Thailand Investigations Blog
Do You Want to Know the Truth?

This is the continuation of last week’s post. This really happened in real life, but all the names have been changed.

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In short, Jenny had been running another scam with the intent of cheating people and running off with their money as a contingency plan so she could afford to leave her job. The scam she pulled off in the past was exactly the same as the one she pulled off with Arnold and everyone else – they knew her for a couple of years, had common friends, and it was that friendship that she exploited

to gain everyone’s trust and have them invest in her scheme. It also helped that she was showing the supposed “gains” from her business endeavors – a new luxury car, a condominium unit – things Arnold and Je

nny’s other friends took to be signs that her business was

the real deal.

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And when while all of this was happening, they couldn’t seem to find a concrete answer from her on when they could have their money back. Many had only managed to recoup about 20-50% of their investment at most, and they wanted their money back. Jenny had a lot of reasons for excusing meetings among the business partners – she was sick and was confined in a hospital (but she refused to say which), that she was investigating her contact at the dock to help get the money back. All these excuses did not hold any water for long, especially when the others were alerted to the findings of my agency.

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It was immediately decided to inform all the proper authorities that were involved to enable the speedy capture of Jenny and to prevent her from fleeing Thailand. I cannot go into the details of the investigation done by the official people, but suffice to say that at least Jenny is in the hands of local authorities and her fate is still being decided as we speak.

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Arnold has no idea when he’ll get his money back, or if he’ll even get back a single cent at all. Jenny has promised him and other victims that she would return at least their total investment with her, and still claims that her contact at the docks was the one who was to blame for the whole mess.

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If only somebody had bothered to check on the authenticity of her claim before agreeing to invest in her business. While this case is what I’d call a bit in the extreme, as it is unusual for someone to invest years into a friendship and just coldly steal everything away. Nevertheless, in whatever business endeavor your plan to invest money in, it is always prudent to have it looked into first before plunging in. Many get blindsided by the promises of large profits and simply do not bother to have the legitimacy of a business checked out before investing their hard-earned money. It’s a shame. Remember that business is business and professionalism and all the other aspects of running and being part of that business need to be largely separate from any personal relationship.

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This is a true story of how a simple background check could have saved Arnold and his friends. The names have been changed. I’m splitting this story into two parts to give you a detailed retelling of events.

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Arnold (not his real name) had known Jenny (not her real name) for about four years or so. They were not friends at the beginning – they simply met at social gatherings for businessmen and it so happened that Arnold knew the guy the Jenny was dating at that time.

Of course, as time passed, they go to know each other better and became good friends. Arnold wasn’t exactly rich, but he knew how to take care of his money and spend wisely, which was why he had a considerable amount of money put away. But let’s get back to the story. Jenny was an executive at an international bank in Thailand and Arnold was a manager at the Thailand office of an international firm.

When Jenny first approached Arnold with the idea of setting up a business between her, himself, Tod, her then fiancé, and a number of other investors, Arnold wasn’t quite sure. After all, it would require him to take a hefty chunk of money out of his nest egg, which he had conscientiously fed – every paycheck saw a sizable amount of money automatically go into his savings. What Jenny was proposing was an import business, where they would import certain electronics like TVs and the like, and sell them to local suppliers in Thailand. Jenny presented complete documents and said that she had a contact at the docks who would facilitate the whole business.

Well, Arnold thought, Jenny was someone he knew for four years, and he also knew the other people who were going into the business with them, who were also old friends of theirs. Jenny proposed a 20% return on investment, with her handling everything. And with Arnold’s busy schedule and all, just handing over the money and letting Jenny do all the logistics was a perfect arrangement. So with that last straw, Arnold finally gave in.

It was good for the first couple of months, as returns were high, and Arnold believed that he and his friends had stumbled upon a good and lucrative business. Everything changed though, when Jenny suddenly announced one day that her contact at the docks had run away with their invested money and they had no goods. First he gave her the benefit of the doubt, but a number of their other friends were immediately suspicious and hired my firm to investigate the matter. We easily found out that Jenny had been running a scam, a Ponzi scheme – where the investor’s money was being used to pay them, and no actual business was going on, with Jenny siphoning off a significant amount of money to offshore accounts. We also found out that she had be embroiled in a similar case in her home country (without the knowledge of her bosses, of course), and used her appointment to Thailand as a means to escape the people pursuing her. The case was just about to reach the bosses when Jenny started the whole scheme and asked Arnold and co. to join her in her “business”.

