the journey starts the cab driver activates the meter. The meters in the New York cabs enable the driver to select base rates.

Different parts of the city have different base rates. However as a passenger unless you are very familiar with the cab fare system you are likely to be oblivious to this and assume the driver is following standard procedure and acting fairly. Sadly they weren’t, and if it weren’t for GPS perhaps the scandal would have continued.

The marriage season is now a busy season for private detectives in Delhi. Traditionally many families would arrange marriages but as India continues to develop more and more young people are meeting through offices, call centres, colleges, the Metro and increasingly the Internet.

For many of the parents this is a big change in culture and while they would know all about the person they may have been arranged to marry with, parents now feel that their children are marrying complete strangers. As a result many parents, particularly of the upper middle classes who are trapped between tradition and an increasingly modern society.

What many people fail to understand is that India still has a caste system which is part of the Hindu religion and describes the system of social stratification. The four main castes are brahmans, princes, merchants and servants. However in the rapidly expanding cities of India the caste system has largely broken down. Despite this the majority of India’s population live in rural areas where the caste system is still accepted.

Under the caste system there is considerable pressure to find a partner that matches your caste and parents will often intervene if they feel that their children are either above or below the caste of the potential husband.

Unfortunately the caste system is very strong in some areas, particularly in northern India which results in the murder of hundreds of young people every year. Fearing for their lives there are many young couples who are forced to flee their families.

Some private investigators have explained that there is a growing trend of young Indian girls chatting with Indian men who live abroad in places such as the UK. Indian women living in the UK have also used the internet to find potential husbands back in India. The UK has a significant Indian community and even in the UK private detectives will do background checks on Indian men and women at the request of their parents.

The class had been writing their own spy stories and had put together some questions. The first thing they wanted to know was what exactly is a spy? Conflict International explained to the class that a spy can be described as someone who gathers intelligence on individuals, organisations and locations.

The class went on to ask exactly what spies do. Conflict International explained that what makes a spy special is that they gather information without the individual’s knowledge. This information is then often used in legal cases.

The next question generated a lot of interest from the class. They asked what spies carry with them. With technology being such an important part of spy work it was a fantastic opportunity to talk about and show them some of the kit used.

Conflict International was able to show the class some the equipment used is covert surveillance, such as hidden recording devices, audio recording devices and covert tracking devices. The class also showed us some of their very own home made spy gadgets. It was further explained that often a spy will carry with them various forms of identification and will always have a cover story.

The final question asked by the class was, who do spies work for? Conflict International went on to explain that spies are used by businesses, individuals and governments. Different people will have different reasons for using a spy or private investigator and the type of work can vary hugely.

The children at Hadley Wood School were incredibly enthusiastic and soaked up the information like a sponge. Their questions and their time were truly appreciated and Conflict International wishes to extend it thanks to the school for giving us the opportunity to talk about our profession with such a great bunch of kids.

They have decided where an employee cannot do their primary job because of sickness, the default position is that the individual may not partake in paid work for another employer.

In addition it was concluded that covert surveillance does not contravene the individual’s right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention of Hunan Rights (ECHR). However the level of covert surveillance cannot be disproportionate to achieving its aims.

Essentially the case regards Mr McCann who appealed against his dismissal from a local College where he lectured part time, because whilst on sick leave it came to the attention of the college that he was working in the garage which he was the proprietor of.

What most appeals to any investigation agency, is that Mr McCann appealed on the basis that the decision to place him under covert surveillance contravened his right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention of Hunan Rights (ECHR).

What does this mean to a private investigator and ongoing cases?

If you are conducting a private investigation within the European Union, it is essential the extent and depth of covert surveillance does not go beyond the fine line of appropriate to excessive. You might ask where this line stands, however every case is different and there can be no rule of thumb.

It is a question of judgement which is often dictated by experience. With the right experience knowing how far your investigation can go within the letter of the law is absolutely crucial to a successful investigation.

The Department for Work and Pensions is expected to be busier than as they will no doubt be doing everything possible to identify fraudulent benefit claimants, which actually provides significant opportunities to private investigators, which has been demonstrated ever so aptly in the case of 61 year old Terence Read.

In Mr. Read’s case he began claiming benefits in 1995 thanks to sever arthritis which left him virtually unable to work and therefore restricted to a wheelchair.  As a result of his claim the Department of Work and Pensions awarded Mr. Read just shy of £20,000.

Unfortunately for Mr. Read someone had tipped of the Department for Work and Pensions who then proceeded to hire a private detective. Although quite frankly the tip of was inevitable as it is unlikely an older man with severe arthritis would be taking part and do exceedingly well in a jive competition.

Mr. Reid was even awarded the highest possible benefit rate which is typically reserved who individuals who need assistance with bathing and going to the toilet. However by 2005 it was thankfully apparent that his health had taken a dramatic turn for the better due to a successful hip operation and recovery.

Unfortunately for Mr. Read, he failed to notify the Department for Work and Pensions and continued to claim benefits for three years and six months. Investigators have said that he was often seen walking without the need for assistance, taking part in dance competitions with the dance schools he attended in Manchester.

For people who are genuinely in need of full support from the Department of Work and Pensions, they deserve to be on benefits and nobody can deny them that. However the government should quite rightly make sure that those who can work but choose not to have paths and opportunities system.

For those that defraud the system perhaps more serious litigation will assist in reducing the number of people on benefits in the UK. Whatever the case may be private detectives and the Department for Work and Pensions are probably going to become good friends in the coming years.

As a detective agency, hearing about this is very exciting because it briefly highlights the murky world of spying and espionage between major governments. This case is particularly interesting because of the length of the spy operation conducted, the long term surveillance by the FBI and some of the spying techniques used which would sound totally appropriate in an early James Bond movie.

The spies are accused of gathering information on US nuclear weapons, US arms control, Iran, White House rumours, CIA leadership and political parties. It is alleged that the spies were trained by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

However this is not the first time another country has been found spying on the US. A few months ago Iran claimed to have hacked US spy sites.

The US department of Justice has stated that eight of the suspects were carrying out long term deep cover assignments. This required the spies to work in civilian jobs to minimise any suspicion.

From what we understand the spies had been in the US for some years but the FBI had discovered them and had been monitoring them for a number of years. US officials say that FBI agents posed as Russian handlers and collected information from two of the suspects, which was the major breakthrough that led to eight more being arrested.

During the investigation and surveillance of the spies the FBI observed a combination of modern computing skill and some older spy techniques. For example the spies apparently used invisible ink, buried money next to beer bottle markers and “brush pasts” which is where agents swap identical bags as they pass each other.

The spies endeavours were not in vein according to news sources as they were able to get quite close to a scientist involved in designing bunker busting bombs and a top former intelligence official.

And finally to make things even more interesting there is an eleventh spy who is now at large in the US. The man has been named as Christopher R Metsos.

If the allegations are true, which they most likely are given the detail provided it does beg the question, does America do the same in Russia? Well the answer is almost certainly yes. Whilst there is no proof we can call upon, these old Cold War enemies although much friendlier now clearly have some trust issues.

Evidence of this mistrust can be found when you consider that US officials who routinely travel to Russia turn off their BlackBerries and leave them on the plane to ensure any data on their phones remains out of reach of tech-savvy Russian intelligence agents.

It is a bit like the cold war. The Americans make planes that can fly high over Russia on reconnaissance missions. In response the Russians invested heavily in anti-aircraft missiles, and soon develop the weapons to shoot the US planes out the sky, which they successfully do in 1962 shooting Francis Gary Powers U2 spy plane out of the sky. Thankfully the cold war stayed cold and today both the Americans and Russians use satellites.

While the Cold War may have come to an end the war between the police, banks and fraudsters rages on. Thankfully the police have recently jailed a gang of chip and pin fraudsters who had apparently carried out one of the UK’s most prolific scams.

The gang would modify chip and pin machines at petrol stations in Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Kent, Bristol and Sussex. The ringleader admitted to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to possess articles for use in course of fraud and has been given a four and half year sentence and deportation upon release. In addition accomplices were also found guilty and sentenced to three and half years in prison.

The strategy the gang used was to install devices in chip and pin readers which would clone the card details allowing the gang to steal their money. In total the nine month fraud caused losses totalling £750,000. When arrested the ringleaders laptop 35,000 cards, of which 7,000 came from one garage in Kent.

Unfortunately for the garage owner he was victim of a Facebook campaign which urged people not to use the forecourt, and was subjected to repeated verbal abuse.  The prosecution described the ringleader as one of the most prolific chip and pin fraudsters and since his arrest the amount of credit card fraud has dipped slightly. However the prosecution also warned that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sadly credit card fraud is international and the iceberg is truly gigantic. Wherever the technology there will be someone there to exploit it. For example in Abu Dhabi, fraud investigators unearthed a 66.65 billion dollar fraud attempt.

When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt the credit crunch took on a whole new persona. People become very frightened that we would be heading to a great depression. A lot of people quite rightly couldn’t understand how a company with such vast fortunes could go bankrupt so quickly.

Global Investment banks operate in extremely complicated ways, with millions of dollars being exchanged around the world every second. However if there is one thing which binds these companies together it’s their accounts.

What Lehman Brothers did was essentially tricked individuals and companies to invest in them. How did they do this you ask? The short answer is, Europe. Without their European arms Lehman might not have been able to fudge their accounts and swindle millions from innocent investors.

How did Europe help, you might ask? Well it was all thanks to an accounting deception known as “Repo 105” which was legal in the UK but not in the US. The accounting trickery helped Lehman Brothers temporarily remove about $50 billion of assets from its balance sheet, making the company look much better than it really was.

Back in 2001 Lehman Brothers used the practice for the first time thanks to British law firm Linklaters, allowing the Repo 105 accounting practice to be carried out through the firm’s European arm.

Therefore, at least in Lehman Brothers case one could argue that it was not the American bankers that brought the company down, instead British lawyers allowed them to do so and once they found an easy way out it was the start of the company’s downfall.

According to investigators these were the dollar amounts of United States-originated securities used in Repo 105 for the last three quarters of Lehman’s life:

• $8.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007
• $14.9 billion for the first quarter of 2008
• $13.6 billion for the second quarter of 2008

In conclusion, the argument over who is to blame for such malpractice is much like the chicken and the egg argument. The British lawmakers allowed Lehman Brothers to perform at the very least questionable accounting practices. But it was the Lehman bankers, strategists and accountants that decided to continue to use the Repo 105 accounting practice which in hindsight was a prolonged and desperate last throw of the dice of a business out of control.

Confidential e-mails which were written in the days prior to the catastrophe, seem to show that very serious concerns were raised by BP workers and the contracted workers but were dismissed for financial reasons. Some of the e-mails describe the oil well as a “nightmare” and safety measures which should have been put in place were ignored.

The man heading the investigation is Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has accused BP of making several poor decisions in the lead up to the disaster.

“We found a pattern,” he said last night. “Every time they had a decision to make they decided to cut corners; to do things faster than they otherwise should have been done; to do it less expensively and the consequence of this, as one independent expert told us, was horribly negligent.

“They violated what their own employees were recommending they do, they violated their own industry practices and they ignored the recommendation of contractors who told them to do certain tests to avoid safety concerns.”

Henry Waxman’s investigation has also made key findings into the procedures and protocols which were ignored by BP for financial reasons. They are that:

• BP’s Deepwater Horizon used 6 instead of the recommended 21 “centralisers”.
• BP decided against performing a “cement bond log” that would have tested the integrity of the cement.
• BP failed to fully circulate the drilling mud, which is a procedure used to detect gas pockets which later shot up the well and exploded on the drilling rig.

The evidence from the investigation into the disaster, at this stage doesn’t look to positive for BP. However it is worth pointed out that Henry Waxman himself has stated that US oil firms have identical response plans to BP and are therefore equally woefully unprepared for such a disaster.

Abu Dhabi is rapidly growing economy. The United Arab Emirates is a crucial location and the region boasts some remarkable economies. It is about seven hours from London and only nine from China.

Businesses have been slowly investing in the region for several decades and it is now flourishing. It was in the 1970’s that the UAE struck up major oil contracts with American and European governments and businesses. The simplest of exchanges, oil for money has made the region and economic powerhouse.

Unfortunately where ever you find vast wealth you will find those who wish to exploit it, which was most recently highlighted by the Abu Dhabi police who have foiled an attempt by three Iranians to defraud the United Arab Emirates central bank of 14.4 billion dollars.

Suspected ringleader Farzin Ali Karoryan Mutlaq remains at large in Iran, while two men whose initials were given as E.H.K. and Iranian-American N.A.B. Both are believed to be under arrest.

The accused fraudsters allegedly presented fake documents claiming Mutlaq “has property investments worth 14.4 billion dollars and that the amount was transferred to the UAE from Germany through the central bank,” according to Rashid Mohammed Burasheed, the head of Abu Dhabi’s Criminal Investigation Department.

E.H.K. had power of attorney to receive the money and transfer it to Mutlaq, who is wanted by Interpol, Burasheed said.

It is also understood that four failed fraud attempts in the past year would have netted 244.6 billion dirhams (66.65 billion dollars), had they been successful.

Football’s governing body (FIFA) has already warned supporters to be wary over various forms of scams that will inevitably occur in the run-up to the start of the tournament and during it.

FIFA lottery, prize draw or competition scams are likely to abound. All represent types of advanced fee fraud where fraudsters attempt to trick people into paying “administrative fees” supposedly needed to secure non-existent World Cup tickets or cash prizes.

“Prize draws and competitions offering tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup can only be held by companies who are commercially affiliated with FIFA, such as, for example, sponsors,” it said.

FIFA also used the notice to issue a warning against ticket touts and unauthorised agents, a more standard message that has preceded every recent World Cup.

Spam emails touting 419-lite lottery scams themed around the World Cup are already in circulation and more can be expected to follow as excitement builds toward the start of the tournament.

Security watchers report that scam emails seen thus far have not been sent through botnet networks of compromised PCs but via direct spamming from known Nigeria-based 419 scam-friendly IP addresses.

If you are a victim of fraud or crime whilst in South Africa following the world cup your best bet is to contact the local authorities will will be very helpful and do whatever they can. There is little point in contacting the local private investigator because it is unlikely that you will be compensated at all quickly.

However, as with most things if you are sensible and use your common sense the chances of something bad happening is greatly reduced.

You might be asking yourself why this is and the answer is surprisingly simple. Italy is a Catholic country and Catholicism does not think to highly of divorce. Of course not all Italians are Roman Catholic but historically it is the main religion of the country.

However, recently Italy hosted its very first divorce fair, giving people in difficult marriages the opportunity to explore divorce as a possibility. Going through a divorce is not a pleasant experience and couples should always try to resolve their differences and issues before seriously discussing divorce.

Unfortunately some marriages are beyond repair and divorce is the only option for both to be happy again. The divorce fair is named “Ex? Punto e a capo” and roughly translates to ‘Stop and start again’ and was Held in Milan in May.

The event which is the first of its kind in Italy will offer prospective divorcees advice on everything from how to initiate legal proceedings to throwing a party to celebrate their new-found freedom.

Although it was made legal in the 1970s, it is still frowned upon by the Catholic Church and can take three years, including two years of separation and a year more for the legal process.

For married men and women who are harbouring suspicions about what their partner is getting up to, there will be information on how to hire a private investigator.

And for those whose relationship has already turned toxic, there will be information on what to do if an ex has become a stalker, which can be a very scary experience.

Experts will proffer tips for the newly single on the challenges of living alone again, how to find a new partner through match-making agencies and embarking on a makeover, including buying a new wardrobe.

More than 130,000 couples split or divorced in 2007, up from 30,000 in 1971, according to the national statistics agency, ISTAT.

As a result private detectives and investigators in Italy will continue to see their services increasing to meet the growing demand. Far from being a topic spoken under a whisper, divorce is now front page news. The Italian prime minister, Silvia Berlusconi has brought the topic right into the limelight with his own recent divorce and various scandals.

If you actually think bout the amount of information which people freely give out in their Facebook profiles it is easy to see why such concerns have been raised. With so much information available to businesses, which can then use the information for marketing purposes, and individuals we can all be our own private investigator.

In a public letter, the Article 29 Working Party, the group of European data protection authorities, has bluntly accused Facebook for its data protection practices, calling “unacceptable that the company fundamentally changed the default settings on its social-networking platform to the detriment of a user.”

The 75th plenary session of the Working Party has also addressed letters to the 20 social network operators that have signed the “Safer Networking Principles for the EU ” asking them for a “a default setting in which access to the profile information and information about the connections of a user is limited to self-selected contacts.

Any further access, such as by search engines, should be an explicit choice of the user.” The letters also included the issues of the third-party application providers of social network services and of third persons contained in users’ profiles.

On a different level, Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a coalition of U.S. and European consumer advocacy groups has adopted a new resolution criticizing the U.S. and European governments for failing to protect social network users from privacy and marketing abuses. “Social networks are like virtual homes for millions of people, but they are being invaded by data miners and marketers seeking to capitalize on information that users never intended to provide to strangers,” said Susan Grant, co-chair of the TACD Information Society Policy Committee.

The resolution calls for the U.S. and EU governments to prohibit social networks from targeting advertisements to children under 16 and to bar them from using online marketing practices that studies show can have a negative impact on individuals, particularly children – for instance, digital marketing of products that contribute to childhood obesity.

Facebook is trying to redeem its respect, by publicly answering questions posted to New York Times in relation with these new privacy concerns and even leaking some information that they are working again on “its privacy options”.

But the current answers are flatly contradicting its own stated Principles on privacy, as EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) explains: “Facebook wrote these Principles and designed them to not only reassure its users, but to give itself wiggle room for the future. It is a carefully drafted document, and Facebook has no excuse not to live up to the minimum standards it set out for itself. If Facebook wants to regain the trust of its users, following its own principles would be a good place to start.”

