Part of my job as a fraud investigator is to observe and report. It’s quite simple when you think about it. Requiring no special equipment, other than a voice or video camera, in great detail I describe what I am witnessing without judgment, critique or emotion. It is similar to describing lead paint peeling off the wall of an abandoned building. My interpretation is not biased, as I report exactly what I see and hear. If I am involved, I refer to myself in the third person, as private investigator associate or Rookie PI.
My part requires interviews, observation of behavior, covert surveillance, speaking with witnesses or character references, scene analysis, creating hypothesis, profiling and research. Many times, I bring in experts from the local community to assist in the analysis, to answer questions or help walk me through the events of a crime scene. It’s quite fascinating work, and when the opportunity presents itself, I thoroughly enjoy working with police and SBI to obtain their perspective of analysis.
When I perform an initial risk assessment for a company, small business, global industry or church/worship center, minor violations typically crop up and further investigations indicate findings that can be substantial. Although preventing fraud is a lot different than seeing it and hearing about it.
However, there are times when I happen to be in the right place, at the right time to deter crime. Here are some of those times:
A. There are a group of miscreant dirty IT people who have been attempting to access my database list, shut down my website, or delete me permanently from the internet, including all my social media accounts. However, each cyberattack failed.
B. A doctor accrued nearly 100k by overcharging his clients and engaging in dishonest business practices. His books will reveal all his customers being gouged, for services unbundled. Did he bill insurance? How many others were involved?
C. It is unfortunate the number of hotels, parking lots and shopping mall areas that are used in the Piedmont for drug trafficking and prostitution.
D. Prostitutes pay off their debts. Married men cheat on their wives. The pillar in the community cheating with the girl next door under the appearance that everything is fine, we're all fine.
E. Then there are the deals being made in the background for a financially strapped business man who “rents” his wife out to sex traffickers, while he gets a cut each time she “performs a sale.” (A sale is any type of sexual, possibly lewd act that may involve objects other than the extremities. These transactions are abusive, sometimes violent and can involve physical and sexual abuse. This financial arrangement occurs when the business man makes a deal with a drug dealer and when he cannot pay his dues, bills or rent, the wife is recruited for payment. The more beautiful the lady, the better – they bring a better price for “special clients.”)
F. Public storage facilities in certain places, near certain roads or residential developments are used to hide stolen goods from larcenies, burglaries and robberies, then resold on the black market, eBay, Twitter or Craigslist. This rookie PI has seen a whole new world of capitalism through a new set of lenses – the dark underpinnings of drugs, gangs and prostitution.
Did you know that when you see a cluster of tennis shoes hanging from electrical wires, that it is linked to organized crime? According to Wikipedia, that signals location of gang turf, commemorating the death of a gang member who lived in the area. Temporarily, I had a storage unit this past summer. The very first day, something was off. In less than two months, I had received a message that I was in danger of being robbed the next time I visited my storage unit. Upon moving out, several rows down is when I saw the cluster of tennis shoes hanging on the overhead lines.
Most of these situations just happened to cross my path, while on a stakeout, getting burned on a stakeout and hiding from being burned. Common rookie mistakes, part of the job that any rookie must learn and then make a course correction.
What can we learn from this?
The greatest threat is what you can’t see.
PC: Suradech14
