Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency

BEPIA

Teenagers and Drugs

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Is Your Child Using Drugs ?

Many parents are caught unaware when they are told that their kids are using drugs. However, if you are an observant parent, you should be able to detect the slightest changes in your child that might be indicative of the fact that your child is on drugs.

It is however important to remember that teenage hormonal changes can also bring about such changes. You therefore need to be investigative before attacking the child for substance use.

Marijuana is increasingly a readily available and affordable drug for many teenagers. Some of the children might also get access to alcohol and heavier drugs such as heroin.

The Signs and Symptoms

When your child is abusing alcohol or drugs such as marijuana and heroin, there are signals that will tell you early something is amiss. By evaluating the symptoms and signs of drug abuse, you should be in a position to tell if there are any risks.

  • Missing money around the house or from your wallet or you might have noticed that the child is constantly asking for money. When an addiction is setting in, they will do anything to find money to go buy what they need.
  • Excessive use of mouthwash or mint to cover up the smell of drugs or alcohol is another sign. You might also notice that the child has a sudden craving for sweets indicating typical drug use swings.
  • To hide dilated pupils and bloodshot eyes, most children will be using eye drops more frequently. They might also start sporting sunglasses in an effort to hide these symptoms. The dilated pupils and red eyes are usual effects of marijuana use. Some will start pulling their head caps lower to hide their eyes.
  • Change in behavior is another sign that something could be wrong. Some will change their appearance, most probably to fit into the groups they are in. Some of the children will also tend to be ruder and more rebellious than usual. They might also require that you pay them before they can help with any chores around the house.
  • Dropping school grades can also indicate that something is not right. This is usually because they don’t concentrate in class or they are too occupied with other things they find more interesting.
  • Altered sleeping and eating habits are also very common in children abusing drugs. You might notice that they are sleeping more as a result of depressant drug use and have a reduced appetite. Some of them might end up with decreased sleep as a result of the stimulants they are under.
  • You might notice that your child’s bedroom is off limits strictly because they do not want you to find out what they are doing. They will also use sweet fragrances and perfumes to hide the smell of drugs and alcohol. Some will go for other materials that can evoke the high feeling. You therefore might find in their possession hairsprays, nail polish remover, nail polish and computer cleanser among other inhalants.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

 

Ponzi Schemes

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What is a Ponzi Scheme?

Charles Ponzi is infamous for scamming people. It is for this reason that fake schemes are often named after him. Ponzi would collect money from individuals in the name of investing in his own business. He would then pay investors high interest payments using the money obtained from new investors.

This type of investment fraud was one of the first and possibly due to its simplicity soon gained immense popularity with scammers.

Today, there are many variations of the Ponzi schemes, but they can be pretty hard to identify. Many people have continually fallen victim to these financial entrapments. The schemes lead to huge financial losses to the unsuspecting interested investors.

This makes it very important to be skeptical about any investment opportunity that is being sold to you. This should include anything that a family member or friend is trying to get you into. When you are cautious enough to conduct a research, you will be sure about what exactly you are betting your money on.  A few steps can help you in recognizing and avoiding a Ponzi scheme.

Check out Credentials

A background check of the individual approaching you with the investment idea is paramount in identifying a Ponzi scheme. You can look up the company details including registration and the years of existence. Brokers usually have business numbers and you can check them to see their records. It is a simple way to avoid being trapped by fraudulent schemes.

Use an Attorney

A contract is the most important document in any transaction or agreement. Since you might not be very familiar with everything entailing a contract, an attorney will help with the evaluation. It is important to avoid any transaction until your attorney has analyzed the contracts and given you the go ahead. A good attorney will pick anything fishy from the deal saving you lots of disappointments.

Be Cautious with Custodians

A broker who maintains investment accounts is referred to as a custodian. In a case where you are asked to direct a cheque in his name, you can be reasonably assured that something is wrong with the deal. A good deal will require you to direct a cheque to the rightful and legitimate custodial firm and not an individual.