However the evidence for background checks really does speak for itself, and if you don’t believe us you should ask a Gwent businessman lost over 10 years of information and data after his apprentice, who was made redundant during the recession, downloaded and wiped emails, files and diary appointments, whilst his ex-employer was on holiday.

It is a well-researched fact that any criminal activity which has been inflicted on your business is much more likely to have been committed by someone working from within your firm, rather than a stranger.

A 2007 report carried out by CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Protection Service, revealed that employee fraud continues to pose a real risk to UK businesses of all sizes and that the UK is second only to Iceland for being the hardest hit country in Europe, in regard to employee stealing – costing the economy billions of pounds each year.

The Fraud Act, which came into force in 2007, specifically targets actions whereby an employee impersonates someone else in order to gain access to financial records, false information given on a CV and financial abuse of seniority.

In 2005 a poll revealed that 34% of managers didn’t check the background for the vast majority of applicants because they felt the process was too time consuming.

It is somewhat ironic, given the poor financial decisions made by major investment banks in the UK and around the world, that the financial services industry does have a more checks in place that most. Just to work in certain areas requires extensive compliance exams to be taken, and the more senior you are the more scrutiny you will be under and rightly so.

How to protect the firm?

In the Gwent example, initial employee screening would not have necessarily given reason to worry, particularly when you consider what he did was an act of revenge. However, it is always sensible to firstly check out any new employees thoroughly before engaging them, and secondly to protect your company’s information and data.

In addition to insisting on statements from referees, one of which should be the candidate’s last employer, but we recommend getting referees from the last five years of employment and scanning their CV for any contradictions or gaps.

You should also seriously consider looking for any outstanding CCJs (county court judgements), verifying their address details and questioning any other aliases or addresses they may have.

All this can be done by professional credit screening agencies or a professional investigation agency and we are certainly beginning to see an increase in requests from smaller businesses. Perhaps the vulnerability and widespread coverage on the topic is having an impact.

Some have described it as a mixed blessing because of the security and privacy risks associated with the site and others like it. Some people are happy to share considerable personal information which might one day come back to haunt them.

For example many employers will use Google and Facebook to search for people that have applied for a job. So be careful what groups you join and what pictures are posted. A picture of you blind drunk will not do you any favours with your job hunt.

In addition, when you think about the amount of information that you can share on Facebook, it is everything anyone will need to know about you. Your age, where you live, where you work, likes and dislikes, who you’re friends and family are, your religion, your favourite music and your favourite films, if you want can be available to anyone.

What’s even more eye opening is that investigators and private detectives are using social networking sites such as Facebook to uncover false claims made to insurance companies.

With insurance fraud claims on the rise, insurance companies are keen to ensure they are not paying out when they shouldn’t be. Unfortunately insurance fraud raises premiums for everyone else so for policy holders it is no bad thing to hear about your insurance company making sure claims are true.

They are perusing photos and comments made on the sites of claimants and witnesses to see if they tally with statements made to insurance companies.

In some cases investigators are uncovering photos showing people who claim to have injuries preventing them from working doing activities such as skiing.

But sites such as Facebook also have become a tool for investigators to uncover people doing undeclared jobs, to track down those who owe debts and other activities such as document/process serving.

In a perfect world insurance fraud wouldn’t exist but there will always be those who choose to try and make a quick win or think that they can dodge the system. Indeed some are lucky and do get away with it, however typically these people will do it again and somewhere along the line they will slip up and the best place to start looking, Facebook!

Lancashire residents are advised that there are a number of scams in circulation at the moment. The good news is you don’t have to be a private detective to figure them out.

The Autotrader scam

This involves second hand cars sold at attractive prices on the Autotrader website. When enquired about, the vehicles are currently based abroad and a quick sale is desired for personal reasons.

Potential buyers are informed that the vehicle will be sent over using a shipping agent, typically costing £600 or so, either to be halved between the seller and buyer, or paid by the buyer. There will then be a chance for inspection. If the buyer is not happy the shipping cost will be refunded.

Be aware that this is a variation on an ongoing vehicle-purchase scam- the vehicle does not exist, and the ‘seller’ intends to take the money and run.

Buyers are advised to be suspicious of email-only sales where they cannot speak to a seller. Also be careful when purchasing items to be sent from abroad- it can be dangerous to send money up front.

Check that a seller in the UK actually lives at the house he claims to be resident at, and that a logbook is produced where addresses tie in.

The Federal Deposit scam

A second scam involves Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which claims consumers have made large amounts on stocks and shares but that a fee has to be paid to release the money. This is easy to fall for if the consumer, although chosen at random, happens to possess such investments, but is of course another fee scam.

A further reminder is issued relating to clothing collection company Supporting Arms, currently collecting in the county. Please be aware that this company is not a registered charity and any goods given are going to a business operation.

As a general reminder it is important to say that there are some simple things you can do to avoid or at least reduce the risk of becoming a scam victim. The first and perhaps most important is never be rushed into a decision. Always make the decision when you are ready. Finally, before making a decision, ensure that you have all the information needed, and some more if possible!

Fraudulent and dishonest insurance claims total £1.9 billion a year in the UK alone, adding £44 to every premium.

Unfortunately it is not realistic, practical or affordable for insurers to hire a private detective for each customer. In fact insurance fraud is very difficult and costly to combat, particularly in the wake of a recession.

Fraud is becoming an increasingly critical issue in the UK, with an estimated £5.2 million worth of fraudulent claims going undetected on any given day.

Why should you care? Well, because fraud is inevitably paid for by the customer, so that growing problem could translate into growing premiums for you.

In fact, an average of £44 is already being added to your insurance premiums as a result of fraud.

Problem is widespread

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), one in five people would still be tempted to cheat on their insurance, despite the likelihood of being caught, facing trouble in obtaining financial products in the future, and getting a criminal record.

Factor in that over 90% of adults have at least one general insurance product (according to the ABI) and it’s easy to see how widespread the problem is.

The most likely offenders are males between the ages of 18 and 34 in full-time employment, have an income of more than £30,000 and have a non-mortgage debt of more that £5,000.

Previous research suggests that between 7% and 11% of adults admit to making a fraudulent insurance claim.

Why the increase?

Since the onset of the recession there has been a dramatic rise in fraudulent insurance claims, suggesting households are feeling the squeeze.

Studies show evidence of a long-term relationship between non-violent crime and the business cycle, suggesting that the recession and the consequent rise of unemployment will increase the risk of fraud for insurers.

After the downturn in the early 1990s, fraudulent claims were at their peak 18 months after the UK officially emerged from recession.

“Some policy holders believe that after years of paying premiums, it is time to get something out of it,” said Tony Jones, client services director at Fraud solution company TCF Corporate.

This is seen in some minor claims where, to get upgrades, people say they have dropped their mobiles in the toilet or spilled things over laptops.

Accidental damage and loss claims related to high-value items such as LCD TVs, high-end watches and laptops have increased by as much as 35% since 2008, according to insurers.

Types of scams

The most common type of insurance fraud is opportunistic retail fraud, according to TCF. This is where individuals exaggerate or inflate genuine claims to increase the value of a payout.

Estimates put the range of increased opportunistic fraud at 15-25% higher in 2009 compared to that of 2008.

In some cases, fraudsters will fabricate an entire claim – by deliberately breaking something in an attempt to get a free replacement for example.

A growing number of car owners are torching their vehicles and then reporting them stolen to cash in on the insurance.

According to TCF there was a 300% increase in arson claims in motor insurance from 2008-09 suggesting that financially strapped car owners have been driven to desperation.

So-called “crash-for-cash” scams have been quite popular recently. This is a more organised type of scam where people will set up fake accidents in order to claim cash for their car.

The ABI has also found a significant increase in amateur attempts at fraud indicating that honest customers are now attempting fraudulent claims.

Type of coverage most affected

ABI states that property claims are the most popular in terms of volume, at 54% of fraudulent claims detected, and followed by motor policies at 33%.

However, in terms of value, motor policies account for nearly half of the total cost of these claims.

The average value of detected fraudulent claims was £10,000 for motor policies and £2,000 for property policies.

The total value of detected fraudulent claims in motor insurance increased 40% from 2007 to 2008. Property insurance fraud savings increased 43% year-on-year.

The Jason Bourne trilogy was a massive box office sensation which really caught the imagination of the public. Prior to Bourne there was Bond who epitomised a life of of extreme risk whilst remaining ice cool under pressure, and managing to seduce stunning women in less than two minutes.

There is no denying the entertainment value of a good Bond film. However the overwhelming feeling of Bond films is surreal. It was not to be taken too seriously; more of a demonstration that even if the world is seconds away from being destroyed you can trust a plucky Brit to save it and get the girl.

Although the two latest films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace have brought the Bond franchise forward, ultimately the Bourne movies generated much more interest.

Why is this?

Well there are a few reasons really. To begin with Jason Bourne was new and we wanted to know, rather like himself in the first film, who he was, how he got there and why there was a laser implanted into his hip! The film also focused in great detail on the intelligence community and their clandestine operations, which was depicted as an scarily efficient, effective and powerful process.

Part of what makes the Bourne films so special is that they are believable or plausible. Yes there were moments which may have been pushing the limits but it never seemed impossible.

Who is the real Jason Bourne?

People like Jason Bourne were part of top secret military programs. They were products of extreme physical training, drug experimentation, mental conditioning and mind control and although there is some information on the subject the vast majority of data was destroyed in 1973.

Unfortunately we will never know the full implication, scope or reach of Project MK Ultra, or if there are ongoing mind control programs. Yes there will no doubt be top secret programmes but the details will be unavailable for a very long time, if ever.

How do we know about it?

Thankfully some documents have survived and some have been released however they are mostly to do with the financing and basic details of the programme. Little evidence remains about the program’s history of operations, either having been destroyed or classified as ‘Top Secret’, which in all likelihood we will never get to see.

However there have been individuals who have come forward and made claims of being part of the program and as the US government has stated that these programs did exist, we can immediately discount the claims made.

One such person is Robert Duncan O’Finioan, who claims that at the age of six, he and several others were put into Project MK Ultra and the training started from there. His memory is patchy but he does recall parts of his training and missions more and more ever since a car accident. There are several interviews with Robert on the net, including some Youtube videos, all of which provides some fascinating reading and research into Prject MK Ultra and others.

When the ‘Chip and Pin’ technology was introduced by banks and retailers back in 2004 there was a mixed response, ranging from people claiming it was too much for them to remember four digits to people saying it will make no difference whatsoever.

The data suggests that overall fraud is reducing, but it also offers a valuable insight into how fraud is changing. It is a bit like an arms race; you have the fraudsters constantly trying to find a weakness in the security systems, and on the other side are the banks. Both want to be one step ahead of the other.

Quite rightly the report questions the correlation between the surge in card fraud and the uptake of online banking and shopping. The internet is giving rise to more fraudulent attacks and as a result of its phenomenal growth we are battling a new trend of crime. Financial investigators and private detectives must advice that the best thing you can do is to monitor your account closely and notify the bank immediately if there is any suspicion.

With far greater numbers of people using the internet for online shopping and banking, volumes of card payments have increased exponentially. It’s therefore not surprising that fraudsters are challenging this channel with increasingly sophisticated methods.

In addition, this issue in not just restricted to the UK and Internet transactions, in India The Reserve Bank of India announced last week that it will fine Banks if they don’t improve the security of their phone banking.

Keeping up with the latest phishing scam or computer virus, fraudster or identity thief in no easy feat and as a result the industry is struggling. It’s quite clear that we are now in need of better way of securing people’s payments and keeping their identity safe.

Today, everyone can be their own private investigator. If you are investing for your retirement or a holiday or a car, whatever it may be, it is your money and you need to carry out your own due diligence.

Thankfully technology today, especially in regard to providing vast amounts of information, is available with the click of a mouse. We therefore suggest that whenever you intend to spend a large amount of money you put your private investigator cap on and see what you can find.

The con

We are pleased to report that a fraudster from Kent who stole £34m from people using a pyramid investment scheme has been jailed for 10 years.

Conman - Kevin Foster

Kevin Foster, 51, of Doddington, was convicted of 14 counts of theft and deception last month after persuading people to part with about £4,000 each.

Harrow Crown Court heard he deliberately targeted people on low incomes, including many in small valley communities in south Wales.

Sentencing, Judge Nick Madge said the fraud was sophisticated and elaborate.

During his trial jurors were told Foster persuaded thousands of people to part with an average of £4,200 at high-pressure rallies in sports and social clubs across the UK.

At least 8,000 people “invested” a minimum of £1,000 into the scam, with a guarantee that within two years they would get a return of five times their initial outlay.

Koi carp

During Foster’s “KF Concept” road shows he appeared on stage to music, cheering and handing prize winners luxury holidays and even free cars.

The jury was told he used their money to fund a lavish lifestyle, spending more than £600,000 on a luxury farm in Kent, which he fitted out with a swimming pool and hot tub, and £700,000 on motor vehicles including a Ferrari.

Foster also spent money on expensive Koi carp breeding pools and withdrew almost £3m in cash.

He was convicted of unauthorised investment activity, deliberately concealing facts from investors and stealing investors’ funds, following a seven-week trial.

Foster was found guilty of six counts of theft, relating to his use of funds, and eight charges under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

Belfast - One of many mural's

We understand that two undercover police officers narrowly escaped being killed by republican dissidents in a recent botched surveillance operation in Northern Ireland. Experienced private detectives are quite used to carrying out surveillance operations but in an area of strained social and political relations the importance of intelligence can take on a whole new dimension.

Workmen and their tools

The officers were on a covert surveillance operation where the target was a senior ONH member involved in directing the group’s bombing campaign.

The two police officers, both women, were dressed in civilian clothes and sitting in an unmarked car during the incident at the end of last February. They had a very lucky escape when a gunman from the republican terror group Oglaigh na hÉireann (ONH) approached them and attempted to fire into their car, which was parked in the west Belfast area.

Thankfully the gun jammed and one of the police officers quickly put the vehicle into reverse, and then drove off at top speed with no harm coming to them.

ONH

The ONH is the smallest of the three dissident groups opposed to the peace process, but has within its ranks a number of former Provisional IRA bomb-makers. It is not clear whether the group had prior knowledge of the police mission.

Intelligence Gap?

Officially, the PSNI (Police Service Northern Ireland) will not comment on security or intelligence issues but privately a number of police officers contend that the PSNI is “intelligence blind” at present.

The incident highlights a problem facing a police service that underwent large-scale reform and got rid of hundreds of informers to meet ethical standards. According to veterans of counter-terrorism in Northern Ireland, there is a serious intelligence gap within the PSNI.

Jeffrey Donaldson, the Democratic Unionist MP and privy counsellor, who has close links to the police and army in Northern Ireland, agreed that there was a gap regarding the dissident republicans.

One example of the intelligence gap was the attempted murder of a PSNI officer in Garrison in November, when a masked gang opened fire in the County Fermanagh village. Their target was a Catholic police recruit who had been moved out of his home hours earlier by the security forces. The intelligence had come from informers run by the Gardaí in the Republic.

Lessons to be learned

However what is there that can be learned from this story? One of the first things would be the importance of good quality intelligence, which can evidently be quite hard and sometimes risky to obtain. Despite this there is no better intelligence than having live eyes on target.

When conducting undercover surveillance operations, it is somewhat vital that the operation remains undercover. The consequences in this case could have quite literally been life or death for two police offers and potentially many more with the turmoil that would have inevitably followed.

A lasting peace

There is now peace in Ireland, which has come a long way from January 30th, 1972 – Bloody Sunday.

It was a day of unnecessary loss of life and a day of shame which stained the British army in Northern Ireland and escalated the tension only further.

Today, Northern Ireland is a very different place but not without the lasting memories of difficulty and suffering which manifests itself from time to time like the recently attempted murder, as reported in this blog.

You get a call claiming to be to Microsoft Global Tech Support or similar. They tell you that they have detected that you have received malware on the computer and they will put you through to a tech who can sort it out. Another guy comes on and asks you to go to your computer and takes you through to your event viewer. This will show errors that have occurred on your system. So far so plausible. But the whole point is that everybody at some time will have these errors but they claim they have a solution but they need to take over your computer to ‘sort it out’.

BIG RED FLAG – Don’t let anybody you don’t know take over your computer remotely!

If you let these guys in they will load on software which will cause serious problems. They will then try and scam you for money to get the software to work. But if you’ve got this far you’ve totally had it. If you pay – and it seems the amounts are £150 – £200 for the ‘upgrade’ it still won’t work. And they have your credit card details and have had access to all the data on your computer – just use your imagination what this can mean.

This scam is being operated out of Pakistan and India. If at any time you want to call a halt they’ll happily give you a name and UK number to call back on. In some cases they will even refer you to a website which looks genuine.

Don’t fall for it. It is feasible that when you get an application crash and you report it to Microsoft that Microsoft could link the IP address to any software that you might have registered with them which might have included your telephone from the same PC. But if they went to all that trouble why couldn’t they tell me what operating system I was using? There is no way any call like this could be coming from anybody authorised by Microsoft to do so. There is a private investigator in all of us, some might call it intuition or instinct.

As with all these scams I feel for the unwary and the elderly. If you want to find out more enter ‘fake tech scam’ into your search engine.

Counterfeited DVDs are perhaps the most common form of counterfeit product on the market today. However this is just one product and we are all very familiar with, but there are some incredibly skilled counterfeiters who will replicate some of history’s finest artists or even dinosaur fossils.

This gangs strategy was to counterfeit a very widely recognised product. The gang arranged for ‘low grade’ detergent to be shipped from south-east China to Felixstowe, Suffolk, to flood the black market with almost 3,000 boxes of fake Persil.

The detergent, which had no bleach content, was hidden in a warehouse with 2,900 empty replica Persil boxes, which were described as ‘almost perfect’ copies of the real thing.

Thankfully their scam failed after chemicals giant Unilever hired a private detective. As to exactly how the information was gathered, one can speculate that with 25 tonnes of material needing to be redistributed the logistics would be relatively complex, involving intense communication.

