Fugitives on Facebook

Almost on cue, following my last post about using social networking sites as an investigative tool… I ran across this article about a fugitive hiding from US authorities in Mexico who (somewhat foolishly) updated his status and location on his Facebook page.  While it is more and more common for investigators to search social network sites for information, what is most interesting to me about this example is that the first searches turned up nothing.

 

“Investigators initially could find no trace of him on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and they were unable to pin down his exact location in Mexico.”

But the actions of a persistent investigator turned up new information later in the investigation.  I recently posted a question on LinkedIn about the use of monitoring tools in investigations to address this very issue.

“But several months later, Secret Service agent Seth Reeg checked Facebook again — and up popped Maxi Sopo. His photo showed him wearing a black jacket decorated with a white lion as he stood in front of a party backdrop featuring logos of BMW and Courvoisier cognac.”

The other neat thing about this investigation is that although the fugitive’s profile was private – and therefore all the details were not visible to outsiders – the investigator was able to obtain the information by researching the fugitive’s “friends” on Facebook.

“Although Sopo’s profile was set to private, his list of friends was not, and Scoville started combing through it. He was surprised to see that one friend listed an affiliation with the Justice Department and sent him a message requesting a phone call.

‘We figured this was a person we could probably trust to keep our inquiry discreet,’ Scoville said.

The former official told Scoville he had met Sopo in Cancun’s nightclubs a few times, but did not really know him and had no idea he was a fugitive. The official learned where Sopo was living and passed that information back to Scoville, who provided it to Mexican authorities. They arrested Sopo last month.”

Arson Awareness Week: May 3rd – 9th

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) is sponsoring Arson Awareness Week with a theme of Arson for Profit, in conjunction with the ATF and the International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI).  According to the Insurance Information Institute, arsonists destroyed nearly $900 million in insured property and killed 295 civilians nationwide in 2007.  With skyrocketing foreclosures and a sagging economy, arson for profit is a major concern.

The USFA website offers up a great media kit (pdf) and other helpful resources.

For insurance claim personnel, law enforcement, SIU investigators, or other individuals who may investigate suspicious fires, the IAAI training website CFItrainer.net is a great training resource.  They have a series of professionally edited training videos which provide students with a solid foundation in fire investigation techniques.  Registration is required but free.  

And of course, any discussion about fire  investigation should refer folks to the National Fire Protection Association guide for Fire & Explosion Investigations – commonly referred to as NFPA 921.

Who’s the Twit?

Read an interesting article in Newsweek about ghostwriting of blogs and even Twitter posts (often called “tweets”).  In fact, the article mentions  recently launched UK company Twit4hire as example of a professional microblogging firm that can be hired to post as many as 20 tweets a day on your behalf.  As an investigator or researcher, remember not to assume that someones name on an article, blog post, or other online publication means that the content is actually written by them.  Trust but verify.

Lifehack: Gmail Favicon

I’ve recently become a follower of the Lifehacker blog.  I picked up a copy of Upgrade Your Life to read on the plane during a recent business trip.  I found that I had dog-eared so many pages of cool tips and tricks, it would have been easier to just rip out the few pages that didn’t seem useful.  So, if you haven’t been reading it, here’s a link to a recent helpful tip.  Gmail users that use the Firefox browser (with Greasmonkey) can turn the Gmail favicon into something more useful than a picture of an envelope.

Fact or Fiction: Evaluating Internet Sources

With the abundant open source information available on the web, it is increasingly important to ascertain the validity of information and investigate authorship.  I can recommend several great references.  These tutorials provide investigators and researchers with excellent criteria to consider when reviewing web content:

Evaluating Internet Research Sources by Dr. Robert Harris (thanks to David Jimenez for the tip)

What They Don’t Teach in Detective School by Richard McEachin at The Confidential Resource blog

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask a tutorial at UC Berkeley

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet a tutorial at Johns Hopkins University