Understand the Investment

Conmen (and women) are very clever with their words and investment explanations. You therefore need to be very careful in understanding the investment and how it works. If it appears too complicated for you to understand or if you feel it is being explained in a rush, then it could be a fake. You should only hand your money over when you are completely sure about the investment and how it will work for you.

Trust your Instincts

As soon as you feel uncomfortable about an investment idea being sold to you, walk away. When you feel something is wrong, then chances are that something is truly wrong. Many people fall victims to the Ponzi schemes for ignoring their first instincts. Always trust your gut feeling when making an investment.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

 

 

It’s Not a Free Reign for PIs

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Letters from a Private Investigator III

morality

Investigation Restrictions

The depiction of private investigators in media and entertainment can often make them seem like a villain or a criminal. They can go where they want, pry into other’s lives and collect sensitive information to be used as court evidence. It is rare that you can issue a restraining order against them. However, this is a picture sketched by popular culture. In reality, the situation is quite different. It is not a free reign for PIs. There are moral and legal issues that bind their hands. Their rights and privileges are no different than those given to an ordinary citizen.

Given is a list of things that a private investigator cannot do from the moral and legal aspect. It might vary from country to country.

The Moral and Legal Binds

  • Private investigators are not connected to government agencies. They function independently and gather sensitive information for attorneys or individual clients. As such, they are not allowed to wear any uniform, badge or any logo or phrasing that shows them as an associate of government agencies such as the police or Government officials.
  • A private investigator cannot arrest anyone. This is the duty of the police or other officials. This law is not uniform in all countries. In selected states in America for example, a private investigator can make an arrest in certain situations. This occurs when the person’s activities are endangering public life and property or in cases when the offense is witnessed. In some states, A PI is given the right to arrest a person provided he has a written arrest warrant.
  • Electronic surveillance is an important method of gathering information. However, as per the law, an investigator cannot monitor or tap phone conversations without the consent of the individuals involved. In some countries, an investigator has to acquire consent from any one of the persons whose phone is being wiretapped while in other countries it needs the consent of all the individuals whose telephone conversations should be recorded. The private investigator might also be required to obtain a legal warrant to tap somebody’s phone. However, if business is conducted in public and the private investigator is present there and he overhears your conversation that is considered legal.
  • A private investigator is liable for punishment if he trespasses an individual’s property during the investigation process. They cannot break into anyone’s house, property and building to secure information as evidence for court proceedings.
  • A private investigator cannot tamper with, open or destroy an individual’s mail be it postal messages or electronic mails. They also cannot monitor a person’s email from a remote location without permission.
  • If a private investigator’s work threatens the individual being monitored or if the person starts feeling unsafe and files charges against the agent, the private investigator is liable to answer the court about the intent of the surveillance. Such activities are usually considered to be stalking and not surveillance. The court regards them as having a criminal intent.
  • A private investigator cannot obtain protected information such as phone records, financial information and credit history without consent of the individual or legal permission. They can however investigate the location of the information. They can also investigate past criminal records in accordance with the applicable laws.
  • Not only this, when private investigators work, they respect the privacy of the individuals. They respect the moral values and consider the ethical considerations of every step they take. 

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency  (IPIA) along with our sister agency  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency  (BEPIA) are  fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Dealer or Beggar?

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Letters from a Private Investigator II

surrounded by sharks

The question sounds absurd at a glance. Back in the days, beggars would attract lots of sympathy as they used to be very genuine in their situations. This is however something that has changed with the passage of time. As needs surpass the available money and resources, many people have taken to begging but also use this as a means to cover up their main activity of selling (often illegal substances).

They pose as helpless homeless beggars. This is not to say that there are no genuine homeless people in great need. Unfortunately there are and the genuine homeless needy beggars still do exist.

However, it has just become very hard to distinguish between the genuine and the fake beggars. The fakers have come to ruin the day for the genuine beggars since people have refrained from giving their money to them.

The Fake Beggars

Most of them just want to have an easy life without working for it. They will choose a specific begging spot or move from place to place depending on where they feel they can make a kill or where they need to if they are peddling drugs.