Peter Moss, prosecuting, said: ‘The surveillance operation was “all singing, all dancing”, probably refers to the use of bugging, GPS tracking and undercover video surveillance.

‘At 10.55am on September 23, 2008, in a joint operation by Cheshire Police, Cheshire West Council and Trading Standards, officers raided the unit at the Phoenix Centre and found an Aladdin’s cave of detergent.

All those charged admitted importing the fake washing powder between September 1 and September 30, 2008.

The jury heard the detergent was shipped from Jinjang in the Fujian province of south-east China to Felixstowe on the container ship CSLC Asia.

It was then transported to a unit at the Phoenix Centre on Winsford Industrial Estate in Cheshire.

The unit was raided after Unilever received a tip-off from a member of the public.

In the age of everything digital, the photocopier is probably the one workplace item you never thought to worry about. It turns out that it is a piece of technology which could hold vast quantities of highly sensitive information and it is something that businesses around the world have either chosen to ignore or simply weren’t informed.

Victor Beitner, a security expert who reconfigures photocopy machines destined for resale in Toronto, says businesses are completely unaware of the potential information security breach when the office photocopier is replaced.

Typically people think the copier is just headed for a junkyard but, in most cases, when the machine goes, so does sensitive data that have been stored on the copier’s hard drive for years, which might be a gold mine for someone looking for specific information.

“In almost all the machines I have seen, the files, phone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses are left there as if it was still in the office,” said Beitner. “There are files from insurance companies, medical facilities, pharmaceutical and regular office-type documents,” he said.

Modern, large, office-type photocopiers are computers. The whole system is controlled by a computer, it has a hard disk. It scans images and they are stored on the disc”. They are also networked computers, and they have all the same security issues that a computer does, so all the same security issues arise.

Any web-savvy, techno-whiz kid could easily access the hard drive, or send all scans to email or, if they have the password, retrieve copies of confidential documents by simply hooking their laptop up to the copier. To make matters worse the activity of photocopiers linked to an unsecure network can be seen and tracked online.

In Toronto, most rented photocopiers are picked up when the lease is almost over, usually anywhere from two to five years. If the copiers are in good shape, they are often destined for auction, where they are bought to be resold. Some end up with dealers, who ensure confidential information is erased. Others can be found on sites such as Craigslist, and they are likely to still have crucial data on them.

Some companies tell their clients to remove the hard drives and purge them before they are picked up for resale. Or they replace the hard drives. But that costs extra time and money.

The cheaper thing to do, says Beitner, is to make the data inaccessible, clear the memory on the machine and change the pass codes through the machine panel. It doesn’t completely wipe the hard drive, but renders it unusable to the average person.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the population can’t get to it. But it’s the one per cent, the guy who is going to come in the middle of the night, take the hard drive out and scrub all the data off it,” said Beitner. “There is still that risk.”

Companies like Xerox now have enhanced security measures that enable an office to remove the hard drive and do digital shredding.

However this is really part of a larger issue – the lack of awareness about technology in the everyday work environment.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London, the UK and around the world . We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations.

Doctor and Teacher!

AshleyMadison.com, the dating site for married people (yes, you heard right), surveyed all of their new members last year. Of the 1.9 million folks who signed up to cheat, er, date in 2009, these were the top professions:

For Women:

1. Teachers

2. Housewives

3. Nurses

4. Administrative Assistants

5. Real Estate Agents

For Men:

1. Doctors

2. Police Officers

3. Lawyers

4. Real Estate Agents

5. Engineers

The president and founder of AshleyMadison.com Noel Biderman notes these top professions are often high stress and require many to work long hours.

For his book “The Problem with Women … is Men,” author Charles Orlando interviewed 1,200-plus women and 400+ men and discovered women cheat mostly for emotional reasons, while men admitted to cheating largely for physical or sexual gratification with no emotional tie. And the men who were perceived themselves as “powerful” or “influential” (like doctors, cops and lawyers), say their cheating was “justifiable.”

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London, the UK and around the world. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Conflict International, the licensed private detective agency, much like the rest of the UK has today learned that there will be a general election on May 6^th. Looking back many would say that the successful New Labour campaign in 1997 was in fact a hugely significant moment in British politics and society.

In 2010 it would seem that we have reached another crucial point in our history, or does it?

The news comes after research showed that fewer people in Britain feel an obligation to vote than at any time since 1991. Experts are forecasting that this year’s election could see turnout fall below 59 per cent modern-day record set in 2001. That was the lowest since 1918.

Stuart Wilks-Heeg, executive director of campaign group Democratic Audit, said turnout would be hit by the “cumulative effect” of the expenses scandal and the more recent cash for access scandal, when former Government ministers were caught boasting of how they could influence policy. Both are a tribute to the hard work so many journalists and private investigators put into exposing a national disgrace in the hope of improving the history’s most influential democracy.

If you were to compare a government to business, in the great expenses scandal the government and its opposition would be about as honest as an Enron quarterly profit and loss statement using “mark to market” accounting. The expenses scandal demonstrates that even in government, the very highest echelons of democracy, internal fraud is one of their biggest threats and weaknesses and neither politics nor businesses are immune from this risk.

We believe that democracy stands for fairness and freedom of choice. We believe no population should fear its government, governments should fear the population. Politicians are elected to serve the people, by the people, for the people. We trust our politicians to run our country, and to do a good job in the process. The hard thing about trust is that once you have lost it, getting it back is twice as hard.

John Curtice, from Strathclyde University, said the expenses scandal could help to boost votes for strong independent candidates.

This year, 12 per cent of votes are likely to be cast for independent candidates – up from 8 per cent in 2005. The expenses scandal was “one of the pressures to push down turnout”.

A report from the British Social Attitudes Survey, published earlier this year, tracked a gradual disengagement with politics over the past two decade – particularly among young people.

It found that just over half of people – 56 per cent – believe that “it’s everyone’s obligation to vote”. This is down from more than two thirds of people – 68 per cent – in 1991.

What can business learn from the expenses scandal?

There many things business can learn from the expenses scandal and at the top of the list would probably be the fact the most likely source of business fraud is internal. Having the right procedures set in place to prevent this type of activity occurring is an ongoing cycle of improvement because unfortunately there will always be someone who is willing to take advantage of others and bend or break the rules to benefit themselves.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

A warrant for the arrest of another person in connection with this investigation has been issued after the charges were laid against the seven at police stations in London. They are on police bail to appear at City of Westminster magistrate’s court on April 14.

The charges against the seven were brought after a series of arrests in 2008 and follow last week’s raids at 16 addresses across London, the south-east and Oxfordshire in connection with another suspected insider dealing ring.

The City regulator is determined to show that it is able to clean up the City and crack down on so-called market abuses such as insider dealing, where profits are made by individuals in possession of private information. It had warned the City to “be afraid” of its crackdown and since 2008 has secured five convictions for insider dealing. The latest charges mean that there are now four pending cases.

The new case, codenamed Saturn, required a 21-month investigation involving a team of 35 investigators, lawyers and support staff. The investigators examined more than 75 electronic devices containing more than 200,000 electronic files, 130 individual trading accounts, more than 150,000 entries of publicly available information and took more than 250 witness statements.

The FSA said the charges cover a two year period, beginning in mid 2006, when are alleged to have obtain inside information from two major investment banks. The FSA did not the name the banks involved.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Conflict International recently learned about a British conman who traded on charm, confidence and American weakness for an English accent Prince Harry would be proud of. So we write this as a warning to anyone who is wishing to invest their hard earned money and the message is simple – just because a man is dressed well, in a nice office and speaks the Queens English does not mean they are trustworthy.

Robert Tringham gave every appearance of living the American dream ‑ a self-made man, running a string of lucrative investment businesses in the United States, he lived in a million-dollar house and always had a beautiful woman at his side, but behind this well-crafted front, the reality was that Tringham was an international conman.

Financial investigators in the US believe he left a trail of misery across 10 American states and several countries dating back to the 1980s. They are embarking on an international effort to find offshore accounts, hidden properties, and secret deposits to recover some of the estimated $50m he has defrauded and stolen.

Tringham, meanwhile, is behind bars after finally being convicted in a Los Angeles court of 10 charges of federal fraud and tax evasion. Now 64 years old, he faces a jail term of up to 170 years for his latest con, in which he tricked unsuspecting investors into handing over $7.3m in a so-called Ponzi scheme.

It is believed the names caught in his web of deceit included Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Depp and John McEnroe, as well as young children suffering from cancer, widows and successful international businessmen from Germany, Bulgaria, Norway, Canada, the UK, US and Australia.

His tactic was simple, but effective. “He is one of the most dangerous sorts of criminal,” said Lawrence Gilmore, who represented Springsteen when the rock star sued Tringham for $2m losses after he tried to pirate his music. “He wore the smartest suits, and spoke perfect public schoolboy Queen’s English. He had an extremely powerful personality, he was very persuasive. I have sued him I don’t know how many times under various different corporate guises. But eventually his company went into liquidation, he went bankrupt and skipped the country.”

He conned British property developers into investing in a holiday development in the sunshine state. One victim, Doug White, lost more than $240,000, money which Tringham used to buy his then girlfriend Barbara Abrass a new house in Florida, court documents say.

With the British investors struggling to find out what had happened to their money Tringham continued to target more victims in America and across the world. US investigators believe he had at least one middleman in Europe, who recruited new clients for his schemes.

As he settled into the lifestyle of a successful businessman, court judgments were handed down in numerous states against him. But he stayed one step ahead, forcing some victims to hire a private detective to pursue him in New York, Florida and Los Angeles.

By 2005 he was living in Los Angeles, and had set up the investment scheme which ultimately led to his downfall, persuading investors to part with some $7.3m to place in his company First National Ban Corp.

Most of the funds, however, were used to enrich Tringham. Now dating a new, much younger girlfriend, Hui Wang, he used $1.5m from his latest con to buy her a luxury house in an expensive neighbourhood of LA, and a new Land Rover.

By now the American authorities were catching up with him. But Tringham continued creating new companies to carry out further frauds. Jeri Tulipan was one of his last victims. She parted with $1m which was part of a $9m fraud targeting investors in Germany and the US.

When she threatened to go to the authorities, she received a string of threatening emails. Like the majority of investors, she has never got her money back.

“He presented himself as intelligent and knowledgeable,” said Tulipan. “I met him in an impressive building and the company signs were up outside. He was in a three-piece suit, and had a British accent, he was very convincing.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Ultimately the hiring of a private investigator will be for legal purposes, which means with good information you can carry out your legal work effectively. You private detective must be meticulous, dependable and resourceful.

There have been cases where people have been misled by poorly trained investigators so we want to try and prevent this from occurring as much as possible because it could jeopardise the success of a legal case and it damages the credibility of highly trained and experienced private detectives such as Conflict International.

Step 1

Ask colleagues or friends if they know of a reliable private detective. A referral is the best way to get to the good ones in your area. Knowing someone who has used a private detective before will help give an insight into the experience and course of action. However if the reason for hiring a private detective may involve colleagues or friends it is probably best to not mention anything.

Step 2

Search membership directories of professional associations if you can’t get a referral. Conflict International is a member of The Institute of Professional Investigators and the Association of British Investigators. Our advice is to only work with a private detective company with these memberships.

Furthermore at Conflict International, investigations are conducted and managed within the guidelines of RIPA (The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) following on from The Human Rights Act 1998. We are also registered with the Data Protection Act and The ICO.

This ensures all investigations are carried out within necessary guidelines; ensuring operations are conducted with knowledge and expertise and in accordance with appropriate protocol.

Step 3

Ask about the detective’s training and education. Legal knowledge from law school can be helpful if you’re hiring for litigation. Journalism school may have taught the detective to be persistent and creative. Business education can help when doing company due diligence.

Step 4

Take note of a private detective’s experience. Many come from a law enforcement background, which is great for legal work but may not help you with investigating a company. Others may have a military background and others may be extremely specialised in surveillance.

At Conflict International our array of experience and training gives us the ability to offer a thorough range of services. We have worked with many lawyers specialising in many areas such as divorce, corporate fraud, and due diligence from which we have learned a great deal and used to improve our ability.

Step 5

Inquire about the private detective’s area of expertise. A background screener isn’t suitable to draw up a balance sheet of your ex-husband’s assets. You’re better off with an investigator who specializes in tracking down hidden accounts and creative financial dealings.

Step 6

Ask about work the private detective contracts out like surveillance and asset searches. This will give you an idea of the type of work the investigation agency carries out, but don’t expect to hear specific details because they should not be disclosed.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Keith Owen, 44, repackaged the eggs and sold them on to unsuspecting suppliers before they ended up on supermarket shelves across the UK – including Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Owen netted £3 million from the scam between June 2004 and May 2006 before he was caught by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) after a tip-off.

Sentencing Owen, Judge Toby Hooper, QC, said he had “cheated the public” and had been “corrupted by greed”.

The judge also orderd a £3m confiscation order and imposed £250,000 in costs to be paid over 12 months. Owen was banned from being a company director for seven years.

Charles Bourns, of the National Farmers’ Union, said the court had sent out a strong message that such activity would not be tolerated. “Thankfully, cases like this are few and far between,” he said.

“Consumers can be reassured that, with new procedures in place, the eggs they are buying are genuine. The Lion mark helps ensure the highest standards of traceability and labelling.”

The court heard Owen started the scam in June 2004 when he bought caged eggs for 35p a dozen from suppliers with his business Heart of England Eggs.

He destroyed documents that came with the eggs proving their origin and stamped them with false production numbers from fake companies – describing them as British Lion, although they came from abroad. The eggs were then sold on to distributers for 75p a dozen – a more than 100 per cent profit for Owen – as organic and free range.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Those of you who have seen the film ‘Catch me if you can’ will understand that to con people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds is a very skilful, risky and dishonourable game to play. To get away with it you have to be incredibly lucky or a genius of epic proportions.

From left to right: Frank Abignale, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks

In ‘catch me if you can’ Leonardo Di Caprio plays the role of Frank Abignale, perhaps the greatest con artist in the 20^th century. It is somewhat ironic that rather than going to prison he helped the government and created many financial security barriers which we still use today.

If you haven’t seen the film it is highly recommended and we have also read some great reviews about the film ‘I love you Phillip Morris’ which depicts another infamous conman. The title of ‘greatest conman in the 21^st century’ is still wide open and there is plenty of time, but early contenders are Bernie Maddoff and Allen Stanford.

James Cameron, who modelled himself on the 2002 film ‘Catch Me If You Can’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio, used false credit cards to systematically scam everyone from chauffeurs to models in order to maintain his entrepreneurial fantasy.

He first began deceiving at just 13-years-old when he set up a website purporting to sell plasma TVs. Since then the teenager had been posing as a businessman working under the aliases, James Blake, Blake Cameron and Chris Benson, running up enormous bills on false credit cards wherever he went. He led a flamboyant and luxurious lifestyle involving top models and strip clubs.

Despite his previous 2007 conviction where, following a £250,000 scam, he was sent to a young offender institution for 6 months, Cameron received only a 50 week suspended sentence and 200 hours of community on Tuesday.

He defrauded 11 victims of approximately £82,000 across London. Two other offences were also taken into account, amounting to £21,000.

Prosecutor Charles John-Jules said in court: “He used the services of his victims and basically had no intention to pay for them. He was just using these people to fulfil an apparent fantasy of being a successful entrepreneur.”

Judge James Wadsworth, who gave Cameron the suspended jail term five months ago, said: “If I had known when I first sentenced you that the amount you had defrauded was in the region of £100,000, I have very little doubt indeed that I would have put you straight inside, despite your plea and despite your age.

“And such is your abuse of other people’s money and such is your arrogance in doing so, you deserve it. However I bear in mind your age and, above all, that in the time that has passed since your last sentence, you have stayed out of trouble.”

After walking free, Cameron said: “Of course I am full of regret and remorse. It’s something I began when I was 13 and something I continued to do until I found an alternative, which was education. I have turned over a new leaf and I’m not going to do it again.”

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Southwark Crown Court heard how Ruth Ayinde-Azeez (26), Isaac Matthews (42), David Hunter (35), and Jason Mercer (36) targeted a number of properties across the UK, provided false mortgage applications for them and using the loans to fund luxurious lifestyles.

Ayinde-Azeez, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to acquire, use or have criminal property and one count of removing criminal property. She was sentenced to four years in prison.

Matthews pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering and transferring money out of the UK and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Hunter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. Mercer pleaded guilty to money laundering and was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison.

Ayinde-Azeez owned a 20% share in a brokerage business, M Solutions and Financial, which played a significant role in the fraud. The business passed false mortgage applications to a firm of solicitors.

Once the mortgage was approved by a lender, the money would be sent to the solicitors client account and then on to two business accounts controlled solely by Akinyele and Matthews.

Their businesses, ‘Isaac and Isaacs’ and ‘Zikkito’, have now been dissolved and financial enquiries revealed that over £6m went through the accounts during the six week fraud.

Detective Constable Terry Lambert from the Economic and Specialist Crime Command of the Fraud Squad, said: “This was a meticulously planned fraud with involvement from a number of different criminals using seemingly legitimate businesses to launder huge amounts of money in a very short space of time.

“The luxurious lifestyles they were living shows a complete disregard for the law and it also makes Ayinde-Azeez’s defence that she did not know anything about the laundered money laughable.”

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

The reason this scam has been successful is because it is done in an intelligent way. You do not have to be a trained private detective to avoid obvious attempted fraud scams. Even to the untrained ear it is can be quite obvious that when someone calls and asks for all your details, it is probably someone trying to scam you.

The reason why this scam has been so successful is because they provide you with all the information except the one piece that they want. By understanding how the VISA and MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you’ll be better prepared to protect yourself.

The scam works with by someone calling and saying “This is (name), and I’m calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I’m calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank) did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for £497.99 from a Marketing company based in London?”

