Posts Tagged ‘Private Investigator’

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FTC Warns Marketers That Mobile Apps May Violate Fair Credit Reporting Act

By Dawn in Background Checks, Criminal Records, invasion of privacy, Privacy, Private Investigator, Screening at February 9th, 2012 | No comments

Agency Sends Letter to Marketers of Six Apps for Background Screening

Personally, I am glad to see that these practices are being scrutinized (see my comments below).

The Federal Trade Commission warned marketers of six mobile applications that provide background screening apps that they may be violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FTC warned the apps marketers that if they have reason to believe the background reports they provide are being used for employment screening, housing, credit, or other similar purposes, they must comply with the Act.

The companies that received the letters are Everify, Inc., marketer of the Police Records app; InfoPay, Inc., marketer of the Criminal Pages app; and Intelligator, Inc., marketer of Background Checks, Criminal Records Search, Investigate and Locate Anyone, and People Search and Investigator apps.

According to the FTC, some of the apps include criminal record histories, which bear on an individual’s character and general reputation and are precisely the type of information that is typically used in employment and tenant screening. ”If you have reason to believe that your background reports are being used for employment or other FCRA purposes, you and your customers who are using your reports for such purposes must comply with the FCRA,” the letters say.

The FCRA is designed to protect the privacy of consumer report information and ensure that the information supplied by consumer reporting agencies is accurate. Consumer reports are communications that include information on an individual’s character, reputation, or personal characteristics and are used or expected to be used for purposes such as employment, housing or credit. Read the full article »

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Spying in the Name of Love

By Dawn in Cheaters, Cheating spouse, gps tracker, Infidelity, MSI Detective Services, stalking, Surveillance Services, Technology at February 2nd, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever wondered if your significant other or spouse is cheating and been tempted to play sleuth? People have been catching their spouses or boyfriends/girlfriends cheating for centuries, but it took some real effort. Nowadays, it has become so easy due to technology.

Thirty-three percent of dating couples and 37 percent of spouses — slightly more women than men — say they have checked their partner’s email or call history on the sly, according to a survey last year by the gadget shopping site Retrevo.com, which queried more than 1,000 people online. Among those under 25, almost half reported snooping. Just 9 percent discovered evidence of cheating.

Retrevo.com spokeswoman Jennifer Jacobson said she doesn’t think young couples are less trusting. “It’s just that technology has made everyone’s communications highly accessible and people probably don’t see it as a violation of trust, because of how easy it is to do.”

When Patricia Masterson’s boyfriend broke into her email account in search of evidence that she had been cheating, she was deeply offended by the violation of her privacy. The fact that she had, indeed, been cheating hardly seemed like a good excuse.

She changed her tune 10 years later, when, married and pregnant, Masterson innocently spotted a text message on her husband’s cellphone from a woman regarding a baby. Her husband said it must have been sent to him by mistake, and Masterson, sensitive to privacy, left it alone — until a few months later, when the woman contacted Masterson through Facebook to reveal she’d recently given birth to her husband’s child.

Masterson said, “I became a snooper.” She poured through cellphone records and installed software to recover deleted emails, gathering all the details she could. “It was so not me; up until that point I had believed in absolute privacy.”

When, if ever, is it OK to invade a romantic partner’s privacy? Many say it’s often the only way to confirm suspicions of infidelity when all else fails. I am not sure what “all else” includes – asking and hoping for an honest answer? Hiding behind closed doors and eavesdropping on phone conversations? Following your partner? Hiring a private detective to perform surveillance on your partner? Place a GPS tracker on their car? Read the full article »

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Man Gets 26-Year Jail Term for 17 Years of Stalking

By Dawn in harassment, Home Security, Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Private Investigator, Safety, Security, stalking, Stalking Cases at February 1st, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

This story sounds like a bad Lifetime movie – a suspense/drama thriller that goes beyond the norm of what “normal” people will do. I can’t imagine how this poor woman has lived out such a real nightmare for so many years.

A Seattle-area man was given a 26 1/2-year prison term for waging a 17-year campaign of harassment against a former classmate he met in middle school. Prosecutors are calling this the longest sentence for stalking in memory.

Shawn Moul, 31, passively accepted the sentence last week which came about six months after being convicted on two felony counts of stalking and 19 counts of violating anti-harassment orders.

Moul began stalking classmate Tracy Lundeen in 1994, shortly after Lundeen saw him at the school library struggling with his homework and offered to help him. Lundeen said Moul began following her and wrote her more than 100 letters, alternately threatening her and vowing to kill himself. He also contacted Lundeen’s family members, demanding that she contact him.

Moul has already served prison time for repeatedly violating a no-contact order, having been sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001. Apparently, eight years wasn’t enough to teach him a lesson because after his release, he again initiated contact through Lundeen’s sister. Read the full article »

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Va. College Student Visiting NYC Vanishes

By Dawn in Locate Investigations, Missing Persons, Missing Persons Investigations, MSI Detective Services, Private Investigator at January 12th, 2012 | No comments

Ian Burnet

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Burnet studies engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. He came to New York City to celebrate the New Year holiday with friends and has been missing since Dec. 30 – no one has heard from him. Sources say the 22-year-old has a history of suicide attempts, according to NBC New York.

Ian left his Richmond, Va., home the day after Christmas and took a bus to New York. He was planning to rent an apartment for a week with friends, authorities said.

According to The New York Daily News, Burnet’s last known contact was a text with a friend on Dec. 30. He was seen that afternoon at the apartment where he had been staying on 139th St. and Riverside Drive. He left without his cell phone and did not say where he was going.

Ian’s mother, Nancy Burnett, said, “It’s completely out of character. We have no reason to think that he would do something like this.” The last time she heard from her son was via text on Dec. 27, after he visited Central Park, she said.

Concerned family and friends utilized Facebook and the online community Reddit to spread the word about Burnet’s disappearance. Burnet’s older brother Jamie, a Reddit user, responded to one user who asked, “Have you ever thought he DOESN’T want to be found?” and said, “Yes. There’s a very real possibility that he took his own life, and I’m trying not to think about it. He has a history of depression, and there have been scares before. But he didn’t leave any last messages behind, which would be extremely uncharacteristic … I’m hoping that’s not the case.” Read the full article »

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