The time has come, once again, for the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. While we all look forward to this time of year, criminals especially do as well. They rely on us being excited, relaxed and distracted. In an effort to keep our information safe, we must be overly aware during this time of year.
Traveling
During the holidays, traveling increases by 54%. That’s a lot of empty homes waiting for criminals to do their work. Here are just a few tips to keep your home safe while traveling:
Only tell one close family member or friend that you are traveling out of town. This one person should be the one to check on your home while you are away. Having them enter your home one or two times daily would be ideal. Although they are busy as well, this will make it look like someone is there frequently.
Do not post on social media your travel schedule. Although you think only friends and family can see this information, you are incorrect. You can take pictures and still update on the fun your having, just do it responsibly. No one needs to know you are half way across the country.
Put your lights on timers, inside and out. If your lights are popping on and off throughout the day, anyone watching your house will tend to believe someone is home. You can get the timers from any home improvement store and they do not take long to install.
A small final tip from my parents! Turn off your main water line before leaving. You do not want to come back to a flooded, moldy home due to a small hole in a water line. Trust me, it was not fun! Once you return from traveling, you just want to be in your own bed. If this water line break occurs, you will be back in a hotel for weeks.
Wallet and Identity
I group the wallet and identity together as the items utilized to steal your identity are generally located in your wallet. Here are just a few suggestions for keeping your information safe while you are enjoying the shopping frenzy:
Pay with cash as often as you can. We’ve all seen the security issues with credit card machines. This can happen at any retail store. Avoid giving your card information out and pay with cash. If you do not want to carry cash, get gift cards with cash and use the gift cards instead of using your debit/credit card.
If paying with cash, ensure you place your cash close to your person when out shopping. Put the cash in the pockets of your jeans or in a place where you would notice or feel someone trying to take the cash from you. Do not place it in your purse on a cart where you would turn your attention away, for even a second. All it takes is a second to turn your head away and your purse is gone.
Along with the cash, put all identification (driver’s license, social security card, credit cards) information in your pockets as well. Always make sure your information is close enough so you will know if someone is trying to get to these items.
When pulling out your cash to pay, do not pull out the large stack of bills and count it out in an obvious manner. You may not realize how closely people are watching you, but criminals are watching every move as this is their job.
As you are buying your items, try to condense the amounts of packages you are carrying. Any bags that can be combined, do so. The more you are carrying, the more vulnerable you appear.
When you take your items to your car to drop them off and start off again, we all do it, make sure you cover the items with either a blanket or a screen. Do not leave anything out in the open in your vehicle.
The holidays are fun and happy time of the year. Do not let criminals make this time stressful for you. Small adjustments can keep your home, wallet and identity safe. Always be aware of your surroundings, trust your gut, and keep your personal information personal.
Lauth Investigations International is a private investigation firm. We consistently work with people whose identity has been compromised. The one minute it took a criminal to steal their information created months of stress for these individuals to recover. Do not let this happen to you.
We expose more of ourselves on a daily basis than at any other time in history. Most people have some form of social media an enterprising sleuth could build a profile based off of just by pressing the “older posts” button. There’s been a lot of news about wiretaps lately, but something under most people’s radar are the Smart TV’s and toys that have been listening to their owner’s conversations.
While it’s scary enough to consider how many things in your home could be listening in on you this very moment, what’s even more concerning is how quickly you can lose control of these devices and extorted to get them back. And it’s not just individuals having their devices and data taken from them, it’s also hit schools, hospital and private businesses hard over the last year.
One of the most common forms of extortion today is the use of “ransomware” to lock people or companies out of their electronics and data. Ransomware is a term for a particular kind of hacking that’s been on the rise as internet reliance has increased. Victims of ransomware typically receive a message on their device’s display saying something to the effect of “pay us this money and we’ll give you back your data.”
In an interview with CNN, South Carolina public school administrator Charles Huck, highlighted the dilemma presented by ransomware when he said, “You get to the point of making the business decision: Do I make my end-users — in our case teachers and students — wait for weeks and weeks and weeks while we restore servers from backup? Or do we pay the ransom and get the data back online more quickly?”
If the targets of ransomware want their systems or data back then they don’t have much choice, but to pay the fee. The hackers have repeatedly targeted hospitals since their technology working is literally a case of life or death there is significant pressure on the hospitals to simply pay the ransom.
When Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center had some of it’s communication devices taken over by hackers last year, the criminals demanded $17,000 to be paid in bitcoin. The hackers asked for that amount, because it’s low enough most places will pay under the impression it’s the quickest way to get it all over with.
“The malware locks systems by encrypting files and demanding ransom to obtain the decryption key. The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key,” Chief Executive Allen Stefanek said when the LA Times asked why they paid the hackers. “In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this.”
One of the scarier things about ransomware is this is only the beginning. The FBI reported ransomware to be a $1 billion industry in 2016. In a follow-up storyCNN reported:
At that rate, ransomware is on pace to be a $1 billion a year crime this year. The FBI told CNN that the number “is quite high” because a few people “reported large losses.”
The agency also said that the losses could even be bigger once other related costs from these extortion schemes are factored in. Plus: Some victims may choose to pay and not report the crime.