When you say “No”, the caller continues with, “Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from £297 to £497, just under the £500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?” You say “yes”. The caller continues – “I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number listed on the back of your card and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. “Do you need me to read it again?”

Here’s the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works. The caller says, “I need to verify you are in possession of your card.” He’ll ask you to “turn your card over and look for some numbers.” There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he’ll say, “That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?” After you say, “No,” the caller then thanks you and states, “Don’t hesitate to call back if you do”, and hangs up. You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number.

What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don’t give it to them. Instead, tell them you’ll call VISA or MasterCard directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you’re receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you’ll see charges for purchases you didn’t make, and by then it’s almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

The police and other private investigators have said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening. Please pass this on to all your family and friends. By informing each other, we protect each other.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Residents are advised of an incident involving cold calling traders which occurred on Monday 22 March 2010 in an established No Cold Calling Area (NCAA) in Thornton Cleveleys.

Two UPVC window salesmen entered the signed No Cold Calling Area and informed householders that they had been authorised by the local police to enter the zone. When challenged by one resident, they gave him a police log number which they claimed exempted them from the usual NCCA controls.

The resident rang the police in front of the salesmen, who then ran away. The log number was of course bogus. We have no details of the window business the salesmen were from. Any proffesional private investigator will offer the same advice to both NCCA residents and non NCAA residents, which is not to be taken in by this ploy and to continue refusing all business with cold calling traders.

Wherever you may live, it is recommended that you don’t under any circumstances deal with Cold Calling or door to door salesman. Police are warning members of the public to be on their guard against door-to-door salespeople claiming to be from the Probation Service, which demonstrates just how far some people will go and how little you can believe from a complete stranger.

We urge the elderly to be particularly vigilant because they are typically more targeted because the scammers believe they are easier targets. If you do live next to anyone elderly we urge you to keep an eye out for them and if you do see them to warn them about the scams. However legitimate it may feel at the time remember that when you were young and your parents said “never trust strangers”, well there was a good reason.

Officers have received a number of calls from residents reporting that men have called at their door and tried to sell household items such as tea-towels and dusters. PC Amy Littlejohns of York Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “The Probation Service have not authorised such a scheme and we advise residents not to be taken in by the salesmen.”

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

The nation of Iran has been in the midst of controversy surrounding the 2009 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Mir-Hossein Mousavi.  The U.S. and EU alleged that Ahmadinejad may have committed voter fraud to stay in power.

Before you read any more of this blog we urge you to watch this video -

In the aftermath of the election and in the wake of this criticism, Ahmadinejad has used Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which consists of army, navy, air force, and intelligence units, as well as the Basij paramilitary, to crack down on dissent, including peaceful protests.  He has arrested many, accusing them of civil and religious violations. What was particularly fascinating and far too often tragic about these events was the lengths and risks people took to try and send a message to the outside world.

In the UK we often take our right to peaceful demonstration for granted but if you try to imagine running for your life across Westminster Bridge after a demonstration, not knowing what might have happened to the people around you and your friends and family. For many the first thing they wanted to do was tell the outside world, which highlights how important the internet is as a communication tool. The people who got their message out may well have been risking their lives, but thanks to organisations like the BBC, their message was heard.

One of the sites taken down over the weekend belonged to a group calling itself the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI).  It is unclear if the group truly had any ties to U.S. intelligence agencies, or whether the Iranian press merely made the allegations because of the group’s criticism of Ahmadinejad.  Cached versions of the site contain accounts of protests held in Iran.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran’s official news agency, was the first to break the news of the takedowns, reporting that the Iranian government had foiled “US backed cyber war networks” with cyber attacks.  In addition to the attacks on the 29 websites, both news agencies report that 30 individuals were arrested.

Neither news agency provided any evidence backing their claims that the sites were U.S. affiliated.  However, the IRNA claimed that the sites were backed by $400M USD in funding from the U.S.’s Central Intelligence Agency spent on an effort to destabilize Iran.

Over the last couple of years, a growing number of cyber attacks have originated from Iran.  Some are officially endorsed by the Iranian government, others have not been.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Most schools in the UK are probably breaking the law by failing to alert students to the scores of cameras capturing their conversations and movements in playgrounds and classrooms, a study has claimed.

Pupils in schools are as frequently monitored by CCTV cameras as inmates in prisons and customers at airports, the report by Salford University says. Most secondary schools have at least 20 cameras. You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it would be cheaper to hire a private investigator!

Schools have installed cameras to improve teaching, as well as detect vandalism, intruders and bad behaviour. At least one school has put cameras with microphones in classrooms and corridors, and given staff earpieces to listen in on what the cameras pick up.

Researcher Emmeline Taylor examined surveillance practices in 24 comprehensives in north-west England and analysed the law governing CCTV use in schools as part of her PhD thesis.

The Data Protection Act states that the data being captured “should be adequate, relevant and not excessive”. This vague wording has allowed schools to become test beds for the latest surveillance technologies, Taylor says, and is “habituating young people to accept a heightened level of scrutiny for increasingly mundane activities, such as borrowing a book from the school library”.

Young people are being stripped of basic liberties, Taylor said. “There is this idea that CCTV is a solution to a lot of society’s ills, but there is nothing to suggest that this is the case,” she said. “We need specific guidance for pupils on how far schools can monitor them.

There has however, been several incidents when CCTV has been the difference between life and death. Any parent would say that having CCTV in a school is an added safety barrier which will aid the police if they ever need it. When for example Shannon Matthews was allegedly kidnapped, the schools CCTV was immediately looked at by police. On the other hand it would seem that CCTV did little to stop Eric Harris, and 17 year old Dylan Klebold from shooting 23 other students, killing 12 and taking their own lives at Columbine High School in America. Gun crime in the UK compared to America is much less and a sepaerate debate altogether, but what it proves is that if someone is fully motivated and committed, CCTV is no deterrent.

“The dearth of concrete legislation permits ever more invasive surveillance practices to be introduced in schools. Pupils are definitely the most surveilled non-criminal population.”

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights campaign group Liberty, questioned how pupils would learn to respect themselves and others if their own privacy and dignity were taken away. No student wants their teacher to be a part time private detective keeping an eye on what they do during their lunch break.

“How do you teach kids about good behaviour if its only basis is the fear of being caught?” she said. “How will they learn to respect themselves and other people if their privacy and dignity are traded for administrative convenience? It’s a sad state indeed if children grow up to expect prison-type monitoring. By over-watching young people, with cameras and computers, we may be overlooking our real duties to respect and protect them.”

Angus Drever, managing director of Classwatch, which installs CCTV cameras in schools so that teachers can be shown “good practice” and to improve pupils’ behaviour, said the ICO and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) should ensure schools are up to date with the law.

He said: “Schools use CCTV because they are under enormous pressure to meet their obligations to protect the children in their care, and to safeguard their assets. Classwatch has always taken the issues of data protection and respecting the privacy of children very seriously, which is why we approached the ICO for advice.”

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

More recently Conflict International, the London private detective agency, has learned that Dubai has widened its search for the killers of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, with officials confirming that at least six of the Hamas commander’s assassins remain unaccounted for.

Police in Dubai have issued international arrest warrants for 11 suspects in the case, but now believe the team behind the murder numbered at least 17. What this demonstrates is just how complex the operation was and the level of planning and preparation needed. If the assassination was carried out by Mossad they would be under strict orders to leave no trace back to Israel to ensure deniability.

The identities of the 11 named suspects have already been discredited. The identities of six British citizens living in Israel appear to have been stolen. Officials in the Gulf state say the fake passports were used for travel in Europe and Asia in the months preceding the murder.

Dubai police are also understood to be questioning two Palestinians arrested last week in the Gulf state in relation to the killing. Their identities are unknown but they are believed to have provided logistical support for the murder operation.

The long-time Hamas commander made a video two weeks before his death in which he admitted to the kidnap and murder of two Israeli soldiers, Ilan Saadon and Avi Sasportas. The video was broadcast on the al-Jazeera satellite television channel this month.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister said that the evidence was circumstantial but he did not deny Israeli involvement. “There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief,” Mr Lieberman told Israel Army Radio.

He brushed aside the suggestion that the operation might deepen Israel’s diplomatic difficulties with Britain, saying: “I think Britain recognises that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game.”

The high-profile use of British passport identities has caused concern in Israel. Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, called in a commentary for Major General Meir Dagan to quit as head of the Mossad over the operation, which it said had abused the “real, living, innocent civilians” whose identities were stolen and had left Israeli open to diplomatic reprisals from abroad.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader who is also a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Government should summon the Israeli ambassador to provide an urgent explanation.

But a Foreign Office spokeswoman said that no official representation had been made to the Israeli ambassador in London. The Government would decide what to do next only once it had finished investigating the use of British passport identities, the spokeswoman said, but she added that the inquiry was still at a very early stage.

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Dozens of customers are being left heartbroken when their new online mates prove not to be all that they say they are.

On many occasions the clients have to be told that an online profile on FaceBook or matchmaker.com isn’t really an accurate depiction of them. The growing popularity of tourist websites that linked potential travel partners such as www.couchsurfing.org now have almost two million members worldwide, and advertise couches in private residences where backpackers and tourists can stay for free.

It was recently reported that Jarris Fuller of investigations firm JFA Brisbane said he recently helped a Brisbane woman who wanted to investigate a man she met online and who had started asking for money.

“They had known each other online for a few months and he said he was a soldier in Afghanistan who needed $2300 to secure leave,” Mr Fuller said. “I managed to track the IP address to a country near Nigeria and it turned out to be a scam.”

Apart from Romeos lying about their attributes, even more malicious fraud has become common.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission claims more than 550 Australian romance seekers were duped in 2009. That is an increase from the 430 individuals who lodged complaints in 2008.

Queensland police said romance hoaxes skyrocketed last year from 7 per cent of all ”advanced fee” frauds to more than 60 per cent.

Southern Cross University associate professor of media studies Karen Brooks said Gen Y was “the suspicious generation”.

“I understand that caution when you meet someone on the internet. . . The thing is people can lie when you meet them in a bar too.”

Dr Brooks said what you saw was no longer what you got with Gen Y.

“What does it say about where honesty has gone in our culture?” she said.”Having said that, can we blame them? There is constant reporting of people who are hurt, let down, betrayed, deceived by people with false identities.

“What they need to know is that everyone out there is not like that.”

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Quite recently the big controversy that came into public view was the Binyam Mohammed case, which highlighted the way, suspected terrorists were treated and the covert cooperation by the British and the Americans intelligence communities.

MI5

The aftermath of the Binyam Mohammed case is rumoured to be behind Hillary Clinton’s visit to Argentina to discuss the Falkland Islands dispute, something the British government didn’t appreciate and has now resulted in increased tensions between two countries which have already been at war over tiny islands. There is no question that the Falklands are much closer to Argentina than the UK however the population of the islands are British and it is those people that should have the right to decide who they are governed by. Whatever the outcome neither country wants to fight a war, diplomacy is the only way forward.

The report brought to attention a major the weakness of the intelligence community to secure their own IT equipment, which holds vital security information. In the case of GCHQ, 35 laptops were unaccounted for, including three certified to hold top-secret information. The government said these were believed to have been destroyed but that this had not been properly recorded.

In an even more remarkable story, it turns out that highly classified MI6 data made its way onto the eBay auction site thanks to some shortcuts used in an overseas station. In 2004, the MI6 station was still using floppy disks to transfer files but staff decided it would be quicker to use the memory capacity of a digital camera to transfer large files. This was a breach of procedure. The memory stick was not labelled or held securely in the MI6 station nor was it destroyed.

Standards slipping?

On a more serious note, the committee continues to warn that the struggle against terrorism means other priorities are slipping – particularly counter-espionage, the catching of foreign spies.

This has been a long-term concern for the ISC. The committee also warns of a growing danger from electronic attack and with the Olympics just around the corner and the huge security operation that will be part of it, failure is not an option.

But the edge to the reports came as we learned that relations between the ISC and the government are not exactly harmonious at the moment.

The chairman of the ISC, Kim Howells MP, noted in his press release that “given the seriousness of the issues that both reports cover, the government will give proper consideration to our recommendations and conclusions and accept the changes we have proposed rather than seek to provide excuses for maintaining the status quo.”

Conflict International provides professional private investigators and private detectives in London and around the UK. We also specialize in undercover surveillance and corporate investigations. To find out more please visit our website and get in touch.

Most of the cases are justified. Tanner has conducted about 300 infidelity investigations. In only five cases was there no evidence of infidelity. This ratio is affected by the fact that Tanner never takes cases in which she suspects morbid jealousy or mental problems to be involved.

Boat cruises are one of the most typical places for revealing a cheater. A ship is an easy work environment for the detective due to the ease in following a target unnoticed.

Most of the investigator’s practical work involves waiting. You must keep your eyes open at all times, even if the person under investigation stays in a foreign cabin or hotel room for hours. Spare clothes, wigs and sunglasses are part of a detective’s regular gear. With the aid of these, the detective seeks to fool his target and remain unnoticed.”

“As well as private individuals, companies might also use a private detective agency, like insurance companies for example. Often the detectives’ assignments are simple surveillance, but occasionally they also solve crimes. Communities and individuals can hire an investigator to acquire evidence of a crime in order for the police to start their own preliminary investigation based on the evidence.”

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

There have been enormous and dramatic changes in the use of passports and visas over the last 10 to 15 years. It is no longer so easy to counterfeit, and it is also much harder to alter such documents. The recent assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai is a glaring example of how identities were stolen and used for lethal purposes. The organisation believed to have carried this out is the national intelligence agency for Israel, Mossad.

The history of the organisation does fit the bill. In 1972 eleven Israeli athletes were murdered at Munich Olympics by the terror organisation Black September. Mossad’s retribution was severe, and they set up special teams dedicated to hunting and killing those responsible for the murders.

Today – ironically, in order to prevent terrorists travelling – passports and visas now have RFID (radio frequency identification) chips embedded, making them much harder to forge. These were first embedded by the Malaysian government in 1998, and since then it has been widely adopted around the world, including most European countries, America, Australia and many more. But what does this mean for international espionage? Well, a lot of the lower-level kind of forgeries will diminish and in future it will only be the high-end counterfeiters who will operate.

But this will also mean it will be more difficult for the high-end intelligence agencies to operate. In the future, they will have to obtain documents through bribery and malfeasance. We will see intelligence agencies such as Mossad using documents stolen from people who bear a resemblance to the operatives that they want to send out.

In Pakistan, for example, this is already commonplace: jihadist groups get people to surrender their passports and then use people who look as much as possible like the original holders. This avoids the necessity to try to alter the pictures.

As far as relations between Britain and Israel are concerned, this is unlikely to be a big problem. There may well be some sort of “knock it off” warning from the British to the Israelis, but any big repercussions are doubtful. Things like aggressive Israeli spying against the UK would have much greater repercussions.

In relation to the Dubai operation itself, looking at the tactical breakdown of how they did it gives a glimpse into a very dark world of secrets, lies and cover ups. Some would say that the operation was a complete disaster, after all hitting the front pages cannot be a good thing if you’re a state sponsored spy.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality of it is this operation was an absolute success. It is somewhat amusing overhearing some people describe it as sloppy or badly executed operation. The team had excellent intelligence, they were well prepared, and their behaviour was as cool as a cucumber. These were highly trained operatives who knew exactly what they were doing. They completed their mission and have since scattered around the world with new identities.

The target itself was a current and very serious threat to Israeli security. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s death will upset the flow of arms from Iran to Hamas. He was also wanted by the Israeli government for his part in the kidnap and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 which he celebrated by standing on one of the corpses. In a video, taped two weeks before his death, and broadcast on Al-Jazeera in early February, Mabhouh admitted his involvement, saying he had disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew.

As for the future, the uproar will simmer down and Mossad will just get better and change its tradecraft and its counterfeiting, and probably the countries that it uses for cover. Israel will probably look in Latin America and also possibly Mediterranean countries such as Lebanon, Cyprus, or even Italy. They will have to work illegally – but they know how to do it.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

The recording, allegedly made at the England hotel as the squad prepared for last week’s friendly with Egypt, has been offered to media outlets. There is no doubt that a private detective or private investigator would be keen to obtain such information.

At this stage it is unclear whether it was obtained through a wireless security surveillance, bugging device or by the intercepting of phone calls. Either way it would appear, somewhat typically of England, in the run in before a World Cup summer the squad implodes and the media is there to pick up the pieces and regurgitate them.

The recording, believed to be several hours long, is alleged to contain conversations between coaching staff and players at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire ahead of the 3-1 victory over Egypt at Wembley last Wednesday.

The FA’s solicitors have written to news outlets to state the recording was obtained illicitly and that any publication of its contents would be a breach of Press Complaints Commission rules.

The incident comes in the wake of the furore over reports surrounding Chelsea and England defender John Terry’s private life.

The Chelsea skipper was subsequently stripped of the England captaincy by national manager Fabio Capello, while Bridge announced he did not want to be considered for international duty, thereby ruling himself out of the World Cup plans.

Bridge was seen as the natural replacement for Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole, who is facing a race against time to be fit for the finals in South Africa after breaking his ankle, while Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand has persistent back problems.

United defender Wes Brown, who filled the right-back slot against Egypt, is waiting to find out whether he suffered a broken bone in his left foot during the champions’ 1-0 victory over Wolves on Saturday.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

Conflict International understands that guards at the Tower of London, affectionately nicknamed ‘Beefeaters’ and famed for their guided tours of tourists. What is less well known is that the Beefeaters also gave private evening tours. They have been accused of charging £50 a head for unauthorised nocturnal private tours of the crown jewels at the Tower of London.

The allegations were made by a security firm called in to investigate the guardians of the Tower. It found that late-night tours, which ended up in the Tower club, a private bar run by the Beefeaters, were commonplace.

One Beefeater is even accused of taking female tourists back to his grace-and favour apartment in the Tower for sex.

