In 2009, Adriano Sotomayor was on the hunt for money and an unsuspecting individual. Sotomayor was a con artist, and found his mark in the nuns of the Sisters of the Rosary of Fatima convent in New Jersey. He called one of the nuns and told her that he was a New Jersey priest and that a member of his parish had just named her the beneficiary of $2.1 million. All she had to do was wire a payment of cash over to a New Jersey business called Flex Account to cover the charges of legal proceedings and taxes.
The nun didn’t have the money up-front, so Sotomayor told her to bring in her friends and family to lend her the money she needed before she received her lucrative payment from the will. Unsuspecting, she convinced many who were close to her to give her the money she needed. As you could imagine, none of these people got their money back, and Sotomayor never gave the nun the money he promised.
This is just one of many possible con artist scams that are pulled on a regular basis in America, and just one of many scams that could have been avoided with the help of a professional background search from a private investigator. Background searches can help in situations like these as well as to find out personal and business histories of subjects.
Strangers getting involved with your relatives
As in the case of Sotomayor and the unnamed nun, strangers who enter the lives of the vulnerable often do not have their best interest at heart. If you know someone new has entered the life of a relative of yours such as your mother or father, investigating their history can ensure the truth of their claims and interests.
Many con artists will attempt to get close to elderly individuals with malicious interests such as defrauding them or getting them to place them in their wills. Investigators such as Lauth Investigations Inc. can conduct background searches that can find out if the subject is using an alias, has a criminal record or has defrauded others in recent history.
Pre-business transactions
Background investigations can also be extremely useful when searching into the history of potential business partners. Before engaging in a merger or business transaction, a thorough and professional background search can look into the financial history of potential partners to ensure that they are worth trusting.
Professional investigations can dig up if other companies have had trouble with civil or criminal lawsuits in the past or are concealing damning information such as bankruptcies.
Pre-Marital background searches
Sometimes even those who we trust the most are worth investigating as well. Before entering an agreement as major as a marriage, a background search can be extremely useful. Professional investigators can find out if the bride or groom to be is concealing any serious information that a spouse would want to know.
This involves criminal records, past relationships that have been concealed and financial information. Using a background search from a professional investigation firm may be the only way to make sure a potential spouse is completely truthful and can ensure that key information is revealed before the wedding and not after the fact.