Even though most large cities will get rid of beggars, they still find a way of getting what they want. Whereas there are very genuine needy street beggars, it has become very hard to tell who is who. This is especially so in cities which have been cited as notorious when it comes to the fake beggars.

Peddlers Disguised as Beggars

One of the problems today is that beggars have become an easy medium for the peddling of illegal substances. The street peddlers disguise as beggars only to wait for clients to come and buy what they have. This is usually a well-planned game with the buyers knowing the sellers quite well. Unless you have a very keen eye, it is hard to notice that anything has changed hands within a few seconds between the two parties. These kinds of beggars reap twice as much. This is because they still touch the hearts of sympathetic passer-bys who give them alms, and they also make a killing with the substances they are selling.

In some cases, they will play the role of a bridge between the illegal substance dealers and the large buyers. Since it can be very inhumane to mishandle beggars, they rarely get suspected of anything. They therefore make the trade very easy between the buyers and sellers. The only way police officers or security officers can manage to tell genuine and fake beggars is through close monitoring. In some cases, the beggars have been followed when going home only to discover that they live very posh lives.

The monitoring can be costly and tedious, especially since the beggars/peddlers are scattered in the cities. It also might not pay off when all the time has been spent monitoring one beggar only to find that indeed he or she was a genuine beggar. Most authorities issue warnings to visitors to beware of the beggars who can turn criminals, but nothing much can be done about the situation. 

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency  (IPIA) along with our sister agency  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency  (BEPIA) are  fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Big Brother is Watching You

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Tips from a Private Investigator III

Here are some common indicators that your home or office may have been bugged.  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) along with our sister agency Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) have a team of electronic surveillance device and counter-surveillance experts that can identify and disable surveillance devices. Please contact us if you fear you may be a victim of surveillance.

1) Strange sounds or volume changes on your phone

This is commonly caused by an amateur eavesdropper when they attaches the actual wiretap, or similar listening device. Surveillance devices often cause slight sound disruptions and differences on the telephone line.

2) Static, popping, or scratching on your phone lines

When two conductors are connected together (such as a bug or wiretap on a phone line) a “capacitive discharge” happens that results in this static, popping or scratching. This is also a sign that an amateur eavesdropper or poorly trained person is trying to access your phone lines.

3) Sounds come from your phones when it’s hung up

This is usually caused by a hook switch bypass, which turns the telephone receiver into a spy microphone (and also a speaker). There is probably somebody listening to everything you say or do within twenty feet of the telephone (if this is happening).

4) The phone often rings but nobody is there

This is a key sign of what is known as a “slave device”, or line extender being used on your phone line. There may also be only a very faint tone, or high pitched squeal and beep.

5) Strange interference on your radio or TV

Television broadcast frequencies are often used to cloak a eavesdropping signal. The difficulty for the person spying is that the devices they use also tends to interfere with a television or radio reception (usually a UHF channel).

Many amateur eavesdropping devices use frequencies within the FM radio band, these signals tend to “quiet” an FM radio near the bug.

6) Your house was entered but nothing was taken.

Eavesdroppers often break into a target’s home or office, and very rarely leave evidence of the break-in.

Occupants though have a feeling that something is not quite right.

Furniture may have been moved slightly for example. A very popular location for the installation of eavesdropping device is either behind, or inside furniture (sofa, chair, lamp, etc.)

7) Electrical fixtures seem to have been moved slightly

 One of the most popular locations to hide spying devices is inside, or behind electrical outlets, switches, and lighting fixtures.

Look for small amounts of debris located on the floor directly below the electrical outlet. Also, watch for slight variations in the color or appearance of the power outlets and/or light switches as these are often swapped out by an eavesdropper.

8) A very small discolouration has suddenly appeared on a wall.

This is a sign that a pinhole microphone or video camera has been recently installed.

Again you might also see a small amount of white powder either on the floor, or on the wall.

You may also notice small pieces of ceiling tiles, or “grit” on the floor, or on the surface area of counters and tables or desks.

This will be an indicator that a ceiling tile has been moved around, and that someone may have installed a hidden video camera or other eavesdropping device.