Allegations were also made that one Beefeater grew cannabis for his own use in his garage at the Tower, while another let his house out to tourists after advertising it on the internet and secured a seven-day pass for those staying there which allowed access to private facilities not open to the public.

As part of the undercover surveillance strategy hidden cameras were placed around the Tower during the investigation by London private detectives, in conjunction with the Metropolitan police, chaired by the former commissioner Lord Stevens.

It was called in by the governor of the Tower, Major General Keith Cima, when he took over in 2006. A Tower spokesman said: “The governor was made aware of some allegations relating to the residents’ social club, known as the Tower club, and evening tours.

“He took these allegations very seriously and immediately instigated a full and thorough investigation, conducted by an independent, external company.”

Private investigators spent months monitoring the Beefeaters. One whistleblower stated that: “I was called into the new governor’s office and he asked me what the hell was going on.

“He could see there was a lot of money and said he’d walked around the Casemates [where the Beefeaters live] and seen expensive cars. One Beefeater had a top-of-the-range Mercedes SLK. The frequency of the private tours was getting silly — every night — and the governor said he knew certain things were going on.”

The daughter of a Beefeater who was suspected of helping the inquiry was allegedly assaulted. No action was taken against any individuals because of lack of evidence, but a spokesman for the Tower said: “The investigation concluded that weaknesses in the operation of the Tower club and poor administration could have left members open to allegations of impropriety.

“However, allegations of individuals making personal gain could not be substantiated by hard evidence.

“Subsequently a series of recommendations were implemented to improve the operation and administration of the Tower club and evening tours, measures which continue to this day.”

The damaging allegations come after revelations last year that the first female warder in the Tower’s 1,000-year history, Moira Cameron, was bullied and harassed by two yeoman warders, who were later sacked. She said the bullying caused her “unprecedented stress to the extent that my hair fell out”.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

The programme was able to buy two bogus visa documents which would have virtually guaranteed entry to the UK. One cost £200, the other just £150. Overseas students coming to study in Britain have to obtain a formal invitation from one of nearly 2,000 colleges on an approved list run by the Home Office.

UK Border Agency

These official documents, called visa letters, are issued by a range of institutions, from major universities to tiny private colleges in rows of shops. Under the UK Border Agency’s points-based system, a visa applicant requires 40 points to get into the country.

Thirty points come from having a valid visa letter for a UK college. Another 10 are awarded for having several thousand pounds in the bank for 28 days – which could easily be borrowed.

Secret office

Information from a source prompted an undercover investigator to research a small, private college in west London called Gateway2uk Education. The college, with a campus at Hayes, has been operating with an A rating from the UK Border Agency.

But Newsnight was told that people linked to the college were selling bogus visa letters for cash from a secret office in Wembley Park in London.

Newsnight set up a covert observation point nearby and undercover surveillance uncovered deals taking place. We watched as a succession of young men came and went. One even counted his cash outside. They left with A4 white envelopes.

Using undercover investigators, they managed to buy two bogus visa documents and filmed the process. One of these was sold by a former administrator at Gateway2uk Education.

The administrator later went to India. When traced there, they said they bitterly regretted getting involved in the fraud and had been a minor player, directed by the then owner of Gateway2uk Education, Indian entrepreneur Darpan Shah.

Darpan Shah denies this account. Through his solicitor he said he had very little overall control of the business and he could not comment on the activities of the administrator who sold us the documents.

‘No knowledge of fraud’

Darpan Shah says he only owned Gateway2uk Education for 25 days in January. But he was a director until 5 February 2010 and Newsnight’s bogus letters were bought while he was still there.

Newsnight took the bogus visa letters to the Hayes campus of Gateway2uk Education to ask the academic principal for his reaction.

Principal Jeremy Coulton was visibly shocked, saying he had no idea that visa letters were being forged or that a private detective had been keeping such a close eye on the matter.

The following day he found a box full of bogus visas – almost 160 – which had been left in the office. They were sent from a company in Baroda in India called Krish Immigration. The company is owned by Darpan Shah.

Mr Shah says he has been unwittingly caught up in two frauds, in the UK and India. On both occasions, he argues, people working with him have acted wrongly without his consent. He says he has now sold the Gateway2uk Education College.

Earlier this month, the UK Border Agency suspended Gateway2uk Education’s licence to take in new students. Its premises were inspected on Tuesday.

On Monday the government introduced a new electronic system to help tackle student visa fraud. But given the huge sums of money involved – £8bn a year – the industry will continue to attract those who seek to exploit weaknesses in the system.

Conflict International provides professional private invetigators in London and around the UK.

On the 6^th of June 1945 General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allies into Hitler’s ‘fortress Europe’ and he was chosen for this task not because he was military tactical genius hardened in the trenches of the First World War, but because in the previous high commands he held, Eisenhower showed his great talents for organisation, leadership and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action himself, he won the respect of front-line commanders.

To carry out successful covert surveillance requires a variety of disciplines, but none is more important than research and planning, but especially so if you are planning to tail a target or conduct a stakeout. You need to know the layout, activity level, and suitable travelling routes or surveillance locations. It is very important to be familiar with your surroundings and highly familiar with your targets habits.

Taking different routes to get to your target location is advised. Humans are indeed creatures of habit but as a professional private detective this must be suppressed. By picking up habits such as using the same route all the time the operation is put in jeopardy.

If you’re using a car or van for a stake out, ensure you look as inconspicuous as possible – take seat in the passenger or rear seat, read a book, study a map, just do something that gives the impression you are waiting for someone.

Do not wear distinctive clothes or carry distinctive objects. Blending in to the environment is absolutely crucial. If using public transport, roaming tickets are ideal for any journey – you have flexibility over your route and will keep your options open.

Any experienced private investigator will say there must always be a ‘plan B’, and sometimes it’s worth having a ‘plan C’. Any eventuality must be thought of in advance and prepared for. Therefore the ability to identify different levels of risk and moments of opportunity are crucial.

Our in-house surveillance teams can deploy covert surveillance cars, vans, motorcycles, and licensed taxis dependant on a number of variables such as the nature of the task, the area the operation will take place, the method of travel etc.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

The event took place at the Imagination Gallery in Store Street and the acrobatic fire jugglers performing outside signalled that something distinctly odd was afoot. Inside nothing was quite what it seemed. The rationale of the award was that the process of marital breakdown could be represented as a creative art. However, the reality of that Conflict reference was the presence of serious guys in suits from “Conflict International — Investigation, Security, Intelligence” that puts former gunslingers into car boots to monitor your movements and former Met officers to trawl through your garbage.

Not that it wasn’t fun. Staff posing as lawyers turned out to be writers of film scores and I was pleased to meet the artists Emily Lockren and Stephen Ford who had turned their backs on the gimmickry of Damien Hirst to pursue the virtues of hard work and high skills.

Meanwhile, David Lister, apparently a real Mishcon solicitor, entertained the crowd by cavorting with a bottle of champagne balanced on his head. It was that kind of crazy evening. That the Mishcon website carried nothing about the prize or the launch merely confirmed that it was all a bit of an illusion.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

“During my time on the Private Security Board, I became aware that approximately 50 percent of all private detective companies fail in their first year of business. These failures occur primarily because the new licensees have no idea what is required to succeed,” said John Chism, chairman of the state Private Security Board. “Programs like UNT’s will provide a sound footing for a new licensed private investigator to succeed and better serve the citizens of the state of Texas.”

UNT’s program will not only train participants in the theory and practice of private investigations, but will also cover the business side. Upon completion of the program, students will be able to launch their own private investigations businesses or work in a variety of fields such as insurance, law and business.

The program will be administrated by the Professional Development Institute at UNT, and will be offered in Dallas and in Houston. Dr. Scott Belshaw, UNT professor and former owner of a Houston-based private investigation firm, and Karen Hewitt, UNT alumna and co-founder of Hewitt & Cowden Investigations in Dallas, developed the program’s curriculum. They were committed to developing a program that was comparable to a four-year degree. Participants will be required to complete 12 courses, for a total of 220 hours of instruction. Upon completion, students will earn a certificate in professional private investigations.

“These students will have every advantage as they work toward becoming quality private investigators,” said Belshaw. “Our instructors will include professors, private investigators from the community and even former FBI agents.”

The Dallas program will begin on March 19 at the University of Dallas, and the Houston program will begin on March 26 at the University of St. Thomas. The program will be taught in an executive style with classes on Friday evenings and all day on Saturdays. The program lasts for approximately four and half months.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

The evidence is being sought by celebrity publicist Max Clifford, who has started legal action seeking to prove that News of the World investigators unlawfully intercepted messages left on his mobile phone.

Jeremy Reed, Clifford’s barrister, told Mr Justice Norris in the high court that, according to a witness statement from an information commissioner investigator, unlawful requests from newspaper reporters to obtain information about “high-profile” individuals and their associates was “endemic”.

The case follows the Guardian’s revelation that Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire secretly paid £1m in damages to Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, and two other figures from the PFA to settle legal actions that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch journalists using a private detective to illegally hack into their mobile phone records.

Clifford, like Taylor, was one of five individuals named in the charges against Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective in London used by the tabloid who was jailed with the paper’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, in 2007.

Clifford has made an application to see documents concerning News of the World reporters from the information commissioner, the watchdog responsible for protecting the public’s privacy.

The commissoner seized paperwork from Steve Whittamore, a private investigator who has been convicted of illegally accessing official and commercial databases. Whittamore had cultivated sources who extracted information from police computers, British Telecom, the DVLA, the Inland Revenue and others.

The paperwork shows that there were a total of 13,343 requests from 305 journalists including 27 journalists from the News of the World who paid Whittamore to obtain personal data. One NoW reporter made 130 requests, and another 118.

The information commissioner is prepared to release this paperwork to Clifford as he believes that the employment of illegal methods by the News of the World and other newspapers was widespread.

Today, the News of the World said: “This legal issue is coming up for hearing shortly. We are therefore unwilling to comment in any detail, other than to say that the relevant report from the information commissioner was published in 2006 and it referred to matters arising in 2002–2003.”

“For the record, the information commissioner’s report has nothing to do with voicemail accessing.”
It is understood that the News of the World will argue that the records obtained by the information commissioner are irrelevant and therefore should be kept under wraps.

A court ordered the release of documents from the information commissioner when Taylor sued. The Murdoch papers later paid him £700,000 in a confidential out-of-court settlement.

Last year, Clifford said he had been told by the police more than two years ago that his phone had been hacked. He told the Guardian: “I believed that this was a one-off, just two lads overstepping the mark. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Now it is increasingly worrying that there could be an awful lot more.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

The star of Tomb Raider has alledgedley taken the services of a private detective to monitor her husband.

Conflict International, headquartered in London, provides professional private detectives to work in across the UK, Europe and anywhere around the globe. Conflict International has recently setup its New York office and is now open for business to clients based in the USA.

Michael Porter is raising funds to employ investigators in a bid to find out what happened to mum, Jean Hanlon. Her body was found in the sea at the port of Heraklion in Crete on March 12 last year.

Michael, aged 25, believes she was murdered. But he has been left frustrated by what he claims is the lack of a proper investigation by the Greek authorities.

He said: “There’s a lot of things that I haven’t got the answer to and I don’t know if they have.”

Jean lived in Dumfries until 2005 when she decided to embark on a new life abroad after gaining work with a travel company.

She came back to Scotland regularly but spent most of her time in Crete. She was last seen alive in a café bar at Heraklion on March 9 last year.

That saw a police probe launched in Greece and Michael and his two brothers, David and Robert, went over to try and find her. They returned to the UK broken-hearted following the discovery of her body.

Michael, who now lives in Mansfield, got hold of a police forensic report this week which showed his mum’s body had been dumped in the water with lesions to her head and neck.

In the run-up to the anniversary of her death, he said: “This confirms our worst fears and suspicions that our mother was murdered.

“The report has been a long time in coming but police must now launch a full investigation to find the killer.”

Michael has been using his skills as an actor to raise funds to pay for lawyers and the private investigation by holding fundraising concerts and shows in Mansfield.

He has hired Kate and Gerry McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell to raise the profile of their case and hopes to soon have the funds for the team of private investigators.

Michael said: “From day one you’re trying to find out. Going out there, the way we were treated was disgusting. “We were so angry and gob-smacked; you didn’t even think this is about my mum. I felt like I was a private investigator, a lawyer. Nobody tells us anything.”

Michael revealed that Greek police had questioned two suspects but no charges had been brought. He added: “They basically just wanted us to take the body away.”

According to Michael his mum was very well known and he has gathered hundreds of supporters online via a Facebook page in the fight to find out what happened to Jean.

He said: “She had two circles of friends – she had all the Greeks and then the ex-pats and a lot of friends from Scotland.”

Dumfries and Galloway Police said they had been helping the Greek authorities with their inquiries last year but have had no further involvement since then.

Conflict International is the premier London private detective company which uses the latest technology and the most professional and experienced investigators.

Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 73, was convicted last year of stealing trade secrets from Boeing and Rockwell during a three-decade career where he was also working as a Chinese agent, a justice department statement said.

Federal Judge Cormac Carney jailed Chung for 188 months at a hearing in Santa Ana, outside of Los Angeles, telling the former engineer it was not possible to “put a price tag” on national security.

Chung was found guilty of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country, one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China and one count of making false statements to the FBI.

A native of China and a naturalized US citizen, Chung held a “secret” security clearance when he worked at Rockwell and Boeing on the space shuttle program, according to prosecutors.

He retired from the company in 2002 and returned to Boeing as a contractor the following year until 2006. During his trial last year, prosecutors alleged Chung stole Boeing trade secrets relating to the shuttle and the Delta IV rocket.

“Mr Chung betrayed his adopted country and endangered our national security,” acting US attorney George Cardona said.

“This case demonstrates our resolve to protect the secrets that help protect the United States, as well as the important technological advancements developed by scientists working for companies that provide crucial support to our national security programs.”

The case against Chung was uncovered during a probe into another Chinese espionage case involving the sale of sensitive military information to China.

What this demonstrates is that fraud can take place in almost any business. The security checks on Dongfan Chung will no doubt have been extremely thorough but were unable to identify him as a possible threat to the US national security.

This also highlights just how important governments around the world consider technological progression. Technology has been the driving force of many economies around the world post World War 2, which has resulted in the world we live in today. We exist in a world were technology has become so integrated into our lives, one must ask, would we be able to live without it?

Conflict International is the premier London private detective company which uses the latest technology and the most professional and experienced investigators.

David Beckham can cross a football today just as well if not better then when he was at Manchester United. At United Beckham earned a fortune and become a legend winning just about every piece of silverware possible. He went to Spain enjoyed tremendous success under Fabio Capello at Real Madrid, and then went to America where it seems like things are going well for him. Apparently there was also some little tiff he had with Victoria about cheating on her which was quickly resolved and his public image has remained intact.

As for Ashley Cole he didn’t something most Londoners would advice against. He went from Arsenal to Chelsea, something that will never be forgiven by several thousands in the capital and many more around the world. That however wasn’t his biggest mistake. One night Ashley got drunk and cheated on his wife with a hairdresser. The reason this infuriated so many people is quite simple, he is married to quite possibly the prettiest thing that has ever or will ever come out of Newcastle. Quite frankly Ashley Cole is the luckiest man in the world and the only way the country will ever forgive him is if he set up the winning goal in the World Cup final.

Tiger took a slightly different route to David Beckham and Ashley Cole. He travelled around the world winning the biggest golf tournaments and in doing so becoming the first reported sportsman worth ‘$1 Billion’. He also got married to a beautiful blonde (Elin Nordegren) and had a few kids when he came home to visit. So whilst Tiger was gallivanting around the world enjoying his success he slept with……well who knows really? It could be argued that any female, with a heartbeat and a functional brain may well have been enticed, and to be honest, I don’t blame them. Tiger Woods is a good looking and athletic man who made golf what it is today, and in the process he made a fortune. He made so much money his wife, Elin Nordegren had to hire a private investigator just find out how much.

Finally it was John Terry’s turn. Captain of club and country, he is the role model for a whole generation of children who would sacrifice all their pocket to see him lift the World Cup in South Africa this summer. Exactly how long the affair was going on for we can’t be sure of but it seems Terry was doing everything right as a husband and father, he was even voted ‘Dad of the year’ in 2009. The woman he had the affair with, Vanessa Perroncel, judging from recent press, was a committed footballer’s girlfriend, so much so that she worked in a nightclub frequented by footballers and in between John Terry and Wayne Bridge managed to sleep with several other premier league players.

There is no question that John Terry should have known better, so should Tiger Woods, Ashley Cole and David Beckham because in today’s world if you are celebrity nothing will stay a secret for very long. With insatiable public demand for information, the power of the media and private detectives has demonstrated that no secret is safe.

Conflict International is the premier London private detective company which uses the latest technology and the most professional and experienced investigators.

When we think about private detectives, our thoughts naturally turn to Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Simon Templar, Magnum PI… But rather than smoking pipes or driving red Ferraris, the modern-day private investigator is more likely to be found lurking in a red Escort outside their local Travelodge, trying to catch philandering spouses red handed. Still, it seems recessions are good for business

With UK companies reporting £2.1bn of fraud in 2009, according to BDO, companies should have no shortage of corporate clients. This is emphasised by January’s NFA report, which suggests that about 30% of these fraud losses came in the private sector (the rest was in the public sector, mostly via tax dodging). Financial services was unsurprisingly worst hit, losing £1bn to mortgage fraud, another £2bn to insurance fraud, and the best part of another £1bn on credit cards and online scams.

Consumers are being encouraged to take preventative measures to avoid becoming the victims of mass-marketing scams. Advice line Consumer Direct suggested that taking time over any deal would help, but anything that appeared too good to be true, usually was.

People should ensure that they have as much contact information as possible for any trader they are dealing with, such as a full postal address and landline telephone number. If ordering on the internet, consumers should follow basic security measures, such as taking care when offering bank details. Purchases of more than £100 receive extra protection if the buyer uses a credit card.