A client asked me, as we had just finished a big case together, whether I liked what I was doing. I told her that my answer was much more than just a simple yes or no, and I asked her to instead read this blog so I could explain myself and my answer better (shameless plug. LOL).

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My answer is both yes and no. Yes, because, I like helping people. Being able to stand at the end of a case where an honest businessman sees his dishonest business partner or manager hauled off to jail for defrauding and stealing from him; seeing an honest husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend finally find out the truth for themselves and stand back and walk away from a lie; seeing two people reunited after so many years apart – all these things give me a reward that is much more than just the check for services rendered. It is a joy beyond words, a fulfillment I feel I or anyone else can ever fully describe. Another thing that makes me like this job is that it makes me think – well, of course, so does many other jobs, but there is something about the chase and the puzzles and the clues that just click with me. It’s the same when I was still working for the police force. In any case regardless of the difficulty, there are so many factors to consider and so many elements that come into play that I find fun to sift through and process to get to know the truth. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy work, but I feel that at the end of the day, it’s worth it.

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No, because there are unpleasant aspects to this job that not everyone can stomach. It’s disgusting to deal with somebody your gut tells you is a liar and a cheat and you smile and calm yourself with the thought that the reason you’re talking to him or her is so you can ultimately catch him or her and put a stop to whatever he or she is doing. It is by no means pleasant to tell an honest man or woman that he or she is being cheated on, by a spouse or a partner or a business associate. It is not pleasant to see their pain and their suffering.

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But all in all, I cannot see myself doing anything else beside this. I cannot see myself in any other field. Like any other job, there are ups and downs highs and lows, rewards and problems. But for me, this is not simply another job, a career that is defined by numbers and statistics – this is, for me, a calling. This is what I am good at and this is what I feel I am meant to do today, tomorrow and the coming years.

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To my client, this is my answer, and I hope I have answered adequately. I’m not really one to say much, much less write much – unless it’s doing fieldwork or jotting down notes. And again, I am glad that our case turned out favorably for you, and I thank you for trusting us to do the job for you.

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I’ve recently had a client who made the mistake of getting himself caught while personally investigating the suspicions he had about his current Thai girlfriend. He told me that he was still suspicious of her, despite her denial and projection of guilt on him for not trusting her. He approached me because he had heard of me and was told that we were good in accomplishing our jobs.

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Now, work efficiency aside, many people have committed grave errors by letting themselves get caught while “investigating” a spouse or child or girlfriend. This result in the subject, becoming more guarded and cautious of ever indeed he or she is guilty, thus making them harder to catch. On the other hand, if they are NOT guilty, you put an unnecessary strain on your relations with them as they are bound to frown on the suspicion and mistrust you placed on them.

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Sometimes people, like my recent client, prefer to handle things themselves to enable to contain things and to be able keep things quiet. The real problem with this though is that never do any of these people realize that they do not have the required skills and equipment to make them stealthy and discreet in the first place. It takes years of experience in different environments to know how to blend in and not get caught. Investigation is much harder work than anyone can imagine which requires dedication as well as a high level of alertness so even when surprised, you are still able to avoid any suspicion pointed in your direction.

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This is where the pros come in. It’s always better to hire a good private investigation agency to do all the work for you instead of blundering up by yourself. It may seem to be the obviously pricier version of getting the job done yourself, but at least you don’t have to worry so much about getting caught. Besides good PIs have a lot of experience they draw from in order to fit in, especially in this country where tall men are rare, and a majority of those being westerners. In short, good PI work is guaranteed to give more accurate results while minimizing the risk to you physically.

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Some tips to follow when suspicious:

1. Act normal. The most obvious giveaway is when you change your approach and attitude to a person in a short span of time. Always pretend that everything’s normal. It’s a hard task, but very necessary.

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2. Immediately consult with a reputed private investigation agency, not just some dumb fly by night operation. The earlier you get in touch with the agency, the earlier you case can be resolved. Follow their instructions to the letter.

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3. Be mature. Needless to say, you need to discard any emotional clues that you’re hiding. And also, try to weigh things regarding whether to confront the person in question all at once? Don’t go rushing in like some young, wild animal.

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As long as the pros are around, you don’t need to keep working everything by yourself. Hiring pros is a more practical approach to confirming a suspicion, which will be sure to make you sleep better at night.

The previous posts comments have driven me to dedicate a post to secretly monitoring conversations and correspondence of various people.

