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Smart v. Suckered Traveler? Your Choice.

Please remember that 911 is the emergency phone number in the United States.  That may not be the case in your vacation destination.  See the above graphic.

(This week’s newsletter was co-authored by Lina Maini and Suzanne Reisig Olden. Mostly Suzanne.  She’s the one with common sense.  I’m just a good investigator, having usually learned through firsthand, self-inflicted experience.)

Memorial Day weekend is approaching quickly, opening the official summer travel season.  Regardless of the method of travel (car, plane, train, bus…) the common sense thing to do is to be aware of your surroundings at all times and keep your persons and belongings secure.  Below are several safety tips and recommendations.  (Some of the suggestions may seem obvious but we all know how hectic situations can get during the rush to leave, en route stops and unforeseeable events.)

1. Pack what you need.

You’re not moving; you’re taking a vacation.    The first thing you need to ask yourself is, “Do I really need this?”, especially in regard to expensive jewelry, electronics and such. You don’t want to double or triple the cost of your trip by having to replace valuable items.

If you absolutely must bring along the family jewels (in some cases, unavoaidably so) and obviously, the omnipresent iPad,  keep them secured.

2. If you are driving and stop at a rest area,  place the goodies out of sight.  Just as important, ensure that the tell-tale cords are hidden from plain view.

3. If you are traveling by plane, train or bus, take the valuables with you. Do not check in these items.  Use your common sense (often repeated phrase in this post) about that which would tempt thieves.

4. If you are on a cruise or traveling by boat, use the ship’s safe for very expensive items and your in-cabin safe for lesser but still important items.

5. Don’t display your most expensive jewelry while traveling.  You are simply going to or from a destination, not attending the Queen’s Jubilee.  There is a time and place for everything. Bling blasting in the company of strangers while in transit is definitely not that time or place.

6. Have your important documents (i.e., passport, driver’s license, credit cards, traveler’s checks…) on your person but make sure you have an extra copy with you and leave one at home with a trusted person.

7. Be aware of your surroundings.

  • Stick to main, populated streets.  Inform yourself of high crime areas or location-specific criminal activity (e.g., pickpocketing is a big problem along the Spanish Steps in Rome).
  • If you are traveling overseas, contact the US State Department before departure for travel alerts.  (You can even register your trip with the State Department to ensure a record of your itinerary.)
  • Research the major local laws and customs of the country in which you will be traveling.
  • Do not put your home address on luggage tags.  Use a business address or simply write in your name and cell phone number. (Home phone numbers can be reverse I.D.’d much more quickly and easily.)

8. When traveling by plane, let’s remember that the TSA is not the enemy.  Yes, the lines are annoying, people’s feet smell and it will occur that an 80-year-old grandfather or a cute toddler will be body searched. (You may recall former Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, was recently randomly selected for a pat down at JFK.  It happens.)  Keep your cool, wear clean socks (and undergarments, unless you’re a commando queen) and carry travel-sized personal care items in your purse or carry on.

9. Don’t accept food or beverages from strangers or strange people.  Keep an eye on your own eats and drinks.

10. Stay at hotels that have secure locks and peepholes on their guest doors and use passkeys (v. regular keys, which are almost a thing of the past but still in use in various parts of the world).

11.  If you are traveling with a group, remove your name tag when you are out and about in public. Do not respond to a stranger calling you by name in that s/he may have obtained that information from an event listing or in some other manner. (The exception; If a police official addresses you, respond but ensure that the person is in fact a law enforcement officer and if possible, have someone else in your company.)

12. IMPORTANT!!: WHEN TRAVELING WITH CHILDREN, HAVE A CURRENT PICTURE OF THEM (NOT IN A HALLOWEEN COSTUME) WITH YOU. Also, all of the same rules apply as do when at home, i.e., do not talk to strangers, don’t wander off and only respond to police in uniform.  Make sure they know where you are staying (name of the hotel or friend/relatives’ home).

13.  Check with your health insurance company before you leave.  This information will come in handy should you or a travel member become ill or injured.

That’s our baker’s dozen list of travel safety tips.