Tackling this massive problem is something governments around the world are trying to achieve. Recently for example Icelandic authorities confirmed that they searched four premises in the UK with the help of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and City of London police in an inquiry linked with alleged irregular transactions made by Exista.

There were also eight searches in Iceland connected to a separate SFO investigation into Exista’s alleged dealings with JJB Sports. A number of people are being questioned in Reykjavik. Olafur Thor Hauksson, Iceland’s special investigator, said: “It is a very big operation with 30 people working on the cases here and four of our people are in the UK.”

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

It has been reported that the couple is on the verge of implosion. The star of Tomb Raider should have more confidence in her beloved but instead took the offered the services of a private detective to monitor Brad Pitt in his every move.

The actor, weary of daily arguments, Angie remains with the sole purpose of protecting children. Sure, six children at home, it makes you think! “Brad is dead inside”, a source told the tabloid American. They agree on nothing and Brad’s had enough.” The couple is not communicating more and Angelina Jolie suspects her husband to look elsewhere.

In the past and still today it is hard to really know exactly what the situation with Brad Pitt and Anjelina Jolie, so in all likelyhood this will continue

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

The evidence is being sought by celebrity publicist Max Clifford, who has started legal action seeking to prove that News of the World investigators unlawfully intercepted messages left on his mobile phone.

Jeremy Reed, Clifford’s barrister, told Mr Justice Norris in the high court that, according to a witness statement from an information commissioner investigator, unlawful requests from newspaper reporters to obtain information about “high-profile” individuals and their associates was “endemic”.

The case follows the Guardian’s revelation that Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire secretly paid £1m in damages to Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, and two other figures from the PFA to settle legal actions that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch journalists using private investigators to illegally hack into their mobile phone records.

Clifford, like Taylor, was one of five individuals named in the charges against Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective in London used by the tabloid who was jailed with the paper’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, in 2007.

Clifford has made an application to see documents concerning News of the World reporters from the information commissioner, the watchdog responsible for protecting the public’s privacy.

The commissoner seized paperwork from Steve Whittamore, a private investigator who has been convicted of illegally accessing official and commercial databases. Whittamore had cultivated sources who extracted information from police computers, British Telecom, the DVLA, the Inland Revenue and others.

The paperwork shows that there were a total of 13,343 requests from 305 journalists including 27 journalists from the News of the World who paid Whittamore to obtain personal data. One NoW reporter made 130 requests, and another 118.

The information commissioner is prepared to release this paperwork to Clifford as he believes that the employment of illegal methods by the News of the World and other newspapers was widespread.

Today, the News of the World said: “This legal issue is coming up for hearing shortly. We are therefore unwilling to comment in any detail, other than to say that the relevant report from the information commissioner was published in 2006 and it referred to matters arising in 2002–2003.”

“For the record, the information commissioner’s report has nothing to do with voicemail accessing.”
It is understood that the News of the World will argue that the records obtained by the information commissioner are irrelevant and therefore should be kept under wraps.

A court ordered the release of documents from the information commissioner when Taylor sued. The Murdoch papers later paid him £700,000 in a confidential out-of-court settlement.

Last year, Clifford said he had been told by the police more than two years ago that his phone had been hacked. He told the Guardian: “I believed that this was a one-off, just two lads overstepping the mark. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Now it is increasingly worrying that there could be an awful lot more.

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

It is reported that Nordegren, who plans to divorce Woods in California rather than Florida due to the state’s more generous laws, wants to know exactly what he is worth. Woods is believed to be worth almost $1 billion, but his fortune is spread across the globe, with money likely in several different tax havens, so estimating his exact worth will no doubt be a difficult task.

Adding fuel to the fire, Woods’ mistress No1, New York party planner Rachel Uchitel, boasted to friends that Woods promised to buy her a nightclub. She reportedly told them: “I’m his soulmate and we have a special connection. We will get back together – he promised.”

“Elin knows hiring a Private Investigator is a smart move. Her lawyers want to make sure she gets every penny she’s entitled to. Elin is devastated, but now she’s decided to end their marriage she has the future of their children to think about,” said a source.

She has also hired Sorrell Trope, 82, a partner in Californian law firm Trope and Trope who has represented stars like Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Britney Spears.

Finance expert David Marchant of offshoreAlert.com said: “Tiger will be hiding money legally in tax havens.”

Conflict International provides professional private detectives in London and around the UK.

When asked if he suspected journalists had hacked into the princes’ engaged in phone tapping, Mr Williams told the committee: “Yes, I think they may well have done.”

Former News of the World Royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed for four months in 2007 after admitting hacking into hundreds of messages on mobile phones belonging to aides of the Royal Family. Glenn Mulcaire, an illegal investigator was also sent to prison for his involvement in the affair.

The two men had made 609 calls to retrieve private messages from mobile phones belonging to the princes’ personal secretary, private secretary and The Prince of Wales’ communications secretary.

Conflict International provides professional private investigator services to identify whether an individual or organisation is being followed or investigated, which include, but are not limited to resolving problems associated with phone hacking.

The ACC presented a panel discussion on internal investigations during its annual conference in Boston last week, and posed the following hypothetical: One of the company’s office managers has received an anonymous e-mail, where the writer claims to have compromised the salary and bonus information of several executives. The writer also claims to have stolen proprietary software from the company, whose customers are mostly manufacturers, and plans to give it to a competitor.

The Group’s projections show that around £500million of these losses will be recovered by UK local authorities which choose to participate in class action lawsuits arising from that period, mainly based in the US. However, if rates of class actions do not improve, a number of pension funds will effectively be ignoring their right to recoup around £125million of recoverable funds, which will be distributed between only those who filed a claim.

GOAL said this should be a wakeup call to the UK public sector, as they are currently missing out on their legal right to claim damages through the US courts, despite cases such as North Yorkshire and Merseyside County Council pension funds in their applications for lead plaintiff statuses.

Between 2007 and 2008, almost £8.5bn was lost and £140million open to be recovered for UK local authority pension funds, and this increased to £22.5bn lost and £370million open to be recovered between 2008 and 2009.

“We have been involved in numerous class actions over the years, varying in size, including A.T. & T. Wireless, Cable & Wireless, Federal Home Loan and Royal Ahold NV,” commented Tony Doyle, senior investment manager – equities and corporate governance, West Midlands Pension Fund. “We have recovered over $700,000 to date.”

GOAL Group’s managing director, Stephen Everard, said: “It is the judgement of the legal profession that there is a clear duty of care for institutional investors to register claims on behalf of their clients. Our research shows that aside from fulfilling corporate governance responsibilities, there is also a growing need for local authorities to plug the escalating pensions gap. High-profile cases have helped flag up the benefits of class actions but an alarming proportion nevertheless continues to remain unclaimed.”

Everard added that the clear message to local authorities should be to take immediate action in order to recoup escalating losses on a permanent basis to “ensure their beneficiaries’ interests are properly safeguarded in the future”.

Conflict International Limited is a London detective agency specialising in Surveillance and Private and Corporate Investigations, providing a bespoke private detective service for firms, banks, companies and private individuals.

Learn more about Conflict International’s corporate investigations services.

Many cash-strapped companies and households view insurance policies as a source of easy money.

Mike Lacorte of London based Private Investigator agency Investigations Direct who work with help lawyers to hep corportae companies build a legal case against companies engaging insurance fraud said “Companies can use Private Detectives – we stay within the law to build a cas that will stand up in the courts”.

Conflict International provides private investigator services to lawyers and corporates.

The Russian is the second-biggest shareholder at Arsenal, and his purchase of £75m-worth of the club’s shares two years ago was met with resistance from fans, shareholders and directors alike. But despite that past hostility, revelations on Channel Four’s Dispatches programme on Monday night that a private investigator was hired by a company working for the Arsenal board came as a shock to the oligarch.

The investigator visited Tashkent, where Usmanov spent six years in jail, while working on a brief to uncover details about his conviction and its subsequent annulment by Russian and Uzbek courts. After working on the case for six months, she drew a blank amid “official obfuscation” in Uzbekistan.

Usmanov will seek to find out from Gazidis, Arsenal’s chief executive, whether any shareholders’ funds were used to pay for the investigation. He will also want to know if it is standard practice to probe shareholders and whether a similar study has been carried out on Stan Kroenke’s background.

Gazidis is likely to tell Usmanov that the report was not directly commissioned by the board but by a third-party adviser and privately the club were yesterday at a loss to explain how the investigation had come about. News of the inquiry comes at a time when Gazidis had restored serenity to the directors’ box. Even Nina Bracewell‑Smith, who was expelled from the board 12 months ago, was invited to take up a seat there during Sunday’s defeat by Chelsea.

Investigations Direct is a multi-disciplined, UK-based private detective and private investigation agency serving the private and public sectors, banking, legal and insurance companies. Our private investigators and detectives are highly experienced operatives.

François Eales, a natural medicine practitioner who lives and works in Gonubie, said that last Thursday he bid to buy an Apple iPhone cellphone and a Sony Vaio laptop on Internet auction website bid or buy .

“I’ve made over 300 purchases in the past through the site and have never had a problem before.”

Eales’ bid on the iPhone was not accepted, but his bid of R4403 for the laptop was successful.

“I contacted the seller and got his details,” said Eales. “He told me he was moving to Australia and that he lived in Knysna.”

Eales deposited the money that afternoon into his account and arranged with his parents, who live in nearby Sedgefield, to collect the laptop the following day.

However, they could not get hold of the seller on the cellphone number provided.

Eales said he went to see a Gonubie-based private investigator, Christian Botha.

“I discovered the account is held in Windhoek, Namibia, in the name of someone else and that it had quite a substantial amount of money in it.”

Eales said FNB were looking into the matter, while he had also opened a case of fraud at the Gonubie police station.

Botha said that from preliminary investigations he suspected a larger syndicate could be at work.

“It’s possible the bank account in Namibia could be a money-laundering scheme where fraudsters deposit money and give a commission to the account owner,” he said.

Cuan Akal, operations manager for bid or buy, said it was unfortunate that people used the site to commit acts of fraud. He said 99 percent of the transactions on the website were legitimate

An FNB spokesperson said they were looking into the matter.

Conflict International is a Private Investigator firm that provides invetigative services for corporate and private clients. Its global operation covers London, Europe and the rest of the World.

Law companies, more than any other profession, call in private detectives to combat internal fraud or to trace missing assets.

Mike Lacorte, is associate managing director of Conflict International, a London based, international private detective agency, has said that 25 per cent of their business comes from solicitors.

Mr Lacorte, believes fraud in solicitors’ offices has increased, making companies more security conscious. There were also salutary lessons from the recession that have left senior partners keeping a tighter rein on partnership finances. “Some solicitors have substantial debts and employ us for asset-tracing and fee recovery work, especially where they need to recover funds outside the jurisdiction,” he says.

Another well established Private Investigator firm in London is Investigations Direct. They recently acted directly for a City law firm. In that case, Investigations Direct was asked to investigate the commercial strength of a smaller firm to pave the way for a merger offer.

Jon Fawcett, managing director of Investigations Direct, says: “They (law firms) are the first to advise the client to employ a corporate detective, but they don’t always do it themselves. Why should solicitors be any different from anyone else? They tend to work on the basis that theirs is an upright and honourable business.”
Mr Fawcett says the important part of investigating a law firm is discovering the partners’ true view of the merger. “Unlike any one else, the work tends to follow the solicitor around. If the partners are unhappy about a takeover, the merger isn’t going to be so worthwhile.”

Mr Fawcett says this is always the danger in corporate takeover bids. Most partners may be happy with the proposed deal, but the “key profit- making department” might intend to walk out as soon as the deal is completed. “It’s important that our client knows this,” he says.

Mr Fawcett will not say how detectives canvas such opinion without giving away the fact that the firm is being investigated. “That would be giving away tricks of the trade.”

The key to a successful corporate investigation is not being found out, he says. “Sometimes, the first the firm knows about the investigation is when I’m giving my evidence in the witness stand. That’s a great feeling.”

About 75 per cent of Investigations Direct’s work comes from solicitors, mainly City and big provincial practices. “Law companies work closely with corporate detectives when they’re advising on due diligence and pre-acquisition searches,” Mr Fawcett says. “If figures don’t add up after an auditor’s valuation or the lawyers simply aren’t comfortable about what the directors are telling them, it usually means initiating a corporate investigation.”

Investigations Direct and many of the other companies would like this to become standard practice rather than only acting after suspicions have been aroused.

Mr Fawcett says that, “whenever we’re advising in a defensive capacity, we always check the boardroom for bugs.”

Conflict international can assits bueinsessesn by helping to counter phone tapping and bugging within the organisation with TSCM.

The SFO says companies have one last chance to come clean before the new powers are introduced.

About 15 UK companies are already under fraud investigation, according to the SFO.

Last month the engineering firm Mabey and Johnson admitted bribing officials in Jamaica and Ghana and breaking UN sanctions against Saddam Hussein.

The 15 companies are said to include major household names. The SFO has set up a team of 100 investigators to look into British firms who use bribes to win foreign contracts.

The SFO’s director, Richard Alderman, is writing to UK contractors, telling them they have one last chance to admit breaking anti-corruption laws.

An SFO spokesman said: “What we’re saying is, don’t brush it under the carpet. If a firm co-operates then we’ll look at civil action to recover money rather than criminal prosecutions.”

He said firms now had the chance to enter plea bargains with investigators: “If we find out a company has known about corruption, then we can now take stronger action.

“Cover-ups at senior levels within companies aren’t acceptable.”

Mabey and Johnson – which constructs bridges – admitted trying to influence foreign officials to win lucrative public contracts in Jamaica and Ghana.

It also paid more than $200,000 (£123,000) to Saddam Hussein’s regime, breaking UN sanctions imposed on Iraq under the Oil for Food programme.

Last year, the construction firm Balfour Beatty agreed to pay £2.25 million after it admitted financial irregularities by a subsidiary company in Egypt.

Conflict International provides the services to identify whether an individual or organisation is being followed or investigated, which include, but are not limited to resolving problems associated with phone hacking and video surveillance.

The problem lies in the BlackBerry Browser, specifically in the dialog box that alerts users if the URL they have clicked on does not match the domain they are being sent to, the company warned in an advisory on Monday.

To exploit the flaw, a hacker could craft a malicious website that spoofs a trusted website, then send users a link to that site using text messaging or email. If the malicious domain name contains a null character and the user chooses to access the site, the certificate-handling software on the device will note that there is a mismatch, but the warning dialog box will not display the null character in the link.

For example, the URL ‘zd[null character]net.co.uk’ will generate an alert, which will tell the user they are about to visit ‘zdnet.co.uk’. BlackBerry users may ignore this alert, as malicious websites could appear benign, RIM said.

“RIM recommends that BlackBerry device users exercise caution when clicking on links that they receive in email or SMS messages,” the company said in its advisory. “If a user visits a site that causes a BlackBerry Browser dialog box to warn the user about continuing the connection, the user should select Close connection.”

BlackBerry Device Software from version 4.5 onwards is affected. RIM has provided a software update, available from the BlackBerry updates site, to mitigate the issue.

The Private Investigator agency Conflict international offers undercover investigaions regarding mobile counter surveillance  to determine whether an individual is being followed or investigated.

Learn more about surveillance services offered by Conflict International.

François Eales, a natural medicine practitioner who lives and works in Gonubie, said that last Thursday he bid to buy an Apple iPhone cellphone and a Sony Vaio laptop on a an Internet auction website.

“I’ve made over 300 purchases in the past through the site and have never had a problem before.”

Eales’ bid on the iPhone was not accepted, but his bid for the laptop was successful.

“I contacted the seller and got his details,” said Eales. “He told me he was moving to Australia.”

Eales deposited the money that afternoon into his account and arranged with his parents, who lived nearby, to collect the laptop the following day.

However, they could not get hold of the seller on the cellphone number provided.

Eales said he then turned to the internet again to find a reliable private investigator to help him trace the individual.

“I discovered the account was held in Namibia, in the name of someone else and that it had quite a substantial amount of money in it.”

Eales said police were looking into the matter.

The private detective agency, said that from preliminary investigations he suspected a larger syndicate could be at work.

“It’s possible the bank account in Namibia could be a money-laundering scheme where fraudsters deposit money and give a commission to the account owner,” he said.

Operations manager for the website, said it was unfortunate that people used the site to commit acts of fraud. He said 99 percent of the transactions on the website were legitimate

Conflict International is a Private Investigator firm that provides investigative services for corporate and private clients. It’s global operation covers London, Europe and the rest of the World.

Learn more about fraud services offered by Conflict International here.

Times may be hard but the love affair between the law and the arts goes on.

Last week, for example, Mishcon de Reya’s family department launched Creativity in Conflict, a collaboration with Central Saint Martins College to award prizes to its top MA fine art students.

The event took place at the Imagination Gallery in Store Street and the acrobatic fire jugglers performing outside signalled that something distinctly odd was afoot. Inside nothing was quite what it seemed. The rationale of the award was that the process of marital breakdown could be represented as a creative art. However, the reality of that Conflict reference was the presence of serious guys in suits from “Conflict International — Investigation, Security, Intelligence” that puts former gunslingers into car boots to monitor your movements and former Met officers to trawl through your garbage.

Conflict International was recently featured in “The Times” for their work with the Mishcon de Reya’s family department’s launch of Creativity and Conflict, an award ceremony for top MA fine art students.  Check out the whole article here-http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/columnists/article6930296.ece

Conflict International’s team have a wealth of experience in dealing with corporate, commercial and private investigations from a diverse range of clients, including multi-national corporations, legal firms and high net worth individuals.

Learn more about security services offered by Conflict International.

Investigatioins Direct knows the importance of background checks in todays society whether it is for looking into the criminal history of an potential mate or to screen employees.  Do not be a victim of  inaccurate background checks, at Investigations direct we will provide in depth reports regarding the desired individual.

Learn more about Conflict International’s background check services.

