Forbes’s Walter Pavlo, who dedicates his column to white
collar-crime, has an eye-opening piece on how fraud examiners are using social
media to gather information on targets.
The column centers on a meeting in Las
Vegas of the Association of Fraud Examiners.
The article makes the point that frequently people enjoy
bragging about their interests on social media sites, such as Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest.
Investigators are able to observe what individuals are claiming on
social media and reconcile that same information with the target’s apparent
means. As the piece observes, “Bill in
Accounting”, ‘who makes $100K/year is tweeting about his new Ferrari.” Obviously, a red flag.
The four key areas for consideration related to the
performance of an online investigation include:
·
finding out where people are claiming to spend
their time;
·
assess a person’s “Likes” and “Dislikes”;
·
look for clues to determine other social media
sites the target is visiting; and
·
see who people are following and being followed
by and look for conflicts of interest.
Pavlo’s piece underscores the double-edged nature of the
transparency social media brings with it.
As a society we might appreciate the effective way investigators utilize
tools to bring potential wrongdoers to justice, as individuals it may make us
inclined to look over our shoulders to see who is peering and wonder what their
motivation is.
You can read the full article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2013/06/25/criminals-beware-fraud-investigators-take-to-social-media/.
