Archive for the 'Social Sites' Category

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Social Media Meta-Search Engines

Published on March 23, 2011 in Search Engines, Search Strategies, Social Sites and Sources. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Meta-search for Social Media Sites

The following social media meta-search engines let you search social networking sites by a person’s name, nickname, phone number, email address and more. Here are some of these search sites and my notes on their utility.

Kgbpeople.com

This searches social networks, search engines, photo/video/audio sites, and personal/professional reference sites. Canada isn’t in the country selection drop-down list this may be a problem for common names in a search for a Canadian. Nothing special, but consistently useful results.

Kurrently.com

This real-time search engine instantly combines results from Twitter and Facebook in an easy-to-read format organized by date stamp. It doesn’t help much if the person doesn’t have one of the above, or if his name isn’t associated with the Twitter account. The best search is for the Twitter @name such as mine @LocusCommunis, Otherwise, you often get nothing.

SocialMention

I have written about this one before.  It’s a real-time search engine searching over a hundred sites from blogs and comments to images and video. When searching names you really must put the name in quotation marks or you get useless results.  Of the three, this is the Investigator’s best choice in my opinion.

Collectors and FaceBook

Published on March 16, 2011 in Canada and Social Sites. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In Florida, a Judge ordered a debt collection agency not to use social media in attempting to locate woman or her family. In Canada, you may specify to the collection agency when and where it can call you. A collection agency is not permitted to contact you at times and in places where you’ve asked it not to, such as a place of work or presumably through Facebook for example. If you have asked the agency not to contact you at a certain location or time and the agency contacts you at that location or time, then the agency may be subject to prosecution. It is likely that this extends to using Facebook, though I have not seen any similar cases like the one in Florida here in Canada.

Court Orders Facebook Download

Published on March 2, 2011 in Canada, Courts and Social Sites. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Judge orders secret meeting to download Facebook account

The judge issued an order compelling Ms. Sparks’ lawyer, James Crocco, to secretly arrange to have a colleague call the woman to a surprise meeting without telling her why and then order to her download the entire contents of her Facebook site, including any photos and videos, so it could be examined in court.”

Twitter Searching

Published on February 25, 2011 in Search Engines, Search Strategies, Social Sites and Twitter. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This Twitter thing has become a necessity to the connected. It is also an evolving search problem for Investigators.

Searching Twitter isn’t as straightforward as I would like. Content disappears in a short time in many search facilities and search results differ depending on which search facility you use.

18 Useful Twitter-related Sites

Here are 18 Twitter-related sites that I have found useful: Continue reading ‘Twitter Searching’

Social Media and Investigators

Published on February 21, 2011 in Private Investigator, Social Sites and U.S.A.. 0 Comments

Discoverability and Ethics of Social Media Data

Richard Raysman and Peter Brown, New York Law Journal, December 15, 2010

Throughout North America, courts, legislators, and lawyers are learning how to ethically deal with the investigation of social media content.

The New York City Bar’s Committee on Professional Ethics recently issued an opinion entitled “Obtaining Evidence From Social Networking Websites.” In Formal Opinion 2010-2, the committee stated that a lawyer may not attempt to gain access to a social network website under false pretenses, either directly or through an agent.

Rather, the committee advised that a lawyer should rely on discovery procedures sanctioned by the ethical rules and case law to obtain relevant evidence, such as the “friending” of unrepresented parties without using deception or by using formal discovery devices such as non-party subpoenas directed to social network providers.

The committee recognized that, generally speaking, users are easier to deceive in the online world than if approached in person: “Despite the common sense admonition not to ‘open the door’ to strangers, social networking users often do just that with a click of the mouse.”

For example, an attorney or hired investigator might pose as an old classmate and send a friend request to a potential witness or unrepresented party in order to gather personal information. The committee stated that such deceptive behavior was barred under the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, namely Rules 4.1 and 8.4(c), which prohibit attorneys from making false statements and engaging in dishonest conduct, respectively.

Related Posts:

Facebook Intelligence

Social Sites Subpoenaed

Synonym Searches in Google

Published on February 8, 2011 in Search Engines, Search Strategies and Social Sites. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

The tilde (~) helps you find synonyms of words in a Google search. This is usually done by preceding the term with a ~.  For example, searching using the term ~investigator will yield results with synonyms for investigator. It is also an excellent search to do in Google RealTime when searching social media to ensure you are using the right search terms.

The tilde search is excellent for search term discovery and variance testing.

Toronto Sun Surprised by Private Investigator

Published on January 22, 2011 in Canada, Courts, How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, News, News Media, Private Investigator and Social Sites. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Private Investigators, Adjusters, and insurance companies get a lot of bad press due to bias, ignorance, and a desire to sensationalize the news.

In today’s Toronto Sun an article titled, How Facebook can screw you by Alan SHANOFF, the author states,

I wouldn’t be surprised to see insurance company adjusters and investigators trying to become a claimant’s “friend” to obtain inner circle access. Instead of a private investigator hiding in a van on your street or behind a bush, he might very well be tracking your movements in cyberspace.”

It’s obvious that SHANOFF would be surprised to learn that Private Investigators and Adjusters in Canada wouldn’t do this to a represented claimant.  I have written on this subject twice, and all the PI’s and Adjusters I have spoken to about this know that they may not “friend” the subject of an investigation if he or she is represented.  Simple fact checking would have corrected this.

Managing reputation through search results

Published on December 9, 2010 in Reputation Management and Social Sites. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Karen Blakeman’s Blog has an interesting article on removing unwanted references in Google and social media.