Increasing rates of workplace laptop use mean that it’s inevitable that cyber-criminals will turn their attention from attacking banks to profiting from corporate fraud, a security expert has warned.

“The same kind of threats that are hitting the financial sector will start expanding to additional verticals,” said Uri Rivner, head of new technologies, identity protection and verification for RSA, during a press briefing at the company’s RSA Conference Europe gathering in London. “Fraudsters have an easy way in because of infected endpoint machines.”

The majority of current online fraud concentrates on accessing financial information such as credit card numbers and online banking logins, Rivner said. Sophisticated trojan software — often silently installed on unpatched PCs as part of a ‘drive by download’ when visiting a legitimate web site — routinely logs all information on a machine and transmits it via the Internet for processing to access useful details.

“Everything that is being transmitted to you online is being recorded and sent — and that’s the most basic trojan,” Rivner said.

The business of developing and marketing trojans has proved highly profitable. “Zeus today is the biggest-selling trojan kit around the Internet,” Rivner said. “It sells for around $1,000.”

While attacking individual machines has been the main modus operandi for criminals to date, the increasing prevalence of laptops that are used in both home and work environments means that those trojans are now also recording significant amounts of information from corporate networks. “If you have a trojan that’s on an enterprise computer, they can see whatever is going through,” Rivner said.

Over time, criminals will likely start mining and exploiting that data, he predicted. “Already the fraudsters have a huge percentage of corporate data on their trojan motherships,” Rivner said. “They’re sitting on a pot of gold.”

The blurring of work and personal equipment represents a major security headache for companies, though experts suggest that the trend is hard to counter.

While online crime against banks and other financial institutions remains a significant problem, the sector has done a good job of trying to combat it, Rivner said. “The threat is very high but the financial sector has adopted a good defence strategy,” he said. “The trick is to put in multiple lines of defence, not to have a single point of technology.”

Conflict International Limited is a London detective agency specialising in Surveillance and Private and Corporate Investigations, providing a bespoke private detective service for firms, banks, companies and private individuals

Learn more about our corporate fraud investigation services.

“It’s just stupid,” he bellows. “One of the challenges we have is explaining to clients that they need to be careful what they ask for, because they may get it and once they have they can’t put the genie back in the bottle. We need to educate clients that illegal and unethical means aren’t a short cut — it’s a source of tsuris [Yiddish for aggravation]. There are ethical means, you don’t need to be all cloak and dagger, and, frankly, it’s not as effective, anyway.” He says that his investigators — a mixture of lawyers, former prosecutors, former journalists and forensic accountants — prefer to rely on tactics such as talking to disgruntled ex-employees, boardroom leaks and obtaining information that is in the public domain “by creative means”.

Yet, he warns, there are lots of sub-contractors and investigators who are willing to be “sloppy, unethical and illegal”. “We had this guy in London who would ring. His pitch was he could obtain bank account information illegally. You get a lot of that sort of thing, particularly in London. I don’t know why.”

Corporate work, he says, can be every bit as exciting as his Southern District days, without the need for wire-tapping and hacking, and he is still exposing Wall Street scandals. “The difference between the Mafia and the bankers? The bankers are better-coiffed, but the motivation is often the same. You’re dealing with very high stakes and interesting people. It’s different but it’s a lot of fun.”

He recounts a recent $100 million fraud case in which teams of investigators spent three years chasing “a bad guy” around the world. “The people we came across, the schemes we uncovered and the places that we got to go were incredible.”

And business is booming. Mr Nardello is hiring staff and looking to open new offices.

“When everything goes pear-shaped, typically litigation follows, but this time round it is different.” He says that during this recession civil litigation is down because companies cannot afford the costs. If there are costs, they prefer to settle quickly out of court.

Criminal litigation is buoyant, especially for white-collar crime and, in particular, security fraud. Other areas of work that are holding up include “self due diligence” on people or companies going into capital markets, crisis management, internal investigations and asset tracing.

The growth in work for investigators such as Mr Nardello is a combination of trends, among them the extra-territorial reach of American prosecutors and regulators, greater emphasis on transparency, more cross-border cooperation and more countries adopting anti-bribery laws. “The UK has been slower than most in adopting anti-bribery legislation,” Mr Nardello says. British legislation is going through Parliament.

“This law will not be a formality. The pressure and the competitive temptation to pay bribes in jurisdictions where that is the cultural norm is great and it is bad … Corruption causes imbalances in the workplace, inefficiency, it’s a huge problem. It’s also a matter of aesthetics. How could the UK go without it? Even Italy is ahead on this one.” The law alone will not change anything, he argues, but a few high-profile cases should “inspire corporate executives … There are three compelling things in life: illness and death; the end of a love affair; and criminal prosecution.”

Learn more about our corporate fraud investigation services.

Social service chiefs in counties throughout the state have warned that they aren’t ready to begin the time-consuming new application process — and the delay could mean some elderly and frail patients would go without care.

Advocates for the elderly and disabled say the administration’s rush to begin the checks, part of an anti-fraud effort Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pushed during last summer’s budget negotiations, seems to have an ulterior motive: dissuading new patients and providers from participating in the $5.5-billion government-funded home healthcare program.

“This is just a disaster in the making,” said Deborah Doctor, legislative advocate for Disability Rights California. “I don’t want to overdramatize this, but it could have the same effect as cutting people off the program.”

A legislative oversight hearing is slated for today to address the concerns and potentially make a push to delay the start of the new process, which would apply starting Monday to all new applicants for home health aide jobs. The state’s more than 376,000 existing care workers would have to undergo the new background checks by June.

“This has created chaos and uncertainty for frail elderly and disabled people,” said Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, who wants a three- to four-month delay.

Administration officials referred queries about the program to the state’s Department of Social Services, which has been hustling to start the new application process.

Lizelda Lopez, the department’s spokeswoman, said the looming deadline was set by the Legislature during budget negotiations and should come as no surprise.

“Nobody denies these were very aggressive time frames,” Lopez said. But she said the department has been working with the counties for months to enact the new procedures. “We didn’t start talking to them yesterday.”

The In-home Supportive Services program has been caught in a tug-of-war between the Schwarzenegger administration, which contends that it is rife with potential fraud, and Democrats in the Legislature who see it as a humane and cost-effective alternative to nursing homes and other institutionalized care.

Coloring the debate is the fact that the in-home program is a big growth sector for labor unions, which traditionally have supported Democratic candidates and causes while reliably opposing those backed by Schwarzenegger and other Republicans.

Schwarzenegger tried during the summer budget fight to cut aid to 90% of the program’s participants, but Democrats kept the program largely funded while going along with the anti-fraud effort.

“My question is whether this is an attempt by the administration to do what the Legislature would not allow it to do,” Evans said.

County officials said the new rules have caused confusion and concern for patients and their healthcare providers.

“Our lobbies are flooded, telephones ring continuously, and staff have insufficient information to provide answers,” Linda Haugan, assistant administrator for San Bernardino County Human Services, said in a letter to the state. “This has created a major disruption.”

County officials say there are several key logistical problems.

The new rules require prospective healthcare workers to undergo an orientation session that will require counties to hire new staff and office space. Meanwhile, some counties say the new enrollment forms haven’t been provided yet.

Officials in Los Angeles County, where more than 185,000 people receive in-home care, said they received the latest instructions just a day ago, giving them a week to prepare.

With more than 4,000 new applications each month for in-home care workers, the inability to approve new providers “will create an extreme hardship on aged and disabled individuals,” Philip L. Browning, director of the county Department of Public Social Services, said in a letter to the state.

Conflict International can compile detailed background check into an individual’s employment history, lifestyle and financial background. A search will uncover employment status and check for adverse credit history.

Learn more about Conflict International’s background check services.  

In all, eight men have been arrested in the auto insurance fraud case, which involved staged automobile collisions. The alleged ring leader of the scheme, 31-year-old Chula Vista resident Jay Stoney Anderson, faces 28 counts related to the scheme. In all, the eight men face 83 counts of insurance fraud.

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner noted that insurance fraud involving staged collisions endangers the lives of innocent people.

“Through the diligent work of our fraud detectives and a tireless effort by this department and our partners, we have broken up a crime ring that has caused more than $200,000 in damages,” Poizner said. “This department will not rest when lives are placed at risk by these types of criminal enterprises.”

According to the Insurance Information Institute, insurance fraud costs the industry about $30 billion a year. Those costs can lead to higher auto insurance rates for all drivers in the form of bigger premiums.

Conflict International Limited specialise in uncovering fraudulent insurance claims. Evidence is produced as a comprehensive report, detailing times/ dates etc and disclosing the subject’s movement. High quality photographic, video and audio evidence will be presented in the desired format.

Learn more about fraud investigation services offered by Conflict International.

Hector Ruiz, former chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., is the AMD executive who prosecutors allege provided information to a defendant in the Galleon Group LLC insider-trading case, a person familiar with the investigation said.

An unnamed “AMD executive” was cited in a complaint filed against Danielle Chiesi, who is accused of using material nonpublic information to trade stocks. The person identifying Ruiz as the executive asked to remain anonymous because those details of the case aren’t public. Ruiz stepped down as CEO last year and then became chairman of Globalfoundries Inc. as part of its spinoff by AMD, the world’s second-largest maker of personal-computer processors.

Chiesi, a former Bear Stearns Cos. hedge-fund employee, was charged by federal prosecutors as part of an insider-trading ring tied to Billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, Galleon’s co-founder. Court documents include transcripts of recorded conversations between Chiesi and the AMD executive, in which they allegedly discussed the timing of the spinoff of AMD’s manufacturing operations into a joint venture with the government of Abu Dhabi. That business became Globalfoundries.

The unnamed executive told Chiesi about the transaction in September 2008, ahead of the announcement of the deal, according to court documents. The executive said there was a 99 percent chance that the agreement would be disclosed before earnings were announced — a prediction that came true, prosecutors said. On Oct. 7, 2008, AMD said it would spin off its manufacturing arm as part of an $8.4 billion investment from the Abu Dhabi government. It reported earnings on Oct. 16.

‘Gonna Shock’

“You know, we’re gonna shock the hell out of everybody,’” the AMD executive told Chiesi, according to a transcript of a Sept. 16, 2008, conversation included in court documents.

Ruiz declined to comment, said Jon Carvill, a spokesman for Sunnyvale, California-based Globalfoundries. The company also declined to comment on the matter, which occurred before Globalfoundries was formed, Carvill said. Separate requests for comment left on Ruiz’s office phone and with his assistant weren’t returned. He also didn’t respond to e-mail.

Ruiz, 63, hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing in the case, and prosecutors don’t say he profited from insider trading. He is the highest-ranking executive tied to the Galleon case, which is the largest fraud investigation dealing with inside trading that targets hedge funds. Rajaratnam and Chiesi, both based in New York, were arrested Oct. 16 along with four others, including International Business Machines Corp. executive Robert Moffat and Rajiv Goel, who helped direct investments at Intel Corp., AMD’s chief rival.

Galleon and New Castle Funds LLC are accused of making $20 million on illegal trades of stocks including Armonk, New York- based IBM, Intel of Santa Clara, California, and Google Inc. in Mountain View, California.

In these financial times employee fraud has increased compared to previous years due to the struggling economy.  Do not let your company be a victim of such fraud, Conflict International’s corporate team will proviude in depth reports in support of fraud, asset tracing and other various investigations.

Learn more about fraud investigation services offered by Conflict International.

The FSA found that the bank had failed to implement effective controls and because of this an employee was able to steal around £150,000 from the firm’s internal and private client accounts over a period of three years.

Corporate Investigations

It was not until after the unnamed worker was dismissed that the activities were discovered.

Margaret Cole, the FSA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “Fraud seriously undermines the integrity of our markets, so this fine is a timely reminder of the consequences for firms that fail to have in place robust systems and controls to prevent unlawful transactions of this sort.”

If Seymour Pierce had ensure the right controls were in place, then the fraud would have been picked up much sooner, she added.

Recently, KPMG predicted that the economic downturn would help propel UK fraud levels to a record high this year.

Protect your company from being a victim of fraud, Investigations Direct’s fraud investigators will provide in depth fraud reports for clients who suspect illegal activity within the workplace.

Last week an Irish national newspaper was contacted by a primary school teacher who had identified an alarming flaw in the system for vetting short-term, stand-in teachers. Using an anonymous texting service she had successfully worked as a substitute across Dublin city for several weeks without being asked for identification, proof of qualification or any personal information. She was in fact a genuine teacher. But, as she pointed out, she could have been anyone.

The texting service is accessed through a website, Educationposts.ie, run by the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN). The site bills itself as a “one-stop shop” for vacancies in Irish education, offering registered users access to job-sharing information, notification of vacancies and the “Text-a-Sub” service.

To test the claims of the teacher, The national newspaper decided to sign up using two bogus email addresses and aliases. They then registered for the “Text-a-Sub” system. Choosing Dublin as a location — the service is available nationwide — we entered our mobile phone numbers and confirmed we were fully qualified primary teachers.

Another box reminded users to bring qualification certificates and photo identification to any subbing jobs. They clicked “Accept”. Two hours later, the first text arrived.

The sheer volume of notifications was overwhelming; one reporter received 10 texts in the first 24 hours. In the last month “Text-a-Sub” has sent out more than 21,000 messages. This is hardly surprising: in the last school year, substitute cover was required for 362,923 days at primary level.

On Tuesday morning, one of the aliases was asked to come in for a subbing position in Sacred Heart National School in Clondalkin. No checks were made, no identification was required. She was left in charge of a class of 8-year-olds.

The first position offered to the other alias was in a “special class” in a school in Dublin’s inner city, but he was asked to bring in identification and proof of his qualifications. The alias declined the offer. This, we reasoned, was what someone who wanted to find a “soft target” would do.

On Thursday morning, this alias had better luck, securing a subbing position at Inchicore National School with no questions asked. Having satisfied ourselves that the situation was exactly as described by the teacher who originally contacted us we concluded the experiment.

There is no doubt that anyone posing as a teacher can get access to Irish classrooms with ease. It is clear that in many, if not the majority, of Irish primary schools, there are no safeguards of any type in place to protect children from someone who might have sinister motives.

So who is answerable for child protection in schools? A Department of Education spokesman said it is management.

“Irrespective of the position on vetting . . . it is a matter for the school board to satisfy itself that the person is suitable to work,” he said.

Sean Cottrell, director of the IPPN, believes that if the Department of Education had fulfilled its obligations, the principals would never have been forced to set up the website.

“Every other country in the OECD has a substitute-teacher supply panel, that can be accessed by schools at any time,” he said. “The department has had a pilot project in place for the last 12 years, but has refused to roll it out nationwide. This scenario just highlights the need for that.”

Investigations Direct services have the ability to provide potential clients with background information into the integrity of directors and Vet potential employees.

As a result, prosecutors in the case of Raj Rajaratnam–who has been charged along with five others of using inside information to garner roughly $20 million in trading profits–will have an easier time winning a conviction if they can prove that the corporate secrets he traded on were provided by people he knew had an obligation not to provide the information.

Early background checks can help mitigate longterm pain

The investigation into allegations of insider trading by Rajaratnam and the others comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun increasingly focusing on hedge funds and has increased surveillance to look for patterns and trends in trading. Yet despite this increased focus on hedge funds, hedge funds are still tougher to prosecute for insider trading because they typically trade in and out of a security several times. As a result, authorities often find it difficult to prove that a hedge fund used inside information in its decision to make a particular trade.

Conflict International’s team will conduct a full corporate investigation into potentially harmful employees, which includes surveying your premises assessing the threat and providing professional strategies to give complete peace of mind. A comprehensive report detailing the technical search and our recommendations will be presented on completion.

Federal prosecutors now allege that a former junior analyst, identified by a person familiar with the matter as Deep Shah, breached that trust in July 2007 when he passed on inside information about Blackstone Group’s pending $26 billion takeover of Hilton Hotels.

corporate-investigations

Mr. Shah and other employees of the ratings firm, owned by publicly traded Moody’s Corp., had advance notice about the takeover as part of a standing practice to prebrief credit analysts about planned deals. Prosecutors allege that the junior analyst shared the Hilton information with an unidentified third party, who in turn passed the tip to Galleon Group’s Raj Rajaratnam. The tip enabled Mr. Rajaratnam to reap $4 million in profits from trading Hilton shares, a federal complaint alleges.

While Mr. Shah’s role in the alleged insider-trading affair is small, his link to the third party — now a key cooperating witness in the probe — could shed light on how investigators uncovered the trading ring. Unusual trading in Hilton’s shares was one of the first events that attracted scrutiny from regulators in 2007. The same cooperating witness was friends with an executive at Polycom Inc. and also passed on information about Google Inc.

The complaint said the cooperating witness arranged to pay $10,000 to the Moody’s associate analyst, a title that describes staffers who aren’t considered full analysts but assist them in analyzing data. Mr. Shah hasn’t been charged with a crime. It isn’t known if he is under investigation or if he will face charges.

Mr. Shah couldn’t be reached for comment. A Moody’s spokesman declined to comment on the alleged role of Mr. Shah. He reiterated the company’s statement last week, saying that the alleged wrongdoing by one of its employees “would be an egregious violation” of the rating firm’s policies.

Moody’s has drawn flak in the past year for inaccurate credit ratings on mortgage securities and has had to battle recent accusations from a former employee that it still issues inflated ratings on complex securities. Throughout the financial crisis, however, Moody’s credit ratings on corporate bonds have largely conformed to expectations.

Still, critics say the Hilton incident may raise questions about whether ratings firms should be privy to inside information. Companies often inform rating analysts about mergers, acquisitions or other transactions ahead of time, to let analysts digest and analyze the information and announce rating actions soon after the deals become public.

Like law firms and investment banks, credit-rating agencies have policies and controls to limit the number of people privy to inside information. “But you can’t watch everyone all the time, and if someone is determined to violate the law they will do so,” said Scott McCleskey, a former Moody’s compliance officer who is now U.S. managing editor of Complinet Inc.

