The U.S. State Department regularly updates travel advisory levels for more than 200 countries globally. Levels depend on risk factors such as health, terrorism, and civil unrest. Travel advisory levels range from Level 1, which means exercise normal precautions, to Level 4, which means do not travel there.
As of February 5, 2024, the following countries have a Level 3 “Reconsider travel” advisory warning:
Burundi, Chad, Columbia, Congo, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guinea.
The Bahamas also has a travel advisory due to gang violence, which includes burglaries, armed robberies, and sexual assaults.
2024 Travel Advisory Update: (Click on links for comprehensive warning details.)
For the current State Department map listing U.S. embassies, consular agents, consular generals, consulate, consulate sections and U.S. Protecting Power: Map
Warmest wishes to our readers and clients from all of us at Beacon Network Investigations. We’re truly grateful for your support and loyalty. May your Thanksgiving be filled with joy and happiness!
Increasingly, we’re being tasked with identifying potential cryptocurrency scams. As with traditional financial crimes wherein criminals try to steal money from your bank account or put fraudulent charges on your credit card, crypto scammers are quite creative in ways to separate you from your crypto.
To protect your crypto assets, let’s review several key takeaways to determine if you’re being targeted and what you can do if you suspect that your crypto investment may be a scam (compiled via numerous crypto information sources and governmental agencies):
Key Takeaways
The goal of crypto scams is to gain private information, such as security codes, or to trick a person into sending cryptocurrency to a digital wallet that the scammer controls.
Examples of scams are giveaways, hustles involving new romance, phishing, extortion emails, fake company alerts, blackmail, “rug pulls,” and may involve fake mining apps or networks.
(A rug pull is a scam where a cryptocurrency or NFT developer hypes a project or cryptocurrency to attract investors, only to suddenly shut down or disappear, taking investor assets with them, in essence “pulling the rug out” from the victim. Rug pulls have increased as decentralized finance (DeFi) attracts more investors to the crypto space. In the first six weeks of 2023, there were at least 11 rug pulls, resulting in the theft of a combined total of more than $14 million, according to Comparitech’s crypto scam database.)
Signs of crypto scams include poorly written white papers (if any at all), excessive marketing pushes, fake social media identities, and get-rich-quick claims.
A so-called “investment manager” contacts you out of the blue. They promise to grow your money — but only if you buy cryptocurrency and transfer it into their online account. The investment website they steer you to looks real, but it’s really fake, and so are their promises. If you log in to your “investment account,” you won’t be able to withdraw your money at all, or only if you pay high fees.
As private investigators specializing in financial crimes, we’re often called in when a crypto scam is suspected, to identify and locate the scammer. There are numerous licensing and registration requirements for crypto brokers. Our first course of action is to determine if your broker is a) who he claims he is and b) is authorized and licensed to sell crypto. As each case is unique, post identification action depends on various factors that are best left unstated so as to not give scammers inside information on recovery and law enforcement activity.
The bottom line is, before investing in cryptocurrency, thoroughly research your broker and the exchange platform. It sounds simple but many of these scammers are expert at creating seemingly credible identities and website, referrals, fake news articles, etc. An ounce of prevention goes a long way.
A fundamental step after an accident is determining the at-fault party because typically, the at-fault party is responsible for paying damages resulting from the accident. If fault is clear when a driver fails to follow traffic laws, determining liability is fairly straightforward. But in accidents when fault is not clear, many factors can complicate liability determination. Additionally complicating matters is that various entities may make determinations on who was at fault, such as the responding police officer to the scene, an insurance claims adjuster or a judge awarding damages.
New York is a no-fault car insurance state meaning drivers must first pursue compensation from their own insurer for medical expenses and property damage regardless of who was at fault for the accident. Only if your injury meets certain New York criteria can you move outside the no-fault system and pursue a claim against the at-fault party.
In a personal injury claim outside the no-fault system, New York uses the comparative negligence law (proportion of liability) for determining fault. Under this law, if you suffer an injury resulting from the accident, you can recover an amount based on your proportion of fault. If not liable at all, you can recover full damages.
Prior to any final fault determination however, clearly, a thorough accident investigation must be conducted. Aside from the usual evidence gathering, i.e., witness statements, photos, driver statements, police reports, vehicle damage, medical records and weather and road conditions – especially in serious injury or fatalities involved accidents – the experienced investigator should conduct traffic pattern research to recreate the exact traffic conditions on the date/time of occurrence (DTO) of the accident. This research involves obtaining traffic light timing sequence transcripts, but often overlooked, is an inquiry into the use of traffic preemption devices on the DTO.
