From HQ in Indianapolis, Indiana, Lauth Investigations provides a steadily growing umbrella of private investigator services; ranging from missing persons to custody issues for private clients, through to workplace investigations small and large within the business and corporate sphere. We draw on the talents of a diverse team with decades of experience across a spectrum of investigative fields. We also take pride in being optimally equipped to provide the very best private investigator to suit the unique challenge of each and every client. One of the ways we help corporations improve themselves from within is by helping them meet the burden of proof regarding sexual harassment.
Among such needs, over recent years many organizations have become acutely aware of the importance of swift action on sexual harassment in the workplace. The #metoo era highlighted not only the importance of safeguarding employee well-being through policy and awareness, but also the potential catastrophes that can unfold when incidents of sexual harassment pass by unheeded. For businesses or organizations in the Midwest either navigating issues of this nature for the first time or exploring how to prevent them proactively, we provide expert support. A private investigator from Lauth Investigations can help you demonstrate that your business truly takes the lead on this vital contemporary issue.
Spotting Sexual Harassment and Stopping It in Its Tracks
Incidents of workplace sexual harassment can take place within an organization of any size, and upon any step of the corporate ladder. Sexual harassment can be described as verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature, including unwelcome advances or requests for sexual favors. Its form can range from isolated incidents through to a chronic pattern of behavior. This might include the use of innuendos and double entendre, proposition and coercion, and intimidation or direct threats. It can also include unwelcome exposure to elicit material.
Not only can workplace sexual harassment risk emotional harm to employees, but also lawsuits of a civil or even criminal nature and potential damage to a company’s reputation. All of these factors make mobilizing on this all-important issue a must. So, how exactly can a private investigator from Lauth Investigations help an Indiana business navigate such a challenge?
Impartial Results and Expert Guidance
Whether handled by leadership within a smaller business, or an HR manager within a larger organization, internal sexual harassment investigations place a particular burden on even the most professional of teams. Those who work alongside both accusers and accused can find impartiality a challenge – also shouldering their own inevitable emotional fallout. In dealing with such a delicate matter, impartiality becomes all the more vital as conclusions drawn and actions taken may later be subject to legal scrutiny and litigation.
In contrast, the best private investigator for such circumstances will possess the training and experience to impartially draw out the information required to move towards resolution. Their in-depth understanding of legal obligations and strategic evidence gathering will ensure that investigation results are dependable in terms of safeguarding the organization, and reliable in terms of safeguarding the well-being of employees.
From Prevention to Resolution
For businesses in Indianapolis and across the Midwest, Lauth Investigations are on hand to undertake Corporate Culture Audits, supporting you in fostering a safe work environment in which your team can thrive. Should the need for a sexual assault investigation arise, we are ready to provide the best private investigator to lead a thorough, sensitive, and discreet investigation, ensuring just resolution for all. Private investigators from Lauth Investigations will uncover and document findings on your behalf, and are even adept at giving testimony when required – providing ultimate peace of mind. Whether you are located in Indianapolis, Indiana, or even further afield, our team are ready to support yours. Contact us today to learn more about how we can assist in sexual assault investigations.
Over the last few weeks, more Americans are being hit with mysterious wrong-number scam text messages from a strange blonde woman, since dubbed the Wrong-Number Phisher by some media outlets. She goes by several names—sometimes Amanda, or just Mandy—and slides into your inbox with a text that appears to be to the wrong number. When the target points out the mistake, the mysterious Mandy acts embarrassed, and attempts to strike up a conversation with the target. The purpose is to convince the target to sign up for adult websites in order to view nude photos of Mandy, after which point the phishers will have all the information necessary to scam the target out of hundreds, if not thousands.