Removing information about you from Google

…you cannot make Google remove information you do not like except in very specific circumstances, for example copyrighted material on YouTube, images of you or your house on Street View.

…oft cited example of  how not to tackle bad publicity is that of Nestle. (Just Google Nestle social media fail or Nestle social media disaster.) “Nestle fails at social media

Detecting Firesheep

Published on November 29, 2010 in Identity Theft, Methods, Privacy, Security, Social Sites, Surveillance and The Investigator's Computer. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I wrote about Firesheep awhile back. Predictably, a countermeasure has appeared called Blacksheep.

New Firefox Add-On Detects Firesheep, Protects You on Open Networks

If you’re concerned about using open Wi-Fi networks because of Firesheep, the highly popular new hacking tool, you should check out BlackSheep, a Firefox add-on that makes surfing on open networks safe once again.

Hijacking Social Network Connections

Published on November 8, 2010 in Identity Theft, Methods, Privacy, Security, Social Sites, Surveillance and The Investigator's Computer. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

The Firesheep Firefox plugin makes it easy to hijack someone’s social network connections. For example, Facebook authenticates the client using cookies. If someone logs on using a public WiFi connection, the cookies are sniffable. Firesheep uses Wincap to capture the authentication information which allows you to hijack the connection.

Protect yourself by forcing the authentication through TLS or stop logging into Facebook using public networks.

LinkedIn E-Mail Could Infect Your PC

Published on August 18, 2010 in Social Sites and The Investigator's Computer. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Warning: Fake LinkedIn E-Mail Could Infect Your PC

Don’t look now, but that “LinkedIn” invite you just received from a “colleague” may in fact be yet another cleverly disguised piece of spam…

Other LinkedIn spam isn’t so obvious or so benign though. I also received fake invites that lacked the Viagra Houdini image but still lead to weird sites (like one called “Cernoma”)…

This is not the first time social media has been abused by spammers, and it appears to be a rising trend. (I’ve also written about bogus Amazon spam here.)

This is an excellent article with lots of links to more accounts of social media being used as a vector for spam and malicious code.

FaceBook and Investigations

Published on December 22, 2009 in Methods, Private Investigator, Social Sites and Sources. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Facebook: The truth is out there

… Facebook is a good source for data mining.

But one problem is that information gathered is not verified independently.

“These are not facts, just hearsay,” the former Criminal Investigation Department trainer said. “For digital photos, you can’t prove they are original as photos can be manipulated and put on the Web. You can’t authenticate them unless you get the original files from the photographer.”

He added: “This way of getting information is more trendy…but the information should be verified by conducting a proper investigation.”

Only when it is backed up will it be admissible as court evidence, he said.

… [it is] not inconceivable for someone to falsify their whereabouts on such sites.

“There really is no way of proving who was at the computer, which is the problem with any Internet-based investigation,” he said. “Today, one can update Facebook status or tweet Twitter from any device at any location.”

This is an excellent article on the value of searching  social sites.

Internet Detective 105 – Paid Monitoring Services

Published on December 9, 2009 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, Methods, Private Investigator, Search Engines, Search Strategies and Social Sites. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Social Media Monitoring

As an Investigator, you must realise that even the Vatican uses social media. Some forms of social media are taking on some of the characteristics of email. This information rich environment is something that Investigators and Researchers must understand. To be effective, one must also understand the tools available to conduct thorough research of the social media content.

One must also be able to create accurate budgets for this type of research. To set-up, optimise, and monitor research feeds that cover multiple social media and news sites can take many hours. These services allow one to monitor the social media space for new data or derogatory content. One particular strength of these services is that they search Blog comments, and can track comments and posts of individual contributors. While these services are aimed at PR agencies, they also offer significant utility for the Investigator, but they can be very expensive tools to use.

Techrigy

Techrigy (pronounced tek-err-jee) offers a free account that gets you up to 5 Search Words/Phrases, and store up to 1000 results. This is a great way to learn how to use the system.

Radian6

Unfortunately Radian6 is expensive — you pay just to have it in your toolbox, and then pay more for each social media research project you undertake. These costs must be understood at the outset and budgeted into the costs of the Investigation.

Filtrbox

Unfortunately, at Filtrbox their annual fee for individuals appears to be $1,000USD.

Backtype

Backtype lets you search comments that mention a brand, company, or topic, but it also lets you search comments left by a particular person.

Attaain

AttaainCI costs $150 per month for unlimited searching and monitoring. It’s less sophisticated than Radian 6 and Filtrbox which rate Blog comments from positive to negative. This is aimed at the Competitive Intelligence professional rather than the PR agency.

Internet Detective 104 — Forums, Boards, & Social Sites

Published on December 7, 2009 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, Methods, Private Investigator, Search Engines, Search Strategies and Social Sites. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Searching Boards, Forums, and Social Media sites can be a hit and miss affair using the large search engines. Google does an excellent job, but it is not the only game in town.

BoardTracker

BoardTracker – searches across 37,000 forums representing more than 63 million threads. Set up your own custom alerts using RSS or use the site’s search function.

SocialMention

SocialMention – this will find your search term in many different blogs and social outlets.  It will tell you how many times a keyword was used, the time frame, and let you subscribe to an RSS feed for that term or export the information as a CSV file.

Knowem

Published on November 25, 2009 in Search Engines, Search Strategies, Social Sites and Sources. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

James Ruotolo at FraudPro found Knowem to be a good way to find what social sites have a particular user name. I’m going to add this to my list of ways for Finding Usernames.