Travel smart, and enjoy your trip!

Our Operatives: Street smart; info savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Defective Product Recalls: Research Starting Points.

Seal of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Seal of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From cars to painkillers, we’ve conducted numerous product defect investigations.  Our article shares with its reader several relevant jump off research sites.  We concentrate on the Big Three: cars, kids and OTC` and prescription drugs.  For:

Vehicle Recalls and Defect:

1. We suggest a first step: ensure that your client’s car is the vehicle is appears to be.  The obvious DMV and owner records aside, a visit to CarFax is a good idea.  Bear in mind however that CF is,  after all, a private for-profit company, not a governmental agency.  (Vehicles that have been impounded and resold, for example, may not have the same VIN with which they left the factory.  This will not generally show up on a CarFax report.)

2. Next stop: safercar.gov.  A section under the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) site, safercar yields up-to-date recall and defect investigation data.

3. NTSB.  The National Traffic Safety Board is the source for all official aviation, highway, marine and railway accident-related data.  It is the agency of jurisdiction for multiple fatality motor vehicle incident investigations.

Children’s Clothing, Furniture, Toy and Other Products

1. US Consumer Product Safety Commission.  In depth reports, easily viewable online via the CPSC’s Reading Room (FOIL compliant.)

2. Food & Drug Administration.   For kids products that contain any form of liquid or food (e.g.,  soap bubbles, shampoo toys,  lickable stickers…).

OTC and Rx. Drugs:

1. FDA.  The Food and Drug Administration is the government agency that regulates and supervises the safety of foods, tobacco products, dietary supplements, medication drugs, vaccines, biopharmaceutical product, blood transfusion, medical devices, electromagnetic radiation emitting devices, veterinary products, and cosmetics.    The site displays an informative recently updated jump off page, FDA 101: Product Recalls – From First Alert to Effectiveness Checks.   The FDA also regulates the marketing of over the counter and prescription drugs.

Final Note:  It makes sense in any investigation to review prior and active lawsuits involving same or similar product.  JDSupra, Lexis, Pacer and FindLaw are superior sources for this information.

Our Operatives: Street smart; info savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Top 10 Apps 2013 (1st Q)

heytell

As the title announces (that they are all free is entirely coincidental):

1. Mailbox: Quickly swipe messages to your archive or trash. Scan an entire conversation at once with chat-like organization. Snooze emails until later with the tap of a button.

2. Ringya:  Just snap a picture or email contact lists to Ringya and they’re transformed into smart, organized, searchable Rings.  For Work: Tired of manually updating your address book every time there’s a new hire or coworkers change contact info?  With Ringya, one person uploads and shares the list and everyone gets the team “Ring” on their phone.  When anyone updates the list, everybody gets the changes.

3. Unroll Me:   Life is busy. Your inbox shouldn’t be…  Your inbox is a mess, and it’s time to admit defeat. Stop sorting through your emails, and start doing things you love again.

4. Gasbuddy: Find gas stations in your area. Can search by location or best price.

5. Redlaser: Scans the barcode on a product and finds it for less (or more) at nearby stores or online.  (Redlaser recently formed a partnership with AmEx to offer consumers on-the-fly comparison shopping options.)

6. Pocket: Saves online content from your laptop, tablet or smartphone and view it later – offline.

7. Key Ring:  Lose the paperweigh feel of your keyring with its numerous attached store barcode tags.  Use this app to scan & store your existing keyring loyalty cards, enroll in new loyalty programs, and access exclusive coupons and discounts.

8. Decide:  Your personal shopping advisor that advises you to buy or wait based on proprietary price and model predictions. Price guaranty: Decide delivers the best price and advice on when to buy or they pay the difference.

9. SnapGuide: A free iOS app and web service of step-by-step “how to guides.”  SnapGuide offers a rich library for a wide array of topics with easy to understand instructions.

10.  HeyTell: Turns your smartphone into a walkie-talkie. Great for conferences in large venues, sporting events or even in the office.

Our Operatives: Street smart, info savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Why Is Your Employer Giving the Gov’t Your Personal Info? CISPA Explained.