The Scam
The wrong-number scam is so organically scripted that its level of verisimilitude is almost staggering—so much so that it managed to fool one of our seasoned blog writers. Despite writing regularly on phishing scams and other black hat techniques, even the most experienced professional would initially consider this to be a genuine misunderstanding. The message starts out, “Hey is this____?” often using a variety of names, “its Amanda,,, we chatted on tnder before when I cam up to visit my aunt but we never met in person..i’m back in town rn if you wanted to actually go out this time, r you free?” From the use of commas as an ellipsis to the texting shorthand many users are familiar with, it has the earmarks of a genuine wrong-number texter The message is often accompanied by or followed shortly by a selfie of the woman, adding to the believability of the Wrong-Number Scam.
How the Wrong-Number Phisher Works
Embarrassed for Mandy, the target of the scam feels accommodating and willing to encourage a conversation with this beautiful, young woman, which subsequently leads to Mandy feigning attraction for the target and sending them a link to an adult website where they can allegedly view nude pictures of Mandy, which of course requires credit card information. As the first rule of internet safety goes, the user should never click on any suspicious or unsolicited emails/links, as they could be sophisticated tools used by phishers to steal their information. What makes the scheme easy to debunk is the phisher’s sometimes obvious inattention to detail. For instance, if the target has sent Mandy a picture, Mandy might incorrectly identify eye or hair color, or incorrectly assign male or female characteristics to the target. This is because a typical phishing or financial scam involves a team of phishers, a bank of computers, and a list of phone numbers. The scammer will have multiple windows up at once, speaking to multiple targets at once through anonymous, encrypted platforms such as WhatsApp. This prevents the source from being easily traced. With so many windows open at once, the phisher may lose track of whom they are speaking and will make mistakes. Vigilance of these warning signs, and additionally poor grammar and spelling, is crucial to protecting your information from scammers.
Is this sex-trafficking?
Since the first appearance of the Wrong-Number Phisher about a month ago, rumors have arisen that Mandy’s wrong-number scam may be a way to target and kidnap individuals for purposes of sex-trafficking. These rumors began when users on Tiktok began posting screenshots of Mandy’s communication, claiming they had been targeted for sex trafficking. An anti-conspiracy educator and survivor of sex-trafficking, Jessica Dean, took to TikTok to explain why this particular kind of scam would not be ideal for sex-traffickers, “Sex traffickers aren’t really targeting complete strangers—and this would be a really stupid way to target somebody if they wanted to kidnap a complete stranger, because there would be evidence on your phone…Sex traffickers overwhelmingly target people they already know. Sometimes those are people they met online, but it’s usually a very slow grooming process—they get to know you, they get you to like them, and then they start asking you ‘certain favors.”
Should you receive a text message from a strange blonde woman who claims she’s trying to reach a missed connection, the simple answer is to ignore the text and block the number. The more you converse with the Wrong-Number Scam and the more information you provide, the more the scammer will be convinced that you are a valuable target—particularly if you are ignoring basic mistakes in grammar and spelling, or ignoring misidentification errors. Phishers and scammers know that if a target is willing to overlook mistakes like those, the more likely that target will be to part with money.
Does your company need a climate change compliance investigation? The answer is most undoubtedly yes.
In the continuous uphill battle of combating climate change across the globe, the evidence that corporations bear the bulk of responsibility has become more undeniable than ever. Just over four years ago, the Guardian reported that just 100 companies were responsible for 71% of global emissions, but little has been done since then to hold corporations in general responsible for how their carbon footprint dwarfs that of any individual citizen of the world. Now, only two days ago, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their anticipated report on the impact of human behavior on climate change stating that the evidence is undeniable—we are causing the land and oceans to warm up faster than they have in 2,000 years in what is being characterized as a “code red for humanity.”
As corporations seek to mitigate their impact on the alarming rate of global warming, the first step is to clean your own house. Leadership must consult experts in mitigating climate change to learn how their own internal processes may contribute to their carbon footprint, and subsequently comply with those recommendations. However, when it comes to independent contractors and vendors your corporation does business with, leadership must be vigilant about ensuring that those associates are also complying with climate change mitigation. To ensure that their corporation is not supporting noncompliant contractors and vendors, leadership can hire a private corporate investigator to verify their level of compliance.