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Some, like one of those who commented in the previous post, believes it to be unethical to put monitoring devices and programs into computers and mobile phones, and I think it is safe to assume that this opinion carries over to the use of a GPS tracking system. He raises issues about trust, and how doing these things can compromise a relationship between business partners and other members of the family or a partner or spouse.

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I will admit that his points do have some merit in them, but as I said, monitoring isn’t for everyone. Some people enjoy that sorry of relationship where they feel that they have nothing to worry about whether with their business partners, spouses or girlfriends / boyfriends, or other family members. I never said that everyone needed to monitor the people around them. But inversely, there are people who need to do exactly just that. Sometimes people get this feeling that there is something wrong going on behind their backs, and they have the right either to confirm or refute theirs suspicions. Many times, early detection of any wrongdoing can save a business or a marriage. In the case of children, it is always important to have a hand in their well-being. Monitoring programs on their mobile phones will keep them safe and allow you to know if they are being unknowingly abused by other people. I remember a case where a little girl killed herself because she was bullied online by another person. Imagine if the parents had monitoring software – the bullying would have been nipped in the bud. The internet especially, while being a vast repository of useful knowledge that can educate all of us, also houses the lowest denizens of society who use the World Wide Web for their own means. Children and even teenagers are incapable of drawing the line between what websites to go to and what kind of people they should talk to online. It’s important for parents to step in to prevent any untoward incidents.

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In the end, monitoring is a personal choice. In the same way we never force anyone to procure our services, we do not say in any form or manner that everyone should start monitoring the people around them. It is simply a contingency for emergencies (in the case of children, most especially) and confirmation for suspicions in other cases. The data we collect through these devices will not only confirm or refute any suspicions you have, but also can serve as legal proof if in case there is indeed any wrongdoing being committed against you. If you feel that you don’t need to have these programs installed, then good for you that you have peace of mind. But there will always be instances where steps must be taken to find out what the truth really is.

A couple of posts ago, I detailed two of our new services – a monitoring system for both mobile phones and computers. The great thing about this system is that it really provides loads of protection for you and your family, as well as your business. Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes, and in this case it couldn’t be truer. Many sorts of misdeeds and lies can be caught using this monitoring device, and provides basic protection for your family members and business as well.

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One example is a client who availed of the computer monitoring service for his business. He found out that the person he left in charge of his business here in Thailand was regularly taking money out of the business and tunneling it into a secret account. The monitoring software was able to find other proof of misconduct like using company resources to pay for porn subscriptions – all while supposedly looking after the business. It’s a good thing that this was caught early, or the business would have been beyond saving.

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Another example of using this mobile tracking and monitoring system is to keep yourself abreast of the whereabouts of your family members. As long as their phone is GPS enabled, you’ll be able to see where they are. This is especially useful in situations where a child is coming home late and in the worst case scenario, help prevent kidnapping, as you will be able to immediately trace the location of the family member in question. Mobile and computer monitoring will also help you to see if your children are being taken advantage of or are being bullied on the internet. The world wide web is a vast repository of useful information and entertainment, but there are also individuals and groups who seek to use the internet for unpleasant and downright evil intentions. Your children may not be able to guard themselves from this kind of predation, but through this technology, you yourself can step in and defend your family.

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In the case of an unfaithful spouse or partner, you can immediately determine what kind of correspondence he or she is having through his or her mobile phone. You (or the private investigation agency you hire) will be able to further investigate the people he or she is talking to and the places he or she goes to so that more solid evidence can be collected and any illegal activity against your person can also be prevented or put to a stop. One client found out that he was about to be burglarized by the accomplices of his current partner through the mobile phone monitoring system we installed for him.

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What’s more, the evidence and data you collect from these monitoring devices can be used as evidence should you decide to pursue a criminal case against these people. These kinds of leads also help private investigators pursue a case further and makes the whole process easier and smoother, leading to a good and solid resolution of the case. It pays to be in the know.

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A great deal of the cases we get deal with trust, or more accurately, the lack of it. People who want to verify if their spouse or partner is cheating on them, people who want to look into the history and daily activities of a suspicious business partner, people who want to find former business associates who’ve stolen from them – you get the picture. Much of what’s written here, a mere fragment of what we experience, deals with having you know whether or not to trust someone – or at the very least, safeguard yourself just in case a particular person does turn out to be trustworthy. We could go on and on here, citing case after case after case of violated and betrayed trust.

