Private Investigations

Stolen Identity Refund Fraud and LexisNexis TRIS Analytics

Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF) is a relatively new phenomenon in Indiana and across the US — an unfortunate fallout from the intended convenience of electronic tax filing with quick electronic refunds.  As Forensic Accountants and Data Mining Specialist headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, we are considered experts in this niche field.  We also fully understand the difficulty of investigating these matters and identifying those who are committing the crime.  In this article, we will explain what SIRF is and a new ingenious tool states are using to combat this financial crime.

Hire Private Investigators in Indianapolis

You’ve spent countless hours branding, marketing, and working in your Indianapolis business, but have you been proactive about protecting your company from fraud? Unfortunately, preventing fraud isn’t normally on someone’s mind—until they realize that thousands of dollars in revenue is missing. The forensic and private investigation services from Certified Fraud & Forensic Investigations can help you protect your company’s revenue and reputation from occupational fraudsters—employees that take advantage of their position to steal revenue. Contact us today if you think your company may already be a victim of fraud, or to learn more about how fraud can affect your organization.

Help Locate Missing Persons, Friends, and Relatives

There are many reasons you could need help to locate missing persons: You’re adopted and have always wanted to meet your biological parent(s).  Your childhood sweetheart moved away and you’ve always wondered whether it could have worked. Your wayward sibling left the house on bad terms and never made another contact. You lost a parent at a young age, and never met your aunts, uncles, or cousins. If you’re in any of these or other similar situations where you need help to locate missing persons, you’ve probably searched Facebook to no avail and asked everyone in your circle what they know about the person you’re looking for. 

Company Due Diligence and Background Checks

We recently took on an Indianapolis, Indiana client, “Susan,” that had an unforgettable experience with a repair contractor after a hailstorm damaged her home.  This blog will tell her story, and explain how Company Due Diligence and Background Checks can save you cash and spare you angst.

Background Checks and Interviewing

Hiring Advice from an Indiana Private Investigator It’s been said that human communication consists of 93% body language and 7% with words.  In this line of work, being able to distinguish between a lie and the truth becomes crucial.  The ability to properly read body language can be the difference in hiring an honest person or a stone-cold crook.  If you do a good job, your company may be paying big bonuses to your employees.  But if you fail, the company may be calling the bank to increase the size of your loan to cover the losses.  It is literally the difference between success and failure.

Identity Theft – Notes from a Private Investigator

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Security Threats In today’s era of computer espionage and high-tech identity theft, all businesses, governmental agencies, and private citizens should be aware that there may be bad people after private information.  As a forensic accountant and private investigator, I know that once your sensitive and private information is discovered by a fraudster, your life and business can become very difficult.  If you don’t have proper identity theft safeguards and internal controls in place, read on.  My goal is to encourage you to become more aware and proactive in changing some of your standard business practices so you don’t need to hire a forensic accountant or private investigator to clean up the damage from identity theft.  Background searches, computer forensics, and forensic accounting investigations that will determine who and how your bank accounts have been depleted are time consuming and costly.

GPS Tracking

One of our Indianapolis private investigators recently received a call from a parent who was planning a weekend vacation.  While the parent relatively trusted the teenage child, she wanted to keep a close covert eye on her daughter and her whereabouts.  Parents are rightfully concerned that their child could fall prey to a corrupt situation, and our GPS tracking system provided the parent with a peace of mind so she could enjoy her trip while keeping a current, live trace on her daughter’s location.

Hidden Assets

The Concern   “My spouse has been staying out late and receiving text messages at odd times of the night.  I’m concerned that he is planning for a divorce and maybe attempting to leave me without anything.”  If you’ve ever had a thought like this, you may be the target of a hidden assets scheme.

Background Checks – Know Your Prospective Employee

Part 1: Know Your Prospective Employee Our businesses are operating in a challenging environment, where we’re cutting costs anywhere we can to maintain profitability. How much harder would it be to remain profitable if there are hidden costs? Every day, trusted employees are stealing money right within the confines of their position. It could be enough to hurt your margin, or worse, drive you out of business. In this blog, I submit to you that one area you cannot afford to cut costs is on employment background checks. Companies must have employees on their teams who are honest and trustworthy. To reduce the risk of all sorts of deviant employment behavior, business owners should know their candidates by having background checks completed on all prospective employees. This is part 1 of a 3 series discussion on the importance of employment background checks.