CISPA

What is CISPA?

CISPA, known officially as H.R. 624, is a cybersecurity Bill, ostensibly designed to help prevent and defend against cyberattacks on critical national infrastructure and against other internet attacks on private firms by obtaining and sharing “cyberthreat information” .  It passed the House last week (288-127 in favor) in days that found the nation stunned by the horrific terror attack at the Boston Marathon, the subsequent five-day manhunt for the remaining (and now captured) suspect and the gruesome workplace explosion in West, Texas that left many dead and injured.  CISPA is now winding its way through the Senate.

This Is Good For Us, Correct?

On paper CISPA reads well and appears to be a tightening of security against potential cyber attacks.  We’ve  now entered into a dark area of cyberspace; that which is focused on causing mayhem – where cyberthreats are routinely are received (and thankfully, overwhelmingly neutralized) by government agencies, the military and big corporations.  In 2010, the Pentagon declared cyberspace as a new domain in warfare and established the United States Cyber Command (USCyberCom) to defend American military networks, and if necessary, attack other countries’ systems.  USCyberCom however was (and remains) active only to protect our military.  Government infrastructure and corporations are primarily the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security and private companies – until CISPA, as expected, passes the Senate in the coming days.

So Why The Concern?

CISPA, in its current version,  allows firms and agencies from the private sector to acquire and search sensitive data relating to U.S. citizens. Under the guise of using such sharing — without court-ordered warrants — allegedly to combat cybercrime, data including heath records, banking and online activity could be shared without anonymization.  Extending the bill’s definition:  it permits private firms to hand over private user data while circumventing existing privacy laws, such as the Wiretap Act and the Stored Communications Act. This means that CISPA can permit private firms to share your data, such as emails, text messages, and cloud-stored documents and files, with the US government again without the need for a warrant.

It also gives these firms legal protection to hand over such data. There is no judicial oversight.

Other factors to consider are that tech giants including Twitter, Facebook and Google would not be able to protect your privacy, as no legal reprisal could be mounted against such data sharing, and U.S. intelligence agencies would be able to hand over classified information to groups without security clearance.

Finally, and perhaps worst of all, because there is little transparency and individual accountability, those who have had their data handed to the US government may not even know about it or be given a chance to challenge it.

We need to ask ourselves and certainly our elected representatives, at what price security? As a security specialist, I certainly understand the need for firm policies that will reduce the effectiveness of cyber attacks, but like most people, I’m have not been given an unfiltered explanation of how the aggregation of personal information by private companies, handed over to the government, without a clearly defined need by such and that which can be obtained without a warrant by the government, is necessary or even constitutional.  Yes, there is an expectation of privacy of personal medical records, credit information and personal email.

Let’s stay sharply focused on how CISPA is used and probably, abused, by corporations and governmental agencies.

Our Operatives: Street mart; info savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Related articles

The Attack on Boston; Thoughts and then Tips On Terror Strike Safety.

UPDATE: 04.19.2013     SUSPECT MANHUNT UNDERWAY.  FOR THOSE IN THE AFFECTED AREA IN MA:  STAY INDOORS AND DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR TO STRANGERS. 

This morning, after a chaotic evening saw his partner in crime (and apparently his older brother) killed and as a city locked down to find him, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev emerged as the name of the man in the ongoing manhunt in Boston Friday. According to information culled from multiple unconfirmed reports, Tsarnaev is a 19-year-old “from the Russian Region near Chechnya” who has been living, for the past year, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  (The Atlantic Wire)boston bomber

For more information, please visit the official FBI website.

 

 

Image: Explosions At 117th Boston Marathon

First and foremost, we’d like to express our sympathy for all of the victims of yesterday’s  Boston Marathon terror bombing.  This writing is only one day post-incident and already the rumors and misinformation are out at full pace and gaining speed.   If you have a blog, tv or radio show or contribute to any news media, let’s be careful about what we put out there.  This week, and for many weeks to come, we’re going to hear many theories, suppositions, patently false “information” bytes and the occasional truth regarding this horrific, deplorable and cowardly act.   Let’s wait out the investigations and use our common sense to come to conclusions, based on fact.  Then we demand action. Not double/triple-speak; rather, fair but firm action.  Most importantly, let’s not live in fear. If we do, the terrorists win.  If we carry on, they lose.