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One of the things I’ve noticed is that many become victims because they look for trustworthy people in the wrong place. I have nothing against girls who work at go-go bars in general – I know many of them are really just trying to earn good money that they wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere, short of mugging someone – but really, when a go-go girl offers to give you your wildest fantasy outside of what you expect them to do, then you should think twice. We’ve seen time and again how that stupid male testosterone-induced illusion of being a knight in shining armor, a saviour, a sort of Messiah even, can just pull someone into the biggest nightmare he’s ever experienced in his whole life. Why not be satisfied with a familiar relationship that doesn’t have to develop into an overly deep emotional connection? We’ve seen men who develop a familiarity towards a certain girl, but they know where their boundaries lie – and that’s far from trusting them with the combination to your safe or the PIN to your ATM, or even a credit card.

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Good relationships are hard to find. Realize that, and whatever happens to the contrary is rare and an exception to the rule. If you want to find a good, honest and genuine relationship, don’t look in places where intimacy is a commodity.

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Another reason why people get fooled is because they rush into things. People who actually sit down and objectively assess a situation are rarely victimized be “enterprising” individuals. Haste is waste, they say. Of course, there are times when despite of thinking things through, incidents of betrayal still happen, but when you don’t think about something well, the greater chance of it happening to you.

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Sadly, trust is not something you can dispense with and distribute like the change in your pocket. It’s really important, and should not be given to anyone that easily. So always be careful with the people whom you trust and what you trust them with. One reader said it best: keep your cards close to your chest. Always leave something for yourself. Discipline yourself to be in control of your emotions, to have your head do the talking first before letting the heart consume everything.

I believe I’ve asked that question here before. Many men make the mistake of placing their trust in the wrong person. How many lives and businesses have gone down in flames and ruin after a very important trust was betrayed?

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Whenever you start a new relationship, whether a business one or a personal one, establishing if you can trust the person is always important. One of the ways you can do this is by doing a background check to determine a person’s history, his or her affiliations, and so on. It’s essential you know if you can trust a person with your business or your money and your feelings before you actually go about doing it.

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And with the advent of modern technology, there are certain tools at our disposal that will help you monitor things like movement and transport – which is done through the real time tracking capability of the GPS tracker – as well as programs you can use to monitor phone usage, as well as computer and internet use. These programs leave no stone unturned in your quest for truth.

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If you have suspicions that your business partner is stealing from you or your partner is cheating on you, the best thing to do is to act swiftly so that you can at least minimize the damage being done to you. The GPS real time tracking device will give you real time tracking data which monitors where the target vehicle goes and how long it stays there, while phone and computer monitoring programs track calls, and internet use, as well as other software programs being used. So you’ll know if your girlfriend is setting up a meeting with her other lover and / or planning to rob you blind. You’ll know if your business partner is setting up a secret bank account where he or she funnels in the money being taken from your business. Take advantage of the technology at your fingertips. If there’s nothing fishy going on, then you can sleep better at night without being nagged by those suspicions of yours. But if there is indeed wrong doing being done, then you have, at the very least, concrete evidence to confront the person or have basis for a deeper investigation on them and on their activities.

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Another thing I’ve said before: IT ALWAYS PAYS TO KNOW. Ignorance is NOT bliss. It’s devastating and debilitating. And the worst thing about it is that you only feel it when it’s too late, when the damage is irreversible and irreparable. You could be losing a lot just by insisting that there’s nothing going on. Have you heard of the saying that “regret comes only at the end”? Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t let yourself be the person that reels in shock not only at the betrayal, but at the extent of the damage that’s been dealt to you. You deserve to know the truth and you deserve to know it NOW.

You and your girlfriend have just finished breakfast. You begin to wash the dishes, but at the corner of your eye you see her talking with somebody on her cell phone with muffled tones. Later on you ask her about it; she just shrugs and tells you it was Vanessa, her friend at work. You let it go; after all, you have made an agreement to avoid arguing over the simplest things. Plus, you know how much she hates to be nagged. So you just settle on telling yourself that, after all, you can trust this woman. She can’t possibly be cheating on you.

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Or can she?

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Does this scenario sound familiar? If it does, then you probably also know what could follow: long, sleepless nights as you wonder about her faithfulness; furtive glances at her as she continues to communicate with an unknown somebody on her cell phone; “casual” investigation of her stuff to see if you can uncover anything that could give you a definite answer. If this goes on too long, your relationship just might not survive the strain of all this mistrust. Plus, you don’t need this added stress in your life – for all you know it might after all turn out to simply be paranoia on your part.

