In today's world of technology online shopping has become one of the most popular ways for people to purchase goods and services, unfortunately it also creates unprecedented potential for fraudsters and those seeking to obtain a pecuniary advantage by deception to defraud online retailers, individuals and charities. Investigation Network specialize in inquiries which involve purchases where an individual attempts to retain goods or services obtained by using a false credit card or other payment method such as PayPal and subsequently claiming that either that they didn't receive the goods even though there is proof of delivery or that there was something wrong with the goods, if there has been no contact between them and the retailer to resolve the issue it would of course ring alarm bells. It is frequently determined that if the fraudster cannot show that they attempted to resolve the issue with the seller and the circumstances of the deception are unusual then it's usually the case that the person will be engaging in this type of behavior habitually, from that point it can be relatively easy for us to prove that they are deliberately involved in attempting to obtain goods or services by deception.
In many cases these sorts of inquiries are considered to be civil disputes, our area of specialty is digging deeply into the buyer and their history to find out whether there is evidence of persistent behavior of this type and turning the inquiry into a case for law enforcement. We can usually do this by accessing a number of sources such as their credit file, looking at certain historical situations, for example if we find constant changes of banks whilst checking their credit file it may suggest they have a history of filing chargeback requests with the bank credit card issuer or PayPal sometimes information will be able to be located confirming this. Once we can confirm that the person has habitually engaged in applying for unwarranted chargebacks or disputing charges we can frequently provide the file to the local law-enforcement authorities on the grounds that there is a pattern of fraudulent behavior this is especially the case if during the search we determine they have a criminal record for some form of fraudulent behavior. Often during the course of the inquiry we will come across other companies who they have dealt with the perpetrator who will of course make statements supporting the fact that the person or company is engaged in illicit activity.
Even if local law-enforcement will not pursue the case the matter can be addressed through either debt recovery or the Small Claims Court either way it would significantly increase the costs to the person who has committed the crime and once we have identified exactly who they are, and where they live and work, once we have a complete file they will frequently negotiate to prevent costs spiraling out of control. As an example it is frequently the case that once we obtain a judgement people think they can simply fail to pay, but because we will have determined where they work and who their employer is we can then apply for an attachment to earnings order meaning they have no say in the matter because the employer will deduct the funds and pay them across to the victim under an order from the court, depending on the state, country or jurisdiction it may be that the funds have to be paid to the court who will then pay them to the victim but in many cases there will be administrative charges which will increase the costs further. Courts in some locations apply a cost for administering each payment, this means there is an incentive for the perpetrator to pay off the debt as soon as possible. A recent case involving an online deception which only amounted to $500 in respect of a mobile phone purchase in California ended up costing the individual who had committed the deception $3400 once our fees, court fees and various other cost such as collection fees were factored in. The perpetrator had the option to settle at an early stage for the original amount but chose not to, the consequence of this was that when an attachment to earnings order was presented to his employer his employment was terminated on the grounds that his employer did not feel confident he could continue to work for them when they found out from him the facts of the case. Because we had an order from the court he had to notify details of his new employer, so we simply approached the new employer and presented the attachment to earnings order again, of course he also wanted to know exactly what was going on but decided not to terminate the individuals' employment.
The reality of the situation is that online fraud however it is committed is potentially very costly and dangerous. Fortunately, every type of online activity leaves a data trail such as IP addresses and when we combine our ability to investigate forensics email system which determines significant information about the fraudsters Internet connection and computer system we can start to build a case to present to the appropriate people.
Investigation Network has access to one of the world's largest databases of domain/IP profile information, we have worked with some of the world’s largest companies, governments, and law enforcement agencies to bring numerous individuals and corporations to justice who have engaged in fraud or other illicit activity on a significant scale.
We specialize in the investigation of a wide range of crimes and deceptions, in particular, the tracing of email addresses to the actual name and address of the owner of the email address, as well as the location where an email was sent from. Also if a fraud involves eBay or Amazon or vice versa we can frequently locate accounts on the other platform to determine if there has been a history of false claims or disputes all of which would give weight to any additional inquiries. We frequently find that if a person is involved in illicit activity on one occasion there will be previous incidents it is by determining the nature of these previous events that we can put together the necessary information to turn what is at first sight a civil inquiry into a criminal investigation hence putting it into the hands of the local law enforcement authorities who would then tend to investigate further.
Our inquiries will usually answer a large variety of questions, for example, what has the person done or is currently doing online which could constitute fraud or attempting to obtain a pecuniary advantage by deception? What is their social media profile? Where do they appear? Does the email address or phone number appear somewhere in relation to a previous fraud inquiry? Do they have a criminal record? If we determine they have a criminal record does it link directly to this type of behavior?
If it CAN be found, we can find it and present the information to you in a manner that strips away the mystique of dealing with Internet related cases. Many people assume wrongly that the Internet is anonymous, they get a rather unpleasant awakening when they discover it can be very far from it when approached in the correct way.
Investigation Network are also one of the leading investigators of computer related crimes, eBay, Amazon and other Internet auction fraud, plus many other Internet based frauds and scams such as online purchases with the intent to cause the seller loss, investment fraud, dating and property scams.
It has to be said that investigating auction site fraud, Internet Fraud, Internet Stalking/Harassment, Network Vulnerability Assessments, Penetration Testing, Website history etc is only a part of what we do, if the case involves the Internet in any way, we can provide the absolute highest quality and most complete investigation services to meet any need. Investigation Network has investigated well over 2000 cases of internet related crime.
Our Services Include:
- Tracing the Sender of Anonymous Emails
- eBay & Internet Auction Fraud Investigations
- Online fraud inquiries involving credit card payments
- Cyber-Stalker & Email Harassment Identification
- Internet Scam & Fraud Investigations
- Internet Profiling & Online Activity Checks
- Celebrity Threat Assessment & Management
- Computer Forensics & Data Recovery
- Telephone Harassment Traces
- Determining the historical behavior of the individual involved
If you have been, or are currently the victim of email harassment, cyber-stalking, Internet fraud, auction fraud, dating scams and many of the other distressing types of internet and online auction related crime which are so prevalent contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your case.