The One Ring Scam - It Is Alive and Well in Texas

So, what is a one ring scam you ask?  Simple.  A company sets up a a toll charge site, often based in another country.  They set up computers to robo-dial phones (particularly targeting cell phones with regular phone bills).  As soon as the phone registers a ring, the dialer hangs up.

What happens next:  Curiosity gets to a lot of people so they call back the "missed call."  Since it is a toll charge site, you are automatically charged a fee - usually $19.95  (I am not sure why that amount) and of course, if it is international, you are also charged for whatever time you stay on the phone with international charges.  Some international charges are not cheap either.

Simply calling the number back could cost you $30.  How do you avoid it?  Never call back a missed call, unless you know who/where it is from.  Guess what?  I just saved you $30.  And to think I did it for free.

Here is a news story on the calls:

http://www.kltv.com/story/24543509/scam-missed-calls-could-cost-you

Stay Safe!

Who Needs to Know When I am Making a Recording?

Whenever you are making a recording of an individual (this does not include video with no audio in a public place) usually at least one party to the conversation needs to be aware of the recording.  In other words, you cannot put a device to record all phone calls on a line, unless you are always a party to those phone calls.  Also, you cannot "accidentally" leave a recording device in another room and walk out to record what took place in the other room.  Exceptions to this require a judges order.

In other words, you cannot bug anyone's car, apartment, house, office... you name it.

You can, in one party state (meaning one party to the conversation is aware) walk around and record everything without telling anyone.  You can use a hidden camera and record everything that is going on around you (there are some facilities that can outlaw this).

Some states require both parties to be aware they are being recorded. These states are:

California
Connecticut
Florida
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
Pennsylvania
Washington

Assume places like Washington D.C. and other US places to be 2 party unless you can find something to clearly state otherwise.

This means in 2 party states you cannot secretly record any conversation or use a hidden camera with audio. You can use a hidden camera without audio in public places.

Whatever you do - Stay safe!

Investigator Basics - Part 4

So now we finally get to the part where I discuss the needed qualities of an investigator:

The next few posts will be about attributes and special qualities that will help you as an investigator achieve success.

Today's topic: The Ability to get others to work with you

The first quality I will focus on is the ability to get people to work or co-operate with you.  Why you ask?  Well, first off, it is my blog, and secondly – it is likely one of the most important skills you will need.  It will help you with witnesses, clients, suspects, professionals you need assistance from, and pretty much anyone else you come across in your daily work.

You will make a living or go broke as an investigator with your ability to collect information.  If you can communicate well, you have an upper hand on becoming a great investigator.  That communication can be done in your interviews and in your writing of reports.  Often, you will need to communicate effectively to obtain information from all sorts of sources.

You will need to have the ability to interact effectively with all types of people.  It doesn’t matter if they are day laborers or lawyers, you will need to find a way to communicate effectively with them.  If you are having trouble relating to your clients, or suspects, people in the clerk’s office who are the custodians of public records, and witnesses, you may need to consider looking into another line of work.  If you alienate witnesses, they probably will not give you any information.

You have to be able to understand with whom you are dealing.  There are times a simple question and answer gets you the desired information for your case.  You need to know when to play nice and also when to be more forceful.  There are other times when you just need to lie to get the information you need.  I could have said it nicely that you need to “play a role” or use subterfuge or pretext, but we all know what is really going on. 

When you are working on an investigation, you will make many contacts.  These will be people that are connected to your case in numerous ways whether they are clients, witnesses, or suspects. Sometimes you will simply be dealing with members of the public who can provide information.

How are you going to get the facts and information you need if you cannot obtain co-operation from as many people as possible?  Remember that you are trying to bring your investigation to a successful conclusion. You need to have patience, good manners, diplomacy, and understanding. A suspect or witness who has been brow-beaten, scared, or annoyed by an impatient investigator has no value to you and will not add to the investigation.

Here are a few tips:

·         Be genuinely interested in others and make sure they know this

·         Be able to adapt to different personalities and circumstances

·         Communicate effectively with others

·         Be believable – even when you bluff

·         Motivate other people when needed

·         Understand the emotional strengths and weaknesses of others

·         Be sure to control your own emotions

·         Create friends rather than enemies – make sure people are happy to see you coming

Whatever you do - stay safe!

Pitfalls of the Lie Detector Part 2

Pitfall#2:  Polygraph examinations are based on a lie.  Well, really like a series of lies.

There have been no significant changes in the polygraph exam in  50 years.

One of the big pitfalls of lie detectors is that examinations are totally based upon deception by the examiner.  One thing the examiner will never admit to is that any and all “examinations” are interrogations.  Any interrogation is by nature confrontational and accusatory.  The examiner will not be honest with you about the methods being used on you.  You are being played right from the beginning.  You need to understand that the main objective of the polygraph exam is to extract damaging admissions from you.  If you admit to anything damaging the examiner will automatically deem that the examination was a success, and that you were deceptive.  This is the case whether you were deceptive or not.