In a climate change compliance investigation, private investigators have the foremost advantage of subterfuge and anonymity when conducting field investigations. In compliance investigations, its always best if the corporation being evaluated does not know they are being evaluated. A private investigator who conducts a climate change compliance investigation can enter the company’s infrastructure undercover, perhaps disguised as a vendor or a client. Armed with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, private investigators can document the unseen factors within. All evidence is compiled in a comprehensive report and turned over to the client to be used at their discretion.
If your corporation needs the peace of mind that your vendors and contractors are being compliant with your mission towards mitigating your carbon footprint, call Lauth Investigations International today at 317-951-1100 or visit us online at our website to learn more about our corporate investigation services.
A private investigator can identify employee fraud and thief in your workforce, eliminating future threats while maintaining objectivity.
Despite the ability of a business to flourish in any economy, every company is still vulnerable to the possibility of employee theft or fraud. Like a frog in a boiling pot, sometimes companies can be taken by surprise when the theft has gradually grown over a period of time, and no one is the wiser until the business takes an unexpected financial hit. Companies can protect themselves from these frauds with costly in-house investigations into the crime, but a private investigator can go a long way towards identifying all perpetrators, no matter how high up the chain of command it goes.
Recent statistics from several government agencies who supervise finances and labor estimate theft committed annually by employees reaches an excess of $50 billion. Even an isolated incident can blanket a company in a crisis and leave them clawing out of the depths of bankruptcy. It starts with small things, such as taking office supplies for personal use. When this action goes unchecked, the employee might begin taking from petty cash without authorization. The level of the theft will always ratchet up the longer the thief goes undetected.
When an investigator attempts to identify employee fraud is knowing what to look for. Elliot Rysenbry of Trustify says there are six warning signs of employee theft for which Human Resources should be vigilant.
Workaholics
Behaviors of people who might be very dedicated to their jobs are also characteristic of people who might be stealing from your business. People who are always working long hours and never take a vacation. This “dedication” is a front for superiors. People who are stealing via their position do not want to be absent from the workplace for fear a temporary replacement might notice inconsistencies that could indicate fraud.
Hyper-vigilance of connections
When an employee has a close personal connection/relationship with any vendor or associated financial institution, it’s usually not cause for concern of impropriety. However, hyper-vigilance or strong protection of those relationships, it’s possible there’s something in the business arrangement for this employee. One of the most common names for this kind of fraudulent arrangement is “kickbacks” or getting a cut of the profits vendors or financial institutions receive from a thieving employee.
Inflated expenses
This is one of the most common types of theft committed in the workplace. Line items on expense reports are either inflated or fabricated entirely in order to pad the thief’s pocket.
Extravagances
Payroll knows what individual employees make week to week, so when there are unexplained extravagences in an employee’s life, such as a flashy new car, it’s important HR keep an eye on said employee.
Frequent small transactions
Taking from petty cash in small amounts can add up quickly, and is often a sign of more serious, larger-scale fraud being committed within the company.
Entitlement
Employees who feel as though they are underpaid or undervalued at their company are also plausible perpetrators of theft. Whether as a motive or a rationalization, they feel as if what they stole was deserved payment.
While theft can be an extremely toxic element in any work environment, one of the ways to exacerbate it is by conducting a poor internal investigation. Human Resource employees are unsung heroes of companies and businesses, as they are one of the crucial gatekeepers with control over the quality of employees. Not only are they very busy individuals, but they might not be the most objective persons to conduct an internal investigation.
Sometimes a lack of experience with investigations will cause a member of HR to make false or unprepared accusations about the guilt of a particular employee. If this employee is unimpeachable, the company can open itself up to lawsuits and bad press. Even if HR is not conducting the investigation, most employees are not trained investigators and might conduct an inquiry in an illegal manner that could also open the business up to litigation. Sometimes a pay cut for an employee suspected of stealing might seem like a quick and quiet way to resolve these issues, but legal counsel should always be consulted before making these decisions. By the same token, hasty termination of these employees to avoid a messy investigation should always involve the opinion of a legal expert—all in the name of protecting the country from plausible legal trouble.
