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Free Cyber - Screening Questionnaire.
"Knowing the right questions" is your key to locating and identifying profiles on social networking sites.
IASIU Workshop Demonstrates 3-Step Process for Leveraging Social Media - (Claims Magazine - September 2010)
The popular use of social networking, micro-blogs, media sharing websites and mobile technologies offer a virtually unexplored resource for developing investigative leads and evidence during claims investigations for SIU investigators and data analysts.
Whether it is a claimant or insured sharing information about themselves, family, friends or associates; locating this information can be a daunting, frustrating and time consuming task. The costs associated with obtaining email addresses, mobile phone numbers, account aliases (screen names/user ID's) and other information needed to identify social networking profiles from fee based information brokers can be high, and sometimes outdated. Obtaining this information during the initial claim report or the early stages of the investigation process, and having that information readily available for research is the key to saving time, lowering costs and conducting effective investigations of an individual's "Internet Footprint".
A starting point series of questions, although not comprehensive, has been developed that will enable an investigator to gather the necessary information required for an in-depth search for social media profiles. They are designed not only to gather personal information for use in research, but, as a reminder of where potential digital evidence may be found, which in the past has often been overlooked.
The scope and level of questioning reached may rely upon the skill of the interviewer and the level of co-operation offered by the interviewee. Traditionally, individuals willingly provide answers to many of these questions in the "spirit of cooperation".
Click here to download a freely distributable copy of the "Cyber-Screening Guide".
Recently, two insurance fraud professionals—a private investigator, with more than 20 years investigative experience with expertise in computer forensics and an investigative lawyer with nearly 2,000 EUOs under his belt—combined their talents to create a simple cyber-screening questionnaire to aid insurance fraud investigators and their attorneys in the hunt for cyber evidence.
“This all began when I asked my colleague Mike Beagle of DiscoveryPro, Inc. to provide me with a basic list of ‘cyber-savvy’ questions I could use as a guide during EUOs. The moment I saw Mike’s 15-question cyber-guide, I realized every insurance fraud investigator in the country would benefit from it,” said attorney James W. Lewis of Lane, Alton & Horst, LLC, a law firm based in Columbus, Ohio.
Mike Beagle explained, “Although I gave Jim the tools he wanted, these questions are much better asked early in the claim investigation, well in advance of the EUO. The insured’s answers will typically provide the SIU with all the basic identifier information needed for an effective open-source internet investigation. The results can then be shared with field counsel in preparation for the EUO.”
“Effective cyber-screening and open-source cyber-investigating can position us to pursue internet evidence right into the EUO itself. Sometimes we’ll conduct our EUOs with WiFi or other internet access if we plan to question the insured about something posted on the internet. Mike also showed me ways to preserve our cyber findings as admissible evidence,” Lewis noted. “Also, the insured’s willful concealment or misrepresentation of cyber information can give rise to a separate defense to the claim, for example, where an insured claims property as stolen to his insurer but actually sold it on eBay or craigslist, and then lies about his user account name or past trades.”
“Certainly there are legal limits on the insurer’s use of cyber technology, especially in first-party claim investigations,” Lewis cautioned. “For example, I believe it is generally improper to use pretext internet identities to obtain ‘private setting’ information from an insured’s social networking website, like Facebook. If insurers and their private investigators are not prudent, one day we might see a new tort called ‘insurer bad faith invasion of privacy.’”
“Our seminar presentation and 15-question cyber-guide have been well received by SIU investigators and their attorneys, as well as forensic investigators, in Kentucky, Ohio and Florida, and we hope all our colleagues will take things to the next level through their professional organizations,” Beagle added.
James W. Lewis is a
lawyer with Lane, Alton & Horst LLC, in