If you have items like a smoke detector, a clock or lamp yo may find they look slightly crooked or have a small hole in the surface.

These items are very popular concealment for covert spying devices and often when they are installed they are rarely installed straight.

9) People seem to know your activities when they shouldn’t.

This is the most common indicator, and often the loss of your secrets will show up in very subtle ways.

10) Your door locks suddenly don’t “feel right”.

Locks may suddenly start to get “sticky”, or they completely fail.

This is a good sign a lock has been picked, or manipulated with in some way.

Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) along with our sister agency Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) have a team of electronic surveillance device and counter-surveillance experts that can identify and disable surveillance devices.

BEPIA and IPIA are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Life of a PI

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Notes from a Private Investigator II

spy_travelling

No. It is not a title of the great book Life of Pi. It’s Life as a PI – a Private Investigator. As we know, the first and probably the founding father of the private investigation agency and detective services in Indonesia is BEPIA – Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency.

BEPIA then soon opened IPIA – Indonesia Private Investigation Agency. BEPIA or IPIA were the first and probably the founding fathers of private investigation agencies and detective services in Indonesia.

Before I joined I kept asking myself  where do they get their workers? Who could be a private investigator and/or a detective? Should they be majoring in something special like criminology?  What special skills do they have?

These questions stuck in my head.

IPIA and BEPIA have agents with degrese in Criminology or with police backgrounds but formal qualifications aside there are some major characteristics one must have to become a professional private investigator or detective.

  • Intuition
  • Patience
  • Dedication
  • Loyalty
  • Communicating skills
  • Data processing abilities
  • Knowledge of law

If you want to be the man on the field such as working on a surveillance, you better have a great intuition and patience (you try sitting in a car for 10 hours). If you want to work behind the desk, you better be good with data processing, have a wide knowledge of law, and also great communication skills as you will interact with lots of clients from different backgrounds.

Above all, the most important point is dedication, patience and loyalty. A great dedication and patience to finish your job.  To do it great and get an excellence result. A huge loyalty is needed in being a private investigator or a detective as you will be keeping someone’s secrets. Huge secrets.

BEPIA works on cases with the utmost professionalism and dedication, the CEO who is also the Director of Investigations holds an international qualification in Private Investigation.

Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) along with our sister agency Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

How to Spot a Cheating Partner

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Tips from a Private Investigator II

Often you may have a gut feeling that you have a cheating partner; and that leads to a burning desire to find out if you are right or wrong. A Private Investigator can help you find the truth.

After talking with  several private investigators, and after working on over 200 suspected cheating partner related cases BEPIA  offers this brief summary of the top ten clues to tell if s/he is a cheating partner.

Number Ten:

Your partner is paying more attention to the way he or she dresses. Maybe s/he is changing styles, buying new clothes, working out.

It may be a mid-life crisis. They may just have decided to change the way they look as it makes them feel happier.

But be careful, such actions are often a sign someone is cheating. Getting all dressed up and working out may be for   someone new.

Number Nine:

Your partner is taking more money from the bank and spending more than usual, but they never have anything to show for it.

There could of course be many reasons aE” a gambling habit, an illness in the family that your partner has not told you about.

Remember though having an affair, hotel rooms, dinners out, weekends away, is not cheap.

Number Eight:

There’s a change in your sex life … there might be less or more.

But often what waves the red flag is when your partner wants to try out new things.

Number Seven:

Has there been a change in the way you communicate with each other?

Sometimes a cheating partner may start a fight on purpose so s/he can leave the house – a good excuse to go and meet the other person.

Number Six:

Work: Your partner is working a lot of sudden overtime but you can never reach them on the phone.

Number Five:

Your partner is always going out for work meetings, but every time you try to reach him or her they are is not where they are supposed to be. This could be a good reason to be suspicious.

Number Four:

Remember when your partner used to be happy and relaxed, enjoying time with you and/or the family?

This contentment has been replaced with restlessness and a desire to be anywhere except with the family.

Number Three:

Your partner starts to pick more of your faults out.