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Why don’t you save yourself all this ceaseless worrying and just know the truth once and for all? If you’re wondering how to do this short of asking her outright, then be thankful that the technology that you need is available, and for very reasonable market prices.

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We offer a program that could enable you to gain access to more information regarding your girlfriend’s (or any person you want, for that matter) activity. What can you expect from this program? Perhaps its most valuable feature is that it enables you to listen to all phone calls that the target mobile phone makes or receives. You’d also know the phone call details, such as the number, the time and the duration, along with the name it is assigned to in the target mobile phone. Apart from this, you could also read all text messages and email that go in the mobile phone, in short, virtually any activity that takes place in the phone.

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Other benefits that this program provides are the following: access to the phone’s exact coordinates (that is, if the target phone has GPS), ability to to listen in to the phone surroundings when the phone is not in use, and the peace of mind that all this is completely undetectable.

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Another good news is that it’s easy enough to operate. All you’d have to do is to give us the phone that you are targetting and leave it with us for 30 minutes so we can program in the software. After that time period, you’d have enough access to all activities of the phone that it becomes practically yours. It then becomes our job to monitor the phone at all times, and to send you regular reports regarding all its activities. Note though that only select mobile phones can usually be supported by these spyware; contact us for more information on this.

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Imagine the advantages that this program could offer you in whatever situation. If you’re a parent they could help you monitor your kids more closely and to safeguard them from possible danger; if you’re a husband or wife this program could help you erase any doubts about your spouse’s faithfulness, or if they are unfaithful, the definite knowledge of this could help you determine what to do next.

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It’s simply wise to take all precautionary measures available to protect yourself, your relationships and your family. Don’t kill yourself with anxiety and doubt; there are smarter, more constructive ways to save your relationships, and quite possibly it all starts with knowing the truth.

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Being as prepared as possible for any kind of situation is always well worth the time and effort it entails. Let’s face it: bad things could happen anytime, and our ability to cushion its effects would likely depend on whether we have seen it coming and have thus prepared for it. For example, seeing your loved one sprawled on a floor after having suffered from a heart attack is not the perfect time to start learning about CPR; that learning should have happened a long time ago.

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The fact of the matter is, many bad things could happen. Now there are different ways you could deal with this: you could get paranoid and simply worry, you could shrug it off and then suffer from regret later, or you can take steps to prevent it.

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One very real source of these dangers is the Internet; you’ve probably heard horror stories of teenagers being harassed or even kidnapped by their Internet stalkers, or of spouses being addicted to online porn. Those are even just the moderate cases. The saddest thing about these kinds of situations is that the destructive effects it brought about could have been prevented if only somebody else had been aware of it once it started. To reiterate; a spouse doesn’t “fall in love” with his or her online chatmate at the first time they communicate; it takes about several months of contact before this happens. That gives the other spouse enough time to be aware of it and thus take positive action. Remember: being aware of what is going on within your home is the key. Now the important question is, do you know what your family members are doing in the Internet?

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The answer depends on you. You have to know that it is now possible to monitor Internet activity without actually having to peer over your family members’ shoulders all the time (which is impossible, and very annoying besides). We can sell you software that enables you to see as much as you need to. The information you can have access to includes your family members’ chat and instant messages (the entire conversation) and e-mails. The program also enables you to know the all the usernames and passwords your family uses. You could know what they’re searching for in search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN; shopping for on eBay and Amazon; posting and communicating with in social networking sites like MySpace.

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Apart from all these, you can know everything they’re doing on applications like word processors, spreadsheets, games and presentations. If all that isn’t enough, know that this program could even enable you to dig into deeper detail such as exactly what websites they visit, what pictures and other content they view there, and how much time they spend browsing through it.

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This software comes in handy not only to ensure that your family is safe from any possible harm that the Internet poses. If you’re also a business owner and you’re smart enough to want to know if your employees are truly being professional and productive during their working hours, then by all means take advantage of this available technology.

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With the wide access to information that this software brings you, just imagine the peace of mind and control that it would bring you as well. You’d never have to spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about ‘what – if” scenarios; you’d be able to relax knowing that if anything goes wrong (at least with regards to computer activity), you’d know about it immediately and you’d be able to do something about it right away.

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Think about it: don’t you think your family’s safety and well – being (or your company’s productivity) is well worth your time and the money? Now is the time to consider it, and not when it’s too late.

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