In light of the above, if you are ever required to submit to a polygraph test (and hopefully you are not naïve enough to do this voluntarily) never, ever admit to any wrong doings or confess anything to the examiner or based on the examination.  Remember this: anything you say during a polygraph screening interrogation can and will be used against you. But guess what - unlike during regular criminal interrogations, our government denies you the right to have legal counsel present at a polygraph screening interrogation.  Just knowing that should be enough to keep you from ever volunteering for an examination.

Do not let them fool you – they (the examiners) are not that good at judging deception any more than any field investigator with a moderate amount of experience.  In reality, they probably are less reliable. How can I say that? In a test of 1,141subjects given polygraph examinations, less than 60% of these tests resulted in a correct decision rendered… (both) guilty and innocent.

So the facts are that polygraph examinations are just a little better than a 50/50 guess.  That is the scientific fact concerning these examinations.  But let’s look a bit more at some of the deception that goes on in some of these examinations.  In case you were wondering, results for blacks being examined are even worse!

Many (maybe all) examiners will use the polygraph as an interrogation tool. Almost always there is a “follow up interrogation” after the exam.  What they do is they ask subjects to explain why certain questions on the screening test might have disturbed them enough to cause a noticeably different response. This is where the examiner starts bluffing the test subject into giving some sort of damaging confession. In the stressful context of the polygraph examination, many people make the mistake of confessing damaging admissions. The people being examined often hope that after their conscience has been purged, they are thinking the polygraph will pronounce them truthful.  Little do they know that at that point it is too late. The problem is that these admissions and not the polygraph results are what almost always are used as the basis for not being recommended for employment.

All confessions to wrong doing – no matter how insignificant, are considered a “trophy” for the examiner.  They will all say that confession is “proof” for the examination.  So, to repeat myself, never, ever admit to any sort of wrong doing in a polygraph examination. The smallest thing you admit to will be blown out of proportion.  This will have serious adverse career consequences.

Remember, whatever you do, Stay Safe!

The Pitfalls of the Lie Detector Part 1

Before anyone jumps on my case, I know that there is no “lie detector” but only a polygraph.  I understand the basics of how it works and the nature of the questions.  What this post is about is the idea that there are basic pitfalls in putting emphasis on the polygraph.

Pitfall #1:  Using the polygraph for pre-employment screening.  The reason this is a pitfall, is that this is actually the worst possible use of a polygraph.  The National Academy of Science studied the use of polygraph examination to determine if they were effective on screening security risks.  They found of course that they are not.   Specifically, they said “Basic science and polygraph research give reason for concern that polygraph test accuracy may be degraded by countermeasures, particularly when used by major security threats who have a strong incentive and sufficient resources to use them effectively. If these measures are effective, they could seriously undermine any value of polygraph security screening.” The real and important question to ask then is why does the government rely heavily, almost exclusively on the polygraph for security clearance?

What the National Academy of Sciences found was this: “There has been no serious effort in the U.S. government to develop the scientific basis for the psychophysiological detection of deception by any technique, even though criticisms of the scientific grounding of polygraph testing have been raised prominently for decades. Given the heavy reliance of government on the polygraph, especially for screening for espionage and sabotage, the lack of a serious investment in such research is striking.”

Now polygraph practitioners, or “examiners” will staunchly claim the validity and veracity of polygraph examinations.  Of course they do, this is their bread and butter.  Anyone that can be swayed by their arguments in reality is actually just gullible.  The whole essence of the use of polygraphs is the mystique that surrounds them.  Examiners and practitioners keep the way they operate the polygraph a closely held secret – supposedly so that people cannot learn to “beat” the polygraph.  As a matter of fact, if the examiner even merely suspects that the person being examined is using or attempting to use counter-measures – they are automatically assumed to be showing deceptive behavior.

The pre employment screening examination has to make the following assumption: that a person who is deceptive about certain undesirable past acts is at risk for committing different kinds of undesirable acts in the future.  First of all, there is absolutely no empirical scientific evidence that this indeed is true.  Secondly,  the examiner always can be totally subjective in their conclusion that the subject was deceptive.

There is a  simple fact that the “accuracy” of a particular examination depends upon the purpose of the test. This makes it unwise to assume that “accuracy” estimates calculated from data when the polygraph is used for a specific purpose, such as finding a perpetrator of a particular crime, can be in even the remotest way be applied to its use for pre-employment screening.  I put the accuracy in quotes, as whenever an examination takes place, and the examiner tells the subject that (s)he thinks the subject is deceptive on something, and then gets a “confession” the test is considered accurate and a success.  It does not matter if the confession was even true, real, or accurate.

Most of these tests are based on the principle of the “Control Question Test” or CQT. As you may or may not know, for the CQT to be valid, you first have to make two assumptions. If you are seeing the pitfall already, good for you. The first of these two assumptions requires that people who are innocent are more responsive to control questions than they are to relevant questions. The second assumption that is made is that guilty persons will respond more intensely to relevant questions than they do to the control questions. The fact that both of these assumptions are not necessarily true can be easily challenged.

By the time I end this series on lie detector tests, you will probably know more than you ever wanted to know about polygraph tests.

Whatever you do - stay safe!