Many traffic lights in New York (and in other cities around the world) are equipped with preemption devices. These devices are used to prioritize the movement of emergency vehicles, such as fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars, through intersections by changing the traffic lights in their favor.
Preemption devices allow emergency vehicles to communicate with traffic signals and request a green light or an extended green phase to clear the intersection quickly and safely. The devices can be activated by various means, such as using a specialized radio frequency, infrared light, or GPS technology.
When an emergency vehicle approaches an intersection and activates the preemption device, the traffic signal controller receives the signal and adjusts the traffic lights accordingly. It may turn the traffic lights to red for all other directions and provide a green light for the emergency vehicle’s direction of travel.
While these devices help improve emergency response times, the general driving public can become confused and act in an unsafe manner, not anticipating a sudden change in right-of-way traffic lighting. We’ve also seen the Follow Through Freddies – civilian drivers quickly changing lanes and otherwise rushing through lights immediately after emergency vehicles have passed through the intersections, creating all sorts of havoc as other drivers try to return normal driving patterns.
Recreating the accident scene as closely as possible to the existing conditions on the date/time of occurrence produces a comprehensive picture of the details involved in the incident, rendering a true and accurate outcome.
(I’m sure many of you have read of the recent development vis European travel document requirements for Americans. In this Bulletin, we are adding supplemental information released by the US Department of State. IMPORTANT NOTE: The application process has not started. No applications have been accepted. Let this article serve as a gateway to the background information regarding this new authorization before you travel to Europe in 2024.)
The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) is a travel authorization that will be required for U.S. passport holders traveling to 30 European countries starting in 2024. ETIAS is not a visa and does not guarantee entry. Travelers from countries that currently have visa-free travel to the European Union will need an ETIAS authorization.
ETIAS authorizations are valid for three years or until the traveler’s passport expires, whichever comes first. Applications should be filled out on the official EU website. There is a nominal application fee; some travelers are exempt from this fee.
The Schengen Agreement, signed in 1985, is a treaty that created Europe’s Schengen Area, which includes 27 European countries.
What countries are members of the Schengen Borders Agreement?
Given that this is a rapidly changing new process, we will monitor the situation and provide updates as warranted. In the interim, there’s a comprehensive explanation of the new requirements for travel to Europe on the U.S. Department of State site.
Of course, this monumental change in travel requirements to Europe requires explanation which we are still sussing out. As one can imagine, various sociogeopolitical situations are certainly motivation but, again, we’re seeking clarification of these new European travel conditions.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) extended the REAL ID full enforcement date by 24 months, from May 3, 2023 to May 7, 2025. This means that starting May 7, 2025, every state and territory resident will need to present a REAL ID-compliant license or ID to access federal facilities. This includes boarding commercial aircraft.
The REAL ID Act sets minimum standards for driver’s licenses and other types of identification cards. It was initially intended to take effect in 2008, but has been extended multiple times. The DHS extended the deadline twice during the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can apply for a REAL ID now. You do not need a REAL ID to drive or receive federal benefits. You can still use an Enhanced Driver License as identification when returning to the U.S. by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, and some countries in the Caribbean. However, you still need a passport to travel internationally.
For most states, there is no additional fee for a REAL ID. Check with your local Department of Motor Vehicles.
To avoid undoubted last minute issues, and especially if you may need to fly commercial aircraft in the future (unexpected family emergencies, sudden work relocations, housing moves, etc.), obtain your Real I.D. now and avoid the long last minute DMV lines.
Given the multiple, years-long deadline extensions to obtain a Real I.D., and the changing access criteria with the various types of government I.D.s, stay tuned to the Bulletin for updates as warranted.
I’ve interacted with the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3) since its formation in May, 2020, (and prior to that, since at least 2010, through its predecessor, the National White Collar Crime Center), in matters involving clients impacted, personally and professionally, by identity theft, extortion, malicious business redirects, defamatory doxxing and a multitude of similar digital crimes – and they are crimes, albeit, if the perpetrators are captured, they can and have been successfully sued in civil courts as well as criminally prosecuted.
The IC3 was established in May 2000 to receive complaints crossing the spectrum of cyber matters, to include online fraud in its many forms including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) matters, Computer Intrusions (Hacking), Economic Espionage (Theft of Trade Secrets), Online Extortion, International Money Laundering, Identity Theft, and a growing list of Internet facilitated crimes. As of December 31, 2022, the IC3 has received over seven million complaints. The IC3 mission to provide the public and our partners with a reliable and convenient reporting mechanism to submit information concerning suspected cyber-enabled criminal activity and to develop effective alliances with law enforcement and industry partners to help those who report. Information is analyzed and disseminated for investigative and intelligence purposes forlaw enforcement and public awareness.