That said, as reasonable people, we know that there is nothing we can do once an attack has occurred to prevent the event but there are several procedures we should have in place before a terror threat becomes a reality.

Some of the following tips can help you remain safe in case of a terrorist attack in your city: (in conjunction with DHS suggestions):

  1. Keep up with the news and remain alert regarding any signs of terrorist activity in your area. Ensure that family and friends are alerted and also remain vigilant.
  2. Maintain a list of helpline and emergency numbers with you at all times.  You never know when you will need these numbers.
  3. Ensure that your  cell phone is adequately charged at such times.  Communication can mean the difference between life and death.
  4. Remain on high alert when at public places like a railway station, an airport, busy streets, town squares…  Be aware of your surroundings and report any items that appear to be abandoned to the police immediately.
  5. If you are in an area where there is a lot of gunfire and bomb blasts, make sure you do not head out in the open and reveal yourself. If you start running being unmindful of the dangerous situation that you are exposing yourself to, you are highly likely to get hit by an aimed or stray bullet. Make sure you find an area that is hidden from public view. It is best to crouch down at ground level to keep yourself safe. You should avoid being too loud or noisy as the terrorists may be targeting civilians.
  6. You should keep note of the people that you interact with on a daily basis and even strangers. Terrorists are basically people amongst us who think that they have been wronged in some way. They lash out by attacking the machinery of the state. You can recognize potential attacks by being aware of drastically changing behaviors of people around you. If someone starts to take notes of the ways to enter a building or develops other peculiar habits, it is best to inform your local intelligence agencies about the same.
  7. All schools, buildings and offices must have an evacuation plan in place for use in such events. Drills should be conducted for practice from time to time.

Again, our thoughts are with our fellow citizens in Boston and all those affected by yesterday’s terror attack.   May we bring them the swift justice deserved and allow their healing to begin.

(We’ll return to our regular format in a later article this week.)

As always, stay safe.

How To Track A Cell Phone

cellphone_tracking_jpg_CROP_rectangle3-large
If you need to track down a cell phone, we’ve got your back.   Whether you’re simply trying to track the location of your lost phone, or you need to gain intel on the day-to-day whereabouts on a subject, we’ll give you the information you need to get the job done.  (Just be aware that tracking a smartphone is easier than the older phones but we’ll provide that know-how as well.)

Tracking your phone before you lose it

If you’re here just to prepare for the day that you lose your phone (which is inevitable, really), then  you’re ahead of the game. If you’ve got a smartphone, consider installing the apps listed below

For smartphones of any kind, we recommend Prey. It’s a free and open-source anti-theft application that can be used for both computers and mobile phones. After you sign up for the service, you simply sync your devices with it, sit back, and relax. The day that your phone goes missing, all you’ll have to do is find a computer, log into your account, and start tracking. It runs discreetly in the background and won’t track your phone’s location until you tell it to, so there’s no need to worry about your privacy while the phone is in your possession. We recommend this for any Android or iOS device, as well as any Mac, Windows, or Linux PC.

For non-smartphones that can’t run apps or connect to the web, we recommend using Google Latitude. It’s a free service that uses your phones built-in GPS to track the location of your phone. Most modern cellphones are GPS enabled, so as long as your phone isn’t over eight years old, you should be fine. When the day comes that you can’t locate your phone, just log in to Latitude from any computer and it’ll immediately show you the location of your phone.

Tracking your phone after you lose it

If you didn’t have the foresight to install a device recovery app on your phone before you lost it, don’t worry. There are still some easy ways to get it back.