Paul Roberts, founder and editor of a website called The Security Ledger told CNN, “The ransomware criminals understand this. Their business in some ways is a volume business so they don’t set their ransom so high that you can’t pay it. They set it at a level so they can get their money and move on to the next victim.”
This crime has even made its way into consumer electronics like smart phones and TVs. Last Christmas a photo of an LG TV stricken with ransomware went viral.
The hackers demand far less money to relinquish control of personal devices, but $500, especially if it’s on Christmas Day after you’ve spent money on gifts, is still a lot. In December, Slatereported:
“Ransomware works by taking over a system until a user pays a fee, often in the form of cryptocurrency or digital gift cards. One recent high-profile ransomware attack shut down much of San Francisco’s public transit system while another targeted a Hollywood hospital. More mundane ransomware has been reported on Android devices since at least 2014, and Frantic Locker first began to show up on phones in 2015.
Keep your systems operating systems up to date and don’t download files that aren’t from trusted site to help avoid ransomware. If you do all these things and still end up under attack, contact your systems administrator or the manufacturer of your device. Take precaution, because ransomware isn’t going away anytime soon.
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
Whether you are entering a merger, considering an investment, or assessing a competitor’s advantage, due diligence is a necessary factor to ensure a successful outcome. Business leaders know the importance of growth but every opportunity presented holds the potential for success or failure.
Business intelligence consists of collecting and organizing large amounts of data that enable businesses to identify opportunities and develop strategies that promote long-term success. Hans Peter Luhn, a researcher for IBM, said in a 1958 IBM Journal article, “Business intelligence is the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action toward a desired goal.”
Successful business leaders know the importance of information gathering and review before making any business decision. They draw information and knowledge from various professional disciplines including business consulting, law firms, journalists, and of course investigators.
For instance, when considering a merger with another company it is crucial to know as much about the company’s history, business management, ethics, financial solvency, possible undisclosed liabilities, leadership of the company, and their affiliations. All business transactions have potential risks and it important to assess these risks prior to entering any business transaction. The public information gathered can be quite revealing and prevent a decision that could devastate years of hard work, reputation, and even avoid litigation in the aftermath.
Another circumstance that could arise is that your company may want to know the demographics of your competitor’s clients. The information gathered would contain the number of products offered by the company, how many were products were purchased, how many were sold to men or women, the age brackets of those who purchased the products, the average income level, zip code, and level of education. Utilizing a combination of commercial due diligence and intensive analytical due diligence can forecast sales growth; identify a competitor’s operational metrics, procurement, customer management, and even fraud.
While business intelligence can identify external opportunities and risks, internal business intelligence can be equally important. For instance, in the Human Resources Department of a company, the data collected on employee’s absences can be a predictive trend and therefore a strategy developed to combat income loss and retain employees. The same company may want to gauge how their latest marketing campaign is increasing sales in order to produce a trend analysis report and present the information in east to understand graphs and charts in PowerPoint at the next Board Meeting. The advantage of data analysis is endless when assessing performance measures of a business.
Professional investigative teams have private investigators that can verify information, collect information about financial transactions, assets, investments, liabilities, and identify existing contracts, business practices, and even political associations. The information is then provided to the client providing a solid base for decision-making.
Business intelligence involves research, measurement, querying, analytics, data mining, performance management, reporting, identifying benchmarks, information sharing, and regulatory compliance. To implement effective business intelligence strategy, it is important to have skilled investigators to help your company obtain the needed information while conducting a legal, ethical, and discreet investigation.
According to Thomas Lauth, owner and lead private investigator at Lauth Investigations International, business intelligence has become a necessary component of business management worldwide. “From a negative media campaign to competing for a contract, knowing who your opposition is and their political and media affiliations, marketing and internet campaigns, and even motives will give you the competitive edge” says Lauth. “The old saying, it is better to be safe than sorry!” rings true.
Private investigators do a variety of work. They track down missing people and recover lost assets. They keep an eye on spouses when one partner is worried about infidelity or in the process of divorce. Private investigators look into business assets during a merger and vet CEOs to make sure there are not hidden secrets that will embarrass the company later.
People tend to assume private investigators only do one kind of work, but that’s a mistake. Here are some stories from around the web that demonstrate the versatility of private investigators and all they do.
Founder and operator of Lauth Investigations International, Thomas Lauth, was featured in this article from the San Diego Tribune about private investigators working to recover missing people being trafficked into the sex trade.
In Indiana, Thomas Lauth, founder of Lauth Investigations, said his company has worked trafficking cases since “before the word ‘trafficking’ ever came around.”
Historically, he said, law enforcement turned their backs on trafficking victims they viewed simply as prostitutes.
He said that often times a girl is recruited by a friend who introduces her to a trafficker or pimp.
“Police say she left on her own. Parents don’t know what to do. They call police repeatedly. Then they call an investigator,” Lauth said.
Obviously we’re very happy to see Tom’s hard work and dedication to helping families and children being featured in such a big newspaper, but we’re even happier for the work itself. Tom has a long history of finding missing people and helping families recover their loved ones. It’s hard work, but Tom loves doing it and always gets it done.