The information submitted to the IC3 can be impactful in the individual complaints, but it is most impactful in the aggregate. That is, when these individual complaints are combined with other data, it allows the FBI to connect complaints, investigate reported crimes, track trends and threats, and, in some cases, even freeze stolen funds. Just as importantly, the IC3 shares reports of crime throughout its vast network of FBI field offices and law enforcement partners, strengthening our nation’s collective response both locally and nationally.
To clarify, IC3 is a crime reports aggregator; the unit does not investigate individual crimes. Those crimes that are flagged are forwarded to the FBI and law enforcement partners, for their review and investigation, if necessary. The below visual best describes the IC3 mission and operation.
There is a step that should generally be taken before reporting any suspected digital crime- file a report with your local police department. The IC3 complaint form will ask for this information. The police report begins the process of analyzing your compaint as a crime. (You can still file with IC3 without a police report but again, IC3 compiles crime reports and then disseminates the information to the appropriate federal law enforcement agency, if warranted. Coordinating with local law enforcement agencies enhances the information and investigation flow.)
As law enforcement monitoring technology continues to refine its digital investigation tools, we will be bringing our readers news on pertinent developments.
If you have any questions on filing a complaint, or when you should file one, please let me know and I can shepherd you through the process.
Recently, several readers asked me to define the various internet webs, i.e., the surface, deep and dark webs; terms that are often used in an interchangeable, and wrong, manner. In this article, we also provide information on updated law enforcement task force formation to combat dark web crime, and avenues to monitoring the dark web for personal and professional data breaches, by professional services or by yourself.
First, the three main webs defined:
The Webs
Succinctly,
Surface Web: The majority of people employ Google, Bing, Firefox, Safari and like browsers. That area of the internet is called the surface or open web. It is the tip of internet that is visible to all, if you liken the internet to an iceberg. The surface web comprises only 4% of the entire Internet.
Deep web: The deep web is the portion of the Internet that is hidden and not shown from conventional search engines. IOW, it cannot be accessed by search engines; harboring sensitive and private information such as government data, bank data, cloud data (think the content of your personal email and social media accounts), etc. To access deep web data, you must go to the website, log in and locate the information within the site. Journalists and politically oppressed people internationally are common inhabitants of this space. The NYT has a permanent lockbox on this web.
Dark Web: The dark web, a subset of the deep web, refers to heavily encrypted online content that is not indexed by conventional search engines. Access requires a password, encryption, or specialty software to surf the anonymous environment as well as as a multi-layered encryption browser, i.e., TOR. This is where law enforcement concentrates its focus in that this is the area of the web in which criminals and nefarious routes reside (e.g. the Silk Road black market).
The criminal side of the dark web relies on anonymizing technology and cryptocurrency to hide its trade in an assortment of contraband such as opioids and other drugs, bomb parts, weapons large and small, child pornography, social security numbers, body parts — even criminal acts for hire.
The dark web’s anonymity not only encourages illegal activities, it keeps many law enforcement agencies largely unaware of its existence, even while their jurisdictions are impacted by online transactional crimes.
What is Law Enforcement Doing About The Thriving Dark Web Marketplace?
We suggest reading this beginner’s primer from CrowdStrike on dark web monitoring before you make a decision to hire a dark web monitoring service. Before hiring a service, you may want to check yourself for instances of data breach exposure(s) tied your email address or phone number through a free search on haveIbeenpwned.com. If you find your personal data has been breached, reach out to us and let’s determine a tailored approach. To be blunt, not every instance of data breach requires correction in that its impact may be negligible- almost everybody who’s been online for any considerable period of time (which is most of us) will find their email or phone number floating around the dark web. However, if you believe you or your company may have been compromised in any way, there are definitive steps that may be taken to neutralize or minimize potential personal or professional reputation or operational damage.
The above provides a glimpse into the enormous scope of the internet that domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies must monitor. By the sheer size of the web, unless one is labeled a potential master criminal or terrorist, law enforcement is mostly reactive in monitoring people. One would have to commit egregious criminal acts over a prolonged period of time for deep, sustained monitoring. (I say this knowing that, as I referred to the above task force, AI long-term monitoring tools have been developed and are being refined as I type. Lots to keep an eye on here.)
Years ago (11 to be exact- we’ve been around for a while), I posted an article on Disney’s use of facial recognition (FR), wherein photos were taken at their theme parks, ostensibly for security purposes, which they then provided to the government under a covert effort named Operation Mickey Mouse. This FR collection was also used by law enforcement in identifying subjects- including by reverse facial recognition (RFR), novel at the time.
