The below presentation is the first part in a series that I’ve created on Internet investigations. Part I covers the basic steps one needs to take before actually starting an online investigation.
Up until now, the majority of the posts have focused on searching free web sources. While the below search segments and connector do work in some non-pay websites, they are predominantly for use on the pay service of LexisNexis and other services that accept Boolean logic. LexisNexis is a search tool that any serious investigator should have access to and be adept at using. The below search terms and connectors all work in Lexis and can be combined and crafted to provide extremely specific search results. Below is a full list of LexisNexis search segments and connectors and some example search queries.
SEARCH CONNECTORS
and: Searches for all search terms anywhere in the same article.
or: Searches for any search term anywhere in the same article.
and not: Searches for a search term and not another search term.
w/N: Searches for search terms within the number of words specified .
pre/N: Similar to the “w/N” connector, except the first search term must proceed the second term by the specified number of words..
w/p: Searches for search terms within same the paragraph.
w/seg: Searches for search terms within the same segment.
w/s: Searches for search terms within the same sentence
SEARCH SEGMENTS
CAPS: The beginning letters of search terms must appear capitalized
(CAPS(Samuel w/2 Israel))
ALLCAPS: All letters in the search term must appear capitalized
(ALLCAPS(TCBY))
NOCAPS: No letters in the search term can appear capitalized
(NOCAPS(TCBY))
PLURAL: Search term must be the plural version.
(PLURAL(Jobs))
SINGULAR: Search term must be the singular version.
(SINGULAR(Job))
ATLEAST: Requires the search term must to appear “at least” the specified number of times in a document.
ATLEAST10(Bayou Investment)
DATE AFTER: Searches for records after a specified date.
((Samuel w/2 Israel) and (date aft 05/05/2008))
DATE BEFORE: Searches for records before a specified date.
((Samuel w/2 Israel) and (date before 05/05/2008))
DATE ON: Searches for records on a specific date.
((Samuel w/2 Israel) and (date on 05/05/2008))
WILDCARDS
! - Use an exclamation mark (!) to find a root word plus all the words made by adding letters to the end of it.
* - Use an asterisk (*) to replace characters anywhere in a term, except the first character. Use one asterisk for each character you want to replace.
EXAMPLES
Now using the above logic, if I wanted to search for information on Samuel Israel, my initial query would look like this:
(Samuel w/2 Israel) - Using the “w/2″ connector would find any information where Samuel is mentioned within 2 words of Israel. This way, if Israel is ever mentioned with his middle name, this query would also retrieve that result.
If I want to search for any information where Samuel Israel is mentioned in conjunction with the hedge fund he defrauded, Bayou Management, my query would look like this:
(Samuel w/2 Israel) and (Bayou Management)
Conversely, if I any to find information about Israel, but not Bayou Management, my query would look like this:
(Samuel w/2 Israel) and not (Bayou Management)
If I want to find information about Samuel Israel or Bayou Management, my query would look like this:
(Samuel w/2 Israel) or (Bayou Management)
If I wanted to find information on Israel, on the specific date he turned himself in, July 2, 2008, my query would look like this:
(Samuel w/2 Israel) and (date on 07/02/2008)
In future posts, I will expand more on the uses of these connectors and segments.
1. Government Compliance
Section 312 of the PATRIOT Act requires financial institutions to conduct enhanced due diligence on private banking accounts and correspondent bank account involving foreign persons. The fines for not following these laws can be huge.
2. Minimize Financial Risks
More and more scandals come out each day involving hedge fund managers stealing millions of dollars. Performing due diligence reduces the risk of financial loss and can protect an institution’s assets against fraud, money laundering, and other types of illegal activity.
3. Minimize Reputational Risks
It may not always be possible to prevent illegal activity from happening. But it is certain that your financial institution does not want to get caught doing business with less than savory characters who have had a know past of wrong doing.
There are a million and one reasons why you would need to find the contact information for a company’s headquarters during the course of an investigation. Next to the Internet, the telephone is probably the second best tool available to an investigator. Getting a hold of the right person in a company can be a crucial start to an investigation. The problem is, in general, large corporations do not want you contacting their headquarters.
So where do you start?
A good place to start for any investigation involving a company is the company website. Fifty percent of the time, the information you are looking for can be found there. But as mentioned before, larger companies have numerous channels that they want you to go through first before contacting their headquarters. And even if you find the information on the website, how do you confirm that this is the actual address and phone number to the headquarters? The next step would be to perform a search at a website that provides information on businesses, my favorite for finding this type of information is www.Hoovers.com (in fact, all of the contact information in the below post can be found in Hoovers). But other sites, such as Dun and Bradstreet, can be used as well (see my post in the “Investigative Sources” section on company information). Generally, you need not go any further and Hoovers or D&B provided the information you were searching for. But if you are still not satisfied, you can always search for the company’s annual report (www.annualreports.com), and the information you are looking for should surely be there.
Hopefully, this information will help to get your investigation on the right track, but if not, don’t despair. In future posts, I plan on discussing some more techniques on finding even the trickiest of contact information.