The simple answer to avoiding all of the aforementioned ways to inflame an internal theft investigation is to retain the services of a private investigator. Private investigators can save companies from themselves in terms of opening themselves up to litigation or bad press. Private investigators have more skill and experience in these areas preventing investigations from blowing up in a negative manner. They are independent contractors, therefore, do not have a dog in the race when it comes to identifying the culprit of the theft. Their objectivity will be crucial, especially if the theft within the company goes all the way to the executive level. Because of their authority over employees, CEOs of companies might often get a soft front from HR or other investigative bodies within the business. Private investigators—being unknown to other employees in the business—can also conduct undercover operations to yield truthful and unbiased results. The private investigator, along with business counsel, can also advise Human Resource departments how to proceed once the culprit has been identified. Whatever the specific needs of a company, always consider hiring a private investigator to conduct internal investigations in order to protect and enhance the longevity of your business.
Identify employee fraud and theft today with Lauth Investigations International. Call 317-951-1100 or visit us online at our website for a free quote.
Corporate mergers are inherently a tricky business. Not unlike a marriage, it’s the assimilation of two different corporate bodies to form a stronger entity. However, with that marriage comes the tricky business of evaluating the assets, how well two business models will mesh with one another, and how the workforce will be impacted by the merger itself. In the months preceding the merger, however, there is a long fact-finding process in which one or both companies will have a reasonable interest in finding corporate intelligence on the new arm of their structure. That’s where a corporate investigator comes in.
Finding corporate intelligence can be an opaque business in the sense that discretion is highly valued in the hopes of getting the clearest, most comprehensive picture of the corporate entity in question. Parent companies, or companies with the most to lose in a merger, will typically be the type of client a corporate intelligence investigator will see weekly in their careers. The need for this type of information is why corporate intelligence firms exist, so clients can get the clarification they need on the people with whom they are going into business. However, depending on the needs of an investigation, the involvement of a large corporate intelligence firm could still fly above the radar and compromise the needs of the investigation. In these situations a smaller to medium firm may be more appropriate.
An independent private investigator can answer almost any question that an inquiring client would have about a business—beginning with what is in the record, both publicly and otherwise. Through licensure by the state, private investigators are given access to millions of records available on both corporate entities and private individuals. With only a few pieces of information, a private investigator can get background on a company. No doubt, there will be obvious areas of interest, particularly what—if any—forms of litigation the company has been involved in. In reality, the best information comes from the background checks on individuals who drive the company’s mission and operations. After all, a business is only as good as its workforce, and leadership is one of the most important components. Private investigators can get comprehensive background checks on any and all subjects involved in daily operations and big-picture conception. Certain items in an employee’s background, like criminal history or personal litigation history can bring important albeit troubling context to any given concern in a merger situation. Their level of judgement and decision-making will be paramount to ensuring the longevity of the company in the merger.
In addition to verified licensed databases, a corporate intelligence investigator can also provide any online intelligence available from forums, communities, and platforms that allow for feedback and ratings of the business’s products or practices. At the conclusion of the investigation, a corporate intelligence investigator can provide a comprehensive file including all relevant intelligence discovered as the result of an online scrape of the company.
When on-site field investigations are required, the corporate intelligence investigator you need will be adept in hiding in plain sight so as not to pique suspicion of the subjects of the investigation. This sort of corporate intelligence investigator can get the full picture on any internal problems the subject company may be experiencing, such as repeated instances of theft, patterns of internal misconduct, or any number of items of interest during the course of a merger.
When discretion is the highest priority, CEOs and other forms of leadership should consider the expertise of Lauth Investigations International. Lauth Investigations International has over 30 years of experience working with corporations both big and small to make sure they get the answers they need in times of corporate uncertainty. We carry a glowing A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and regularly receive 5-star reviews from grateful clients. Call 317-951-1100 for a free quote or visit us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com