Mr. Shah, who is in his mid-20s, left Moody’s more than a year ago and is believed to have returned to his home country of India, according to former colleagues. One ex-colleague described him as “mellow.”

He joined the ratings firm in an entry-level position, and worked with analysts who rated companies in the technology, lodging and gaming sectors, according to Moody’s reports that listed Mr. Shah’s name from 2005 to early 2008.

According to the U.S. attorney’s complaint, Hilton executives contacted a Moody’s lead analyst by phone on the afternoon of July 2, the day before Blackstone Group announced it would acquire Hilton. The complaint said that, shortly afterward, an associate analyst “involved” in the rating called the unidentified third party three times from a cellphone with information that Hilton was to be taken private. The information was passed to Mr. Rajaratnam who traded Hilton’s stock, according to the complaint.

As an associate analyst, Mr. Shah would have been paid roughly $90,000 in annual salary, plus a bonus that could reach $30,000, according to former Moody’s employees.

Conflict International offer an industry-leading corporate investigation company that can provide services such as a Technical Surveillance Counter Measures sweep, utilising the latest radio and telecommunications line analysing equipment.  Conflict International will conduct full corporate investigations to help protect companies against foul play by employees or partners.

A boyfriend that’s being unfaithful to you will often bring unnecessary tension to a relationship. They will however always show signs of their indiscretion and with a little patience on your part, and time and space to cheat on theirs, you can catch your dishonest boyfriend without hiring a pricey private investigator. You are a woman, so follow your intuition and be aware if your partner is showing any of these signs of a cheating boyfriend:

1. Reduced Intimacy and Emotional Distance
- He will not hold your hands or will not touch, cuddle and kiss you as often as before
- He seems distant, as if he is always preoccupied
- When you start being romantic, he will have some excuses to not accept your affection (e.g. he has a headache)
- After a healthy love life, your relationship’s intensity suddenly decreases
- He no longer says “I love you”
- He became less affectionate both in words and in deed

2. Unreasonable Time Commitments
- One big sign that your boyfriend is cheating is when he has lots of reasons why he can’t spend time with you.
- He’s working late, staying after school, or going out with his friends more than he used to.
- He comes home late and tells you that he’s hanging around with friends after work.

3. Suspicious Computer and Telephone Activity
- There’s a suspicious name in your boyfriend’s IM window and an unfamiliar chat site in his browser history
- He uses the computer often especially late at night but he’s not chatting with you
- He gets angry when you answer or look at his phone or computer
- You received phone calls from unknown woman who says that she’s your boyfriend’s officemate
- He does not answer his cell phone when you’re around or when he answers the phone, he whispers so you won’t hear their conversation
- Someone’s calling him at odd hours and he talks on his cell phone in an unusual manner
- There are mysterious phone calls on his cell phone
- You can hardly contact him by email or by phone

4. Sudden and Unexpected Changes in his Schedule
- His usual routine suddenly changes without valid reason or cause
- He has a new schedule at the gym

5. Change in Grooming Habits
- Out of the blue, he starts going to the gym or exercising
- He is now more conscious on his physical appearance and his hairstyle
- He starts buying new clothes and underwear
- His clothes have a scent of an unfamiliar perfume or cologne

If you observe some of these signs, then it may indicate that your partner is being unfaithful on you. However, you shouldn’t let these signs of a cheating boyfriend turn your once good relationship into heartache. Don’t plan for revenge, instead, ask support from your family and friends in order for you to decide whether to leave him or to stay.

If you suspect your boyfriend of cheating on you then give us a call on 020 7917 2939 or email us at info@conflictinternational.co.uk to discuss your case. We will always respect your privacy and ensure confidentiality.

Liz Chong, The Times

THEIR customers include governments, leading investment banks, hedge funds, private equity houses and FTSE 100 companies, but few would admit that they have ever hired corporate detectives, let alone met any.

It would be too embarrassing to reveal that a firm had enlisted the help of a private detective to dig up the dirt on an opponent or client, or disclose that they had been duped by an employee or partner.

Business investigation and intelligence, globally, is on the rise, driven by an array of legislation introduced by the US Congress in an attempt to clean up corporate America. The laws impose heavy duties on directors, accountants and lawyers. Directors, perhaps not surprisingly now that they are personally liable for any financial scandals, want to avoid falling foul of prosecutors, who have zealously pursued white-collar crime in recent years.

Mike Lacorte, chief executive of the Conflict International, a “corporate investigations and detective agency”, identified the regulatory burden as “the biggest substantive driver for growth in business intelligence”.

The decision by the US Justice Department to prosecute the lawyer James Giffen under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has also made companies increasingly nervous about the background of prospective partners. Giffen was accused of funnelling $60 million in bribes to the President of Kazakhstan on behalf of several oil majors, including Mobil Oil, Shell and Chevron.

Although the legislation dates from 1977, American authorities were previously slow to pursue any companies or individual Americans who had broken anti-bribery laws.

The plethora of bribery and corruption legislation has made it common practice for investors to hire detectives to look at the hedge funds they may invest in, or for private banks to hire companies that examine the background of a new client from Eastern Europe.

The end of the Cold War has also proved a catalyst for the growth of corporate investigations, as companies expand into new markets, including Russia. Western companies that are unfamiliar with the business culture in Eastern Europe and Russia have nowhere to turn for help but to companies such as Conflict International and Investigations Direct.

Jon Fawcett, who heads the Russian section at Investigations Direct, says: “We are in an environment where investors are being pulled further and further beyond their comfort zones of traditional markets.”

He cited Russia and its lack of transparency. A firm looking to enter a joint venture in Russia would be well advised to investigate the political links and background of its partner.

Increasingly aggressive business tactics make it standard practice for private equity houses to use detectives to examine the curriculum vitae of the chief executive of a potential target.

Similarly, investment banks advising well-known businessmen on mergers and acquisitions have been known to conduct due diligence on their past by hiring corporate sleuths.

Detectives have a wide variety of techniques available in conducting investigations. However, the majority of cases are solved by interrogation of suspects and witnesses, which takes time. In a policeman’s career as a uniformed officer and as a detective, a detective develops an intuitive sense of the plausibility of suspect and witness accounts. This intuition may fail at times, but usually is reliable.

Besides interrogations, detectives may rely on a network of informants they have cultivated over the years. Informants often have connections with persons a detective would not be able to approach formally.

In criminal investigations, once a detective has a suspect or suspects in mind, the next step is to produce evidence that will stand up in a court of law. The best way is to obtain a confession from the suspect, usually in exchange for a plea bargain for a lesser sentence. A detective may lie or otherwise mislead and may psychologically pressure a suspect into confessing, though in the United States suspects may invoke their Miranda rights.

Forensic evidence

Physical forensic evidence in an investigation may provide leads to closing a case.

Examples of physical evidence can be, but are not limited to:

• Fingerprinting of objects persons have touched
• DNA analysis
• Luminol to detect blood stains that have been washed
• Bloodstain pattern analysis
• Footprints or tire tracks
• Chemical testing for the presence of narcotics or expended gun propellant
• The exact position of objects at the scene of an investigation

Many major police departments in a city, county, or state, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, maintain their own forensic laboratories.

Records investigation

Detectives may use public and private records to provide background information on a subject. These include:

• Fingerprint records. In the United States, the FBI maintains records of people who have committed felonies and some misdemeanors, all persons who have applied for a Federal security clearance, and all persons who have served in the U.S. armed forces
• Records of criminal arrests and convictions
• Photographs or mug shots, of persons arrested
• Motor vehicle records
• Credit card records and bank statements
• Hotel registration cards
• Credit reports
• Answer machine messages

Court testimony

Unless a plea bargain forestalls the need for a trial, detectives must testify in court about their investigation. They must seem reliable and credible to a jury, and must not give the impression of personal vindictiveness or cruelty. A detective’s background often comes into question in courtroom testimony. A famous example came in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson, when Detective Mark Fuhrman of the Los Angeles Police Department testified for the prosecution. Attorney F. Lee Bailey first asked Fuhrman if he had ever used the “n-word” . Fuhrman denied this. In court, Bailey produced taped interviews with Fuhrman using this offensive word.

(Article courtesy of asginvestigations)

The following are some tips to aid you in evaluating which private investigator to work with.

• Make sure they have a license! The vast majority of states require that anyone engaging the practice of investigations be licensed. A Private investigator should be able to produce a copy of such a license immediately for you. Note: there are many companies offering services on the internet which do not qualify as “investigations” but really should be. These companies are completely unregulated and what they give you is whatever they want. Most of these companies are “information brokers” who have access to databases of public records, like telephone numbers, address directories, voters registration filings, etc. These companies offer “background checks” that are nothing more than database searches of old public records. That may be enough to get you what you need, but if you need to be sure that the information is accurate, contact a licensed private investigator. Please be sure that you understand who and what you are dealing with and what they are going to give you, before you hire anyone working in this sector.
• Do you need to meet with the P.I.? No, not unless you want to. Much of what we do can be done quickly and with a minimal amount of inconvenience and the formality of a meeting is usually not necessary.
• Always get a contract. Like any other service, you should get a contract that indicates what you are hiring the P.I. for and what you will get in return. If they cannot or will not present you with a contract, hang up the phone.
• Experience. Some private investigators have little or no investigative background. There are those who have retired from a law enforcement or military career and decide that being a “private investigator” would be action packed and exciting. They enroll in some Private Detective school and after two months, they become a P.I. Does that mean that they are qualified to investigate your case? Not necessarily! It is important that you know the qualifications and experience of the investigator that will be working on your case. In our opinion, the more experienced the investigator, the greater the likelihood that your desired results will be achieved. You don’t want a 19 year old kid with a video camera conducting surveillance for you. It is also our opinion that you need someone who does this type of surveillance regularly. They do not need to be former FBI agents, secret service or ninjas. They should be experienced surveillance experts.
• Licensed and Bonded. Being bonded is almost always a requirement to get a PI license. If you see a PI advertising that they are “bonded” that does not mean that they are a better investigator or that they offer you some special protection or status.
• Are they insured? Keep in mind that the private investigator who you hire is working for you, as your agent. If he or she is working on your case and they damage someone’s property, get in a car accident, presents false information, etc., etc., etc., they should have ample insurance to cover any loses that arise. If they don’t, you, the one who hired them, are exposed. It is just good common sense to check for insurance coverage before you hire a PI. At ASG, we carry two million dollars in liability coverage to protect our clients. It should be no problem for a reputable investigator to present a certificate of insurance coverage for you to review and verify.
• You get what you pay for. Nothing further needed.

(Article courtesy of asginvestigations)

1. On surveillance operations, take something to fill the long hours when nothing is happening but you don’t want to fall asleep. Books and newspapers provide cover, but have the drawback you might find them so interesting you forget to concentrate on the job in hand. Cassette tapes, either music or spoken word, can be the best solution.

2. Always have plenty of spare cash with you so that you don’t risk waiting for change when you need to get somewhere quickly. Take plenty of banknotes, too, in case you want to buy information or bribe your way out of an awkward situation.

3. An investigator’s best ally is a good lawyer. In good times he (or she) can be a steady source of work and practical day-to-day help, and in bad times — e.g. when you are accused of breaking the law — he may be able to offer support and legal representation. It can make sense to initiate a straightforward barter arrangement where parties exchange advice and skills in line with a simple debit/credit running total. Obviously, before trying to set up such an arrangement, ensure you like and feel comfortable with the solicitor concerned.

4. Similarly, it pays to get on the right side of the local police. PIs who are former officers will have an advantage here, of course. Although officially to the police you are simply just another member of the public, as they get to know and (hopefully) respect you, they may sometimes be willing to pass on the benefit of their knowledge and experience. Despite the prickly relationship between the police and private investigators often depicted in TV dramas, much of the time your interests will coincide, and it’s therefore in everyone’s interests to co-operate. In addition, the police themselves sometimes engage private investigators — another reason to establish a good working relationship with them.

5. Perhaps more controversially, it can also help to have contacts on the other side of the law. One PI who specializes in security work says his best friend is a convicted housebreaker who points out weak spots in properties which burglars could benefit from, reveals the latest ‘word on the street’, and much more. Obviously it is wrong to fraternize with known criminals for dubious purposes, but sometimes their ‘professional’ expertise can be undeniably helpful.

6. While they will never entirely replace cameras, a camcorder can be a useful tool for a PI to possess. They can be used for a wide range of purposes, from gathering evidence in a divorce case to taking pictures of a child, believed to have been abducted, for the mother to identify. Modern camcorders are little larger than ordinary cameras. They can be concealed beneath a coat or in a handbag and brought out to be used without attracting undue attention. You might also consider having one fitted in your car. As well as gathering evidence, a camcorder here can provide useful information that isn’t always obvious to the naked eye. It is also invaluable if you are driving but still want to keep a permanent eye on your subject.

7. Another tool well worth the modest investment required is a pocket torch or flashlight. This is obviously essential when working at night or in darkened rooms. A compact model will do, but always have plenty of back-up batteries on hand. As well as providing illumination, a flashlight can be used to dazzle an assailant or even in the last resort as a weapon. Some have built-in defence mechanisms such as sirens and sprays designed to immobilise an attacker.

8. Like private individuals, the investigator can use reasonable force in some instances, such as when threatened or to safeguard other people whose lives and property are endangered. The force must be appropriate to the degree of danger and its imminence, however. So if you are hired to watch for trespassers over a piece of land it might be acceptable to approach and warn such individuals, but it will almost certainly be wrong to threaten violence against them.

9. Libel and slander laws cover the investigator as much as any other private individual and must be considered at all times, both in verbal and written communications. Be sure of the accuracy of everything you say, do and write.

10. Remember that, while a degree of subterfuge may be necessary from time to time, you should always aim to remain on the right side of the law. One thing you should never do is impersonate a police officer, as this is always illegal and regarded as a serious offence.

(Mark Gustaffson is the author of the Professional Private Investigator Course from Maple Academy (UK), a leading correspondence course in this field. For more information, see the Maple Academy website at http://www.mapleacademy.com.)

source: www.Isnare.com

Historically, the profession of non-law enforcement investigations started back with Pinkerton in the late 1800’s. At that time the term “private detective” was the formal name and the outfit they worked for was called a “detective agency.” There were many movies and books that began using the “private-eye” moniker more and more. It was television starting in the 1974 with James Garner in the Rockford Files that really brought the investigative profession into the limelight. The show also had a major influence on most people using the private investigator title. The P.I. title became famous with the Magnum, P.I. television show featuring Tom Selleck.

Starting around 1960, many states did not want the public to confuse a private detective with that of a police detective. There has been a trend amongst many state licensing authorities and state investigative associations to use the title ‘private investigator’ as compared to ‘private detective’. In fact, many have actually taken legal steps to stop using the “detective” title.

Conflict International Limited is a London detective agency specialising in Surveillance, Private & Corporate Investigations. Click here to know more about us

Here is a list of the most commonly used tools and equipment used by private investigators:
Binoculars
Digital Audio Recording Devices
Digital Camcorders
Extension Lens
Digital Still Cameras
Hidden video cameras
Body worn Cameras
Digital Video Recorders
Covert Vehicle tracking equipment
Personal Protection devices
Diversion Safes
Night vision cameras
GPS tracking devices
Pocket DVR’s
Detection Devices
TSCM Equipment (Debugging)
Spy Glasses
Phone Security
Security Video Systems
Button Camera
Conflict International Limited is a London detective agency specialising in Surveillance, Private & Corporate Investigations. Click here to know more about us

A boyfriend that’s being unfaithful to you will often bring unnecessary tension to a relationship. They will however, always show signs of their indiscretion and with a little patience on your part, and time and space to cheat on theirs, you can catch your dishonest boyfriend. You are a woman, so follow your intuition and be aware if your partner is showing any of these signs of a cheating boyfriend:

1. Reduced Intimacy and Emotional Distance
- He will not hold your hands or will not touch, cuddle and kiss you as often as before
- He seems distant, as if he is always preoccupied
- When you start being romantic, there will be some excuse to not accept your affection (e.g. he has a headache)
- After a healthy love life, your relationship’s intensity suddenly decreases
- He no longer says “I love you”
- He became less affectionate both in words and in actions

2. Unreasonable Time Commitments
- One big sign that your boyfriend is cheating is when he has lots of reasons why he can’t spend time with you
- He’s working late, staying after school, or going out with his friends more than he used to
- He comes home late and tells you that he’s hanging out with friends or colleagues after work

3. Suspicious Computer and Telephone Activity
- There’s a suspicious name in your boyfriend’s IM window and an unfamiliar chat site in his browser history
- He uses the computer often especially late at night but he’s not chatting with you
- He gets angry when you answer or look at his phone or computer
- You received phone calls from unknown woman who says that she’s your boyfriend’s officemate
- He does not answer his cell phone when you’re around or when he answers the phone, he whispers so you won’t hear their conversation
- Someone’s calling him at odd hours and he talks on his mobile phone in an unusual manner
- There are mysterious phone calls on his mobile phone
- You can hardly contact him by email or by phone

4. Sudden and Unexpected Changes in his Schedule
- His usual routine suddenly changes without valid reason or cause
- He has a new schedule at the gym

5. Change in Grooming Habits
- Out of the blue, he starts going to the gym or exercising
- He is now more conscious on his physical appearance and his hairstyle
- He starts buying new clothes and underwear
- His clothes have a scent of an unfamiliar perfume or cologne

If you observe some of these signs, then it may indicate that your boyfriend is being unfaithful on you. However, you shouldn’t let these signs of turn your once good relationship into heartache. Don’t plan for revenge, instead, ask support from your family and friends in order for you to decide whether to leave him or to stay.

If you suspect your boyfriend of cheating on you and you think we can help, then give us a call on 020 7917 2939 or email us atinfo@conflictinternational.co.uk to discuss your case. We will always respect your privacy and ensure confidentiality.