In a strange case of cat and mouse, Buzzfeed Motion Pictures employee Mike Carrier hired a private investigator to investigate himself and see what he could dig up. Unbeknownst to the private investigator, Carrier hired a second private investigator to investigate the first private investigator. The story ends rather anticlimactically, but it’s worth reading just for the uniqueness of the situation.
Burglars breaking into people’s home and using their showers is surprising common as we wrote about here.While most people would assume burglars want to get in and out as quickly as possible, they’re frequently tempted to get far too comfortable in the homes they invade.
In Youngstown, Ohio this week a man broke into a woman’s house and trashed the inside before the homeowner returned and found the man rinsing his hair in the shower. Surveillance video showed the man came from a convince store around the corner. Police said the man had a lengthy burglary record.
Mannix was a tv show that aired for eight season on CBS starting in 1967. Mike Connors played the hero and title namesake Mannix. The show was a big hit despite poor first season ratings. Mannix was a private investigator in Los Angeles who solved street crime and mixed it up with bad guys.
In the CBS News obituary Connors said Mannix was a hit because, ““Up until Mannix, most private investigators were hard-nosed, cynical guys who lived in a seedy area and had no emotions. Mannix got emotionally involved. He was not above being taken advantage of.”
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
This was a big week for news in America. It seemed like a new story broke before you could finish reading about the first one. All of the major networks and newspapers were scrambling to report on everything taking place, but one story in the private investigation world stood out me more than the others.
The headline “Stranger enters Arizona woman’s home, eats food, uses shower, sleeps in her bed, police say” was attention grabbing and hard to forget. Most people would read this headline and quickly move on under the assumption that surely this was an outlier. This is a case of one dumb criminal who got far too cozy during a break, but if you do the slightest bit of googling, you’ll quickly find it’s really not that uncommon for home intruders to do these kinds of things. Here’s a rundown of some similar incidences and what you can do to protect your home and property.
In 2015 there were a series of break-ins across Denver. Each of the burglaries had something in common; the thieves weren’t stealing anything, but were breaking in and eating food at the houses. Wile nothing was stolen, it was happening so often that Denver police issued a warning to people in the area.
Denver police didn’t think the break-ins were related, but that almost makes it stranger. What are the odd all of these people were breaking into houses just to steal food? One of the burglaries was perpetrated by a kid. The homeowner walked into to find the kid watching anime on her tv while eating food. He ran from the scene when they cam home.
The case referenced in the introduction took place in Mesa, Arizona last October. Joshua Forsgren broke into a home and took a nap inside the homeowners bed. Forsgren must have been pretty tired from all that burglarizing, because he was still asleep when the homeowner came arrived home with her children and found him in her bed.
She quickly exited the house and called police. When the police arrived they tried to get Forsgren to exit the home of his own volition, but he had other ideas. As police waited outside they observed Forsgen going through the house and eating food. After 90 minutes the police entered the home and took Forsgren down with a stun gun. He’s now in jail awaiting trial.
The Florida Man stories never cease to amaze us. If you’re unfamiliar with Florida Man, do a quick search and you’re mind will be blown. Whether it’s Florida Man setting his underwear on fire at a Starbucks or when Florida Man got body slammed by a pro wrestler after threatening him with a bb gun while trying to make him buy him a beer, Florida Man is always up to something.
While this story is surprising, Florida Man being the perpetrator sure isn’t. In September, 36-year-old Timothy Tomlinson broke into a home, showered, ate pizza and downed two bottles of water. Tomlinson didn’t steal anything, but he was charged with burglary for unlawfully entering the home. Luckily the homeowner didn’t lose any valuables to theft, but Tomlinson broke multiple kitchen windows to get in.
What does this mean to you?
It’s alarming to think someone could just enter your home while you’re gone. The fear of coming home while someone is still in your house is a scary proposition. One of the easiest things to do is make sure all of your doors and windows are locked whenever you head out. Porch lights are a great deterrent and they can help ward of would-be burglars by making it difficult for them to approach the home undetected.
Security cameras are excellent to catch in perpetrator in the act, but they’re also good at scaring burglars off. Some burglars are dumb enough to see cameras on a house and try to break in anyways, but most won’t. It’ll also give you excellent evidence to help the police catch any intruders.
Another great tip is is catalogue your property. By keeping an active inventory of all of your valuables, you’ll be able to immediately identify any property that’s stolen and provide pictures to police. This is as easy as snapping a picture with your phone and saving them to the cloud with a brief description you can write in your notes app.
If family heirlooms are stolen, consider contacting a private investigation firm like Lauth Investigations International. While the police would like to catch every single burglar and return property to their owners, their resources are limited and if it’s not a violent crime their motivation to catch the crook is low. Private investigators on the other hand work exclusively for you and know where to look for stolen goods. Armed with pictures and descriptions of the items, private investigators like Thomas Lauth can make short work of finding your belongings.
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
I group the wallet and identity together as the items utilized to steal your identity are generally located in your wallet. Here are just a few suggestions for keeping your information safe while you are enjoying the shopping frenzy:
