The insured's Facebook profile was located, however he listed his residence as Puerto Rico and his profile only gave us cover and profile photos. After performing the necessary database searches, the digital investigation began. The insured was sent multiple letters to his last known address, multiple calls were made without response and cold calls to known residential history were unsuccessful in locating the insured.
Let's take a look at two real world examples to show how different information leads an investigator to use different techniques when locating a subject.Įxample 1: In this instance, an insurance company needed an insured driver to be located as litigation was pending and cooperation was paramount. The method applied to each case should be unique as a result. Much like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two data-sets on a subject are the same.
Today's digital sleuth needs to not only know how to find the information, but be asking him or herself the right questions to ensure all of the available information of obtained. To be effective, simply being an expert in social media OR traditional investigative methods is not enough to yield a high success rate when locating subjects in a desktop capacity. The digital tools used to trace individuals are readily available for anyone to use, however it is those who have the combination of traditional investigative knowledge and technical know how who will succeed without leaving the office. In today's society, Carmen Sandiego and her henchmen wouldn't stand a chance. With the evolution to the internet, social media and cell phones turning into pocket sized computers, the way in which a seasoned "Gumshoe" performs a locate investigation has changed dramatically. Thanks to the tools available today, the world has become much smaller and people have become much more accessible, if you follow the clues and use the tools correctly that is. The world was much larger as the tools at hand were cold calls, pre-texting, canvasses and hard nosed investigations. Back then, finding Carmen Sandiego would have been a timely and expensive task for any seasoned "Gumshoe". In the 90's finding a subject of interest was much more difficult than it is today as the Internet was just being invented and skip tracing was the only viable means to locate a subject. The show's primary purpose was educational as the questions taught geography, math, history and language arts, however the underlying task and hand is locating subjects.įrequently in the insurance industry we need to play our own real life game of "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?".
For those who did not watch the show or don't recall the premise, 3 contestants who were referred to as Gumshoes (how awesome is that!?) answered a series of questions throughout the show in an attempt to locate Carmen Sandiego's henchmen. Ah yes, a classic children's game show that was loved by many 90's kids, myself included.