RFR is an AI-driven tool that allows you to look for online images of a specific person by uploading a photo of them. In order to do a reverse image search, RFR companies use facial recognition technology.
Today, that RFR is available to the public and is being refined as I type.
For definition of the process and in reviewing the use of this technology, we selected one of the top reverse facial technology companies of 2023, PimEyes, resulting in the following:
How it works:
Review:
Photo Samples: Pro tip, for best results, you should use a photo of the person that you believe has previously been posted somewhere online. Although the option exists to use a photo from your personal gallery of saved images, whether the person’s features have significantly changed or the photo is off-angle, faded or of poor quality, that search does not work as well.
Price: It’s pricey, ranging from $29.99 to $299.99 monthly. Perhaps this service may be of more economically efficient use by law firms, insurance companies, investigators and data providers, (although they do offer single searches for $14.99 per).
Photo Exclusions: The search does not include photos from social media sites. The images that PimEyes reveals come from news articles, wedding photography pages, review sites, blogs and pornography sites. Use of the photos from these sources may result in trademark issues and other privacy concerns- see No. 4 below.
Privacy Issues: There are some surprising results- including photos taken over a decade ago that one test subject was dismayed with in that the picture from a difficult period in her life was still out in public. PimEyes does offer an option to “exclude from public results” but that service is available only to subscribers who pay for “PROtect plans,” which cost from $79.99 to $299.99 per month. That’s a very steep charge, and is not guaranteed as we found out. Furthermore, opting out doesn’t block a person’s face from being searched. Instead, it blocks from PimEyes’s search results any photos of faces that are very similar at the time of the opt-out, meaning you would need to regularly opt out, with multiple photos of yourself, if you hope to stay out of a PimEyes search.
Bottom line: (To be fair, we did research other RFR companies, with mostly similar results.) Reverse facial recognition technology – as it stands today – in the wrong hands can produce wrong or alarming results, and certainly ones that can end up harming people. Also, significant errors occur with the sheer volume of results returned (dozens to hundreds) – wading through that large number of photos may send you down a rabbit hole of no viable use. Unless you have an extraordinary need to know, stick with Google Lens searches, if you must.
An often requested service for investigators is to interview witnesses in order to obtain written or recorded statements.
To that end, a successful interview is often based on the investigator’s approach and the better she can assess the subject’s personality, the more effective the interview. Fortunately, most people are cooperative, fairly truthful and possess a relatively normal personality. There have been quite a number of times, however, when we’ve had to extract information from people whose base nature or personality has been overwhelmingly outside of the normal range.
With these type subjects, it’s the investigator’s people skills that determine whether she will prevail.
In our multiple-part series, we begin this week with tips for interviewing a subject with a narcissistic personality. Because of their compulsive, detail-oriented personality bent, narcissists can actually make very good witnesses – if you know how to handle them.
Definition of a Narcissistic Personality:
Most experts use the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association, to diagnose mental conditions and personalities.
DSM-5 criteria for a narcissistic personality include these features:
Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Expecting to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
Exaggerating your achievements and talents
Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people
Requiring constant admiration
Having a sense of entitlement
Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
Taking advantage of others to get what you want
Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
Narcissism is often interpreted in popular culture as a person who’s in love with him or herself. It is more accurate to characterize the pathological narcissist as someone who’s in love with an idealized self-image, which they project in order to avoid feeling (and being seen as) the real, disenfranchised, wounded self.
Having the above knowledge, a field investigator should be able to quickly assess the subject’s personality during the pre-interview casual conversation we engage in with witnesses to determine where they are “coming from”.
If the investigator has ascertained that she is dealing with a narcissist, the three best basic approaches are:
Provide positive feedback throughout the interview without being disingenuous and overly solicitous. A narcissist needs to be constantly recognized but, is also suspicious of people who are being nice.
Base the account from the narcissist’s perspective. As with most people, but more so with a narcissist, people recall best when mentally positioned (though guided imagery) to recall an event from where they were at the moment of occurrence.
Let the subject talk. At some point, with mild encouragement, the narcissist, because of the compulsive component of this specific personality, will give you the information necessary to complete a thorough statement. By his very narcissistic nature, he is exacting with details. Also, we’ve found that engaging a narcissist in minor physical tasks (such as drawing a diagram of the location of accident or arranging site photos) during interviews, helps defuse excess energy and OCD-like behavior.
In the next Bulletin in this series, we will cover, “The Empath” – Does she give a true account of the incident or is she wrapped in the emotion of the moment, clouding her recall?
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