Android users can download an application called Plan B. Even though your phone is gone, you can log into your Google account on any computer install the app from Google Play. When you click install, the app will begin downloading to your missing phone, and when the download is complete it will send your phone’s location info to your Gmail account. To retrieve the phone’s whereabouts again when you’re away from a computer, just text the word “locate” from a friend’s phone and you’ll receive a text with location info.

iPhone users can download the infamous Find My iPhone application. If you’re rocking a phone with iOS 5 or later, then this app will come pre-installed on your device. If not, just borrow a friends iDevice, install Find My iPhone on it, and log in with your Apple ID. Once you’re all logged in, the app will display your phone’s location on a map. You can even remotely trigger your phone to make a loud noise for two minutes, which makes pinpointing it a snap when it’s nearby.

Non-smartphone users are a bit out of luck in this case. If you didn’t register your phone with Google Latitude or any other service, you don’t have many options other than calling your service provider and hoping they can help. Most providers offer GPS location services for a fee, and if your phone is GPS-enabled, finding it is sometimes just a matter of activating the GPS chip.

Tracking someone else’s phone with their permission

If you want to track somebody’s phone with their permission, there’s always the option of calling them and asking where they are. No fancy GPS apps are necessary if the person doesn’t mind you knowing where they are. Then again, if you do it this way there’s always a chance that they could lie to you. So if you can’t always trust the word of the person you’re trying to locate, then we recommend using Google Latitude. After you’ve installed the app, just add your friends’ phone numbers and Google will send them an invitation to start using the service. They have to approve the request first, but once they do you’ll have complete access to their whereabouts on Google Maps. This option is especially useful for parents who need to keep an eye on their kids.

Tracking someone else’s phone without their permission

It’s best to be upfront about tracking somebody and respect their right to privacy, but if you absolutely must track a phone without the owner’s consent or knowledge (if you’re a parent), here are a few tips how to do it.

Tracking a smartphone user is relatively simple. The easiest method is to install a tracking app on the person’s phone whenever you get a chance to do so discreetly. Do it when they’re sleeping or they leave to go somewhere – and don’t forget to hide the icon of whatever app you install. You can place it in an obscure folder and hope they don’t notice it too soon, or you can also install an app hider program (like Poof for example) to make the icon disappear entirely.

Non-smartphone tracking can be a bit more difficult. If the phone is GPS-enabled, it’s the same drill as above – just wait until the person leaves their phone unattended for an extended period of time, and send them an invite to use Google Latitude from your phone. Approve the request on their phone, and hide the evidence as best you can.

If the phone you’re trying to track isn’t GPS-enabled, however, you’ll have to pull a James Bond maneuver and install a GPS chip on the phone before you can pinpoint its location. This might be a bit of an arduous task, as you’ll have to figure out which particular archaic model of phone they have, find and purchase a GPS chip that’s compatible with the device, and then successfully install the chip without their knowledge. Try going to a specialty electronics shop or spy gear retailer to find the right hardware. The other option is locating the phone in question via triangulation, but doing it this way means gaining access to cell phone tower data – and the feds probably wouldn’t approve of that.

We know that there are tons of other great tracking apps we didn’t mention here, so we invite you to comment on your experiences.

Our Operatives: Street smart; info savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Anatomy of a Car-Crash Scam

scam_alert

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, car crash scams are up almost by 50% from the period 2009 to 2012 alone.

Accident investigators are well aware of this insurance claim scam uptick.   Granted, if you are working defense, you will be looking for disqualifiers but those of us who work with plaintiffs’ attorneys are equally as trained and aware of fraudulent claims.  We have to be. Our job, and nature, is to protect our law and legal community clients.

(Recounted in the vernacular.) We have conducted thousands of  MVA investigations at this point in our company’s history.   The majority of the investigations follow a fairly common routine: obtain and review police report, verify factors on said report, interview witnesses and if necessary, on site or actual vehicles involved accident reconstruction.  This is, of course, a very simplified version of the investigative steps involved in MVA cases but again, generally MVA cases are fairly straightforward – from the investigator’s perspective.

Every so often, and more of late,  along comes the case that strikes the investigator as odd.   This is the one where the pieces (sometimes literally) do not come together.  Mid-August 2012, what appeared to be a routine MVA investigation request came across my desk.  The potential clients were  passengers in a vehicle rear-ended by a rental truck.  I was about to assign it out to one of our field operatives for a sign-up and intake when I realized that an out-of-state vehicle was involved. The manager side of me shot down my mental list of state requirements to verify the vehicle’s registrant, owner…

Vehicle 1:

Registrant: Male, 29, recently licensed in PA.

