First of all using your credit card to pay for detective service is not a smart move. When your statement arrives in the mail the line item on your account will read “OnLine Detective Service”, “Web Investigator” or what ever the name of the detective company is. You run the risk that your spouse will see the statement, will access the account online or that the credit card bank will call one of the phone numbers associated with your account and ask if this was an intentional purchase. Imagine what kind of a conversation you will have with your supposed cheating spouse when the bank calls him about your purchase with Net Detective. Oh, sure you can change the passcode on the account so he cannot access it online but as soon as you do you better have a plausible explanation as your spouse will surely want to know why his access was denied. And I know the rest of you are the dutiful stay-at-home mom who retrieves the mail and you can screen everything that comes in. Well ask yourself this: are you willing to risk blowing your case before you begin? Besides, if he wasn’t cheating and he sees the line item purchase he may decide to leave you before you can leave him.

Second, private detective agencies in 44 out of 50 States are required to have State issued licenses. Some of these States have reciprocal agreements, others do not. Of the remaining six, two require business licenses and two require permits for certain cities and municipalities. Can you be certain the online investigation service you hire fits into at least one of these categories? Will they provide their State of licensure and license number for you to research them and see if they are legitimate? Have you been able to reach a live person to speak with and not a chat window with an innocuous person on the other side answering your questions from a script? There are many fly-by-night detective services across the nation, online and across the globe that simply take your money, have no licensure or training and provide little to no information in return. A lot of people talk a good game, but the bottom line is in all 50 States that impersonating licensed private detective or operating as a private investigator is illegal. Information that is not legally obtained is not admissible in a court of law. Now ask yourself this: is the information I need worthy of a licensed detective or should I just settle for a rip-off artist or possibly, a hacker?

Third, and probably the most important thing to remember is that if you hire a detective service, online or otherwise who provides information directly to you, that information is not considered to be protected and must be divulged during interrogatories and depositions. If you hire Hunter Investigations through your attorney, Hunter Investigations becomes your attorney’s client and the information we obtain will be provided directly to your attorney. This process is practiced by reputable detective and law firms in all 50 States because it keeps the information protected under attorney-client privilege. This means you can obtain information discretely through your attorney, your credit card statement will not reveal that you have hired a detective because payment can be made through your attorney in cash.

If you are considering using a detective service opt for a licensed private investigations firm instead. Call Hunter Investigations, 770.667.7467 and let a licensed investigator speak with you about your concerns. We will be glad to set a time to meet with you in person and give our professional opinion as to whether or not you should be considering investigative services. Sometimes there are simple answers that are being overlooked and our trained detectives are here to help you make that determination. You, the Client, have the right to sit face to face or, at the very least, speak with a live person before spending your money. At Hunter Investigations the first half hour consultation is free. In addition, Hunter Investigations LLC has our license number posted on our website and any of our licensed detectives or office staff will be more than happy to provide the Agency licensure number at your request.

Save yourself time and money; call Hunter Investigations LLC: 770.667.7467. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

I stayed at a three star hotel this week on the west coast. As I was checking in I noticed a user at the computer doing exactly what I was going to do next: check in for his next flight. The hotel computer was situated where I could even see the website which he was logged in on: Delta, the same one I was fixing to visit. I heard the printer and watched the user retrieve his boarding pass. What convenience. The travel-powers-that-be have actually done something helpful for us. There he goes; now it’s my turn.

Within five seconds I was at the Delta website and the first thing I noticed was the previous user – the guy who just left with his boarding pass in hand – had not logged out. Wow, it’s all right here staring me in the face: his name Roger – I’ll leave out the last name, his sky miles number 203… and the miles in his account with more than 628,000. Roger hasn’t got a clue that he’s left me, a total stranger, access to his flyer account. What did I do? I logged out of the airline website for Roger and signed out of the session.

But here’s is what could have happened:

With these miles a person could book a flight to Hawaii, stay on Waikiki, get a rent car, tour the island and go whale watching all on Roger. While still in his account they may even send flowers to Aunt Martha who is in the hospital recuperating from surgery. Don’t want a vacation? No problem, with just a few clicks they could stoke up on gift cards to your favorite restaurant, movie theatre or retail store. It’s all right there on Delta.com you can find some way to spend the miles you have earned. Some vendors have no conversion fees, you just pay with miles and give them an address where to send the cards – or better yet go to the vendor’s website, download the gift card and print it. Either way in a few clicks of the mouse all of the miles Roger is saving to surprise his wife with a European vacation for their anniversary are gone.

Chances are good that Roger’s not going to even go to the airline website until he’s ready to check in for his next flight – which may be days, or weeks away. By then when he actually notices his flyer miles account is empty there is not much that can be done.

If you’re thinking: that can’t happen because when it comes time to present a credit card to pay for the junk fees the card won’t match Roger and the transaction won’t go through. Wrong. Believe it or not some airlines allow you to store your credit card information on their website for your convenience. If no credit card data is stored, the airlines only ask for: the credit card number, a billing address and the security code that match the card you have presented. From there the vacation is on Roger.

So why did this happen?

More than likely Roger just went up to the box in the top right corner of the window and clicked the X. This only closed the window – his personal session on Delta.com remained active until it timed out. It takes approximately twelve minutes of inactivity for the average airline, banking or retail website to automatically log out due to inactivity. In the mean time, when Delta.com was pulled up from the same computer before the automatic log out was activated Rogers session reappeared.

Still don’t get it?

It’s about internet security. Most people do not realize that when you log in to a website your personal session remains active until you log out or until the website times you out. If you X out of your session you are relying on the website to automatically time you out before a thief finds your unprotected, active session. That’s right, the thief does not have to be at the hotel using the same computer you were.

Roger did not log out, and he, like many of you, did not even consider that someone could come along before the website automatically times out your session and actively use your account. Thieves have computer programs that search cyberspace for unprotected active sessions on random websites; often times that is how internet accounts become compromised. Once they have stolen your active session it’s only a matter of time before they decode your password, enter your account at their leisure and wreak what ever kind of havoc they desire.

So what do you do, quit using the hotel computers?

Using the hotel computer is fine as long as you are smart about it. The most important thing to remember when you are using any public computer is to:
1.   Log out of your personal session from which ever website you are visiting;
2.   Sign Out from your session on the public computer; and
3.   Reverse the process to check and make certain your session is not still active.

Roger? You are welcome.