Owner:  U-Haul, (PA). Ok, slam dunk on insurance.  PA driver’s license, valid.

Vehicle 2:

Driver: Male, 52, from the Bronx, NY.

Owner: Livery cab operation in the Bronx. (Same address as driver.)

Victim 1: Female, 38, from the Bronx, NY, soft tissue injuries

Victim 2: Female, infant, age 7, Bronx, lacerations, orbital fracture (ocular)

Victim 3: Male, infant, age 10, Bronx, concussion, broken tooth, face and head lacerations

In the course of a routine def. driver’s address history, one of his former addresses intersected within one block of  our “victim’s” current address in the Bronx.

We ran the adult victim for prior lawsuits.  6 hits.

Intuition. A harder look at the victim’s address history yielded her having lived exactly at the def. driver’s former Bronx address.

I spoke with our client, the attorney, advised him of these developments and requested his permission to re-interview his potential client  and if possible. also have the kids involved present during this meeting.  Approved.

The mother gave a very compelling, emotional account of the accident.  Looking directly at me, eyes dissolved in tears.  She was extremely upset that her children (who were in the cab she had hired to go food shopping) had been injured and traumatized.  I occasionally lobbed a soft question to one of the kids.  They would not look at me directly and answered in staccato, almost sullen responses. (That will happen regardless with most children when interviewed. A stranger is asking them about a painful incident.  We’ve socialized our children to a- not speak to strangers and b- keep quiet about important things unless speaking with a parent or guardian.)  I figured the boy would be the best shot at uncovering anything out of the ordinary as he was older, articulating well,  albeit in spurts,  and not to be a sexist, but boys like cars and actiony-stuff. (Yes, that is professional terminology.)  As the mother was recounting the accident, with a few variations from the attorney’s brief  to me, and now with her eyes diverting from mine, I asked the boy if he had talked to the police and helped his mom explain how the accident had happened.  He said he had talked to the police. ”Did they ask you if you were okay?”  “Yes, ma’am.”  (Intentionally did not ask the next logical question.) Skipped to “Do you remember, Kevin,  if the police asked you if your Mom was okay? Was Sonya ok?”.   He nodded his head  and then blurted out, “ but I don’t  know what happened to Uncle Tommy”.   (Immediate mental note to self, def. driver, middle initial T.) The mother stopped crying for a moment, interjecting immediately, “No, no, Kevin, we do not know if that is the cab driver’s name”.  Then looking directly at me, she said she had used this car service a few times with her children (in tow) so perhaps her son thought he knew him. I slid right over that poor explanation and continued interviewing the mother about her injuries and various other throwaway questions.  Interview completed.

I then took a more in-depth look at the woman’s lawsuit history and another pretty nugget revealed itself.  The def. driver  was also a plaintiff in one of her previous lawsuits. (Apparently, over the years, they’d tired of paying other drivers to rear end them so decided to bring that activity in-house.  The out-of-state license was a nice touch.)

This information returned to my client.  In her first conversation with the attorney, the potential client had stated she did not know of any witnesses, or the drivers involved in the accident, etc.   He refused the case.  (Please don’t ask if the livery cab “operation”, run by an individual out of his apartment,  had active insurance. Also, I’m not going to describe the ethical decisions that the mother made regarding endangering the welfare of children.)

There has been an astounding increase  in car-crash scams within the past several years and especially now, in an economic downturn.  We’ve literally been told,  by the claimants themselves, “I’ve done this before. With kids getting hurt, the insurance companies will settle.”

Our MVA investigation protocol is to do exactly as outlined above:

Ask the potential client if s/he has been involved in prior accidents. (The primary objective is to determine if the victim has a significant, possibly related medical history.)

Run the def. driver’s background to include address history.

If anything unusual will come out, it is generally during this initial “homework” phase and well before our clients go into significant out-of-pocket.

Our Operatives: Street smart; info savvy.

As always, stay safe.

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