A cheating partner does have a conscience and finding fault with you can be a way for your partner for justifying the cheating.

Number Two:

This is the opposite of finding faults aE” being even more loving towards you.

This is usually at the start of the infidelity, and a way for the cheating partner to ease their guilt.

Number One:

The phone … when your partner is on the phone and you enter the room all of a sudden your partner lowers his or her voice or even leaves the room to finish the conversation.

Maybe the phone has a passcode and your partner refuses to share the code.

If you do get into the phone you notice that all the call histories and SMS messages have been deleted.

This could be someone covering their tracks.

So what do you do if all the evidence points to what you feared the most?

Even though the truth is painful it can be better than to live with a lie.

Our suggestion is as a first step you talk to your partner, and try and get the truth that way. At that point you can decide to work it out, maybe by talking to a counsellor, or you can decide to end the relationship.

Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) along with our sister agency Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

I Want to Vanish

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Tips from a Private Investigator IV

Deleting Your Digital Life

Be careful what you post on the internet, including social media sites, once it is up there your digital life is almost impossible to take down.

In some cases a digital life can haunt people, and even things that are just not true stay around forever. In 2085 your grandchildren might be reading things about you that were either just not true or you prefer remain private (just because something isn’t a secret, that doesn’t mean you want to share it with the whole world – your political persuasion, sexuality, religion, whatever).

People are only just starting to realise the implications of their digital life (footprint) and how it might come back to haunt them at some stage. We all do silly things that we regret, but now the internet can make it very difficult (the second after something is posted) to leave the past to the past.

When was the last time you read the small print on a social networking site, before telling the whole world all your personal details? No, me neither.

I recently read a story about a British woman who converted to Islam and wanted to delete her digital life. She tried to delete her Facebook website because she did not want others to discover how she had behaved in her youth.

In 2085 your grandchildren might be reading things about you that were either just not true or you prefer remain private (just because something isn’t a secret, that doesn’t mean you want to share it with the whole world – your political persuasion, sexuality, religion, whatever).

She said: “Facebook makes it very difficult (to delete history), it takes far too long to delete each individual post on your Facebook page. Weeks later and I’ve managed it. After I left my model agency they deleted my profile, but photos of myself are still online on photographers’ websites.

“They own the photos so there’s nothing I can do except hope nobody searches my name and sees past the extravagant makeup to see it’s me.

“People are perhaps naive about their actions. You can no longer do something stupid and hope nobody notices, it WILL be on Facebook! And it might be funny now but 10 years later maybe not.”

So How Can You Vanish Your Digital Life from the Internet?

Cleaning away your digital life means getting rid of the traces you’ve left across the world wide web aE” the mistakes you made, the embarrassing photos, the unwise/insulting/stupid comments yu made (perhaps when you had a little too much to drink), the terrible social media profiles you made without thinking them through properly where you’ve left too much visible.

It is certainly not easy. The following steps provide a start to reducing your digital life and footprint and taking back control of your online life.

1) If you have a Facebook account, change every setting in the  Privacy  tabs to “private” or “not shared” or “off” (there’s a special “privacy settings” shortcut in the blue bar near the top).

2) Find out what photos you’re tagged in on Facebook. These should appear in the Photos tab on the left hand side. If you hover over the picture, a star and a pencil appear in the top right. Choose “Report/remove tag” and pick “I want to untag myself” from the list.

3) If you have a Google Blogger account, delete your profile there. That means that blogposts or comments you’ve made there will vanish.

4) If you’ve got a Tumblr or WordPress blog, delete that too.

Now start using a search engine, and begin searching on your name (put the first name and surname together in quotes; this works in pretty much all search engines to identify that as a phrase you’re after). Note that some sites, such as newspapers, generally won’t agree to removing your name if you’ve appeared in a news or other story.

5) If you’ve posted in forums, go back and see if you can delete your posts.

If you can’t, try asking the administrators of the sites (nicely) if they can remove your post.

Make sure you prepare a very good reason why you want something removed.

6) Remove any photos you’ve added to sites such as Flickr or, of course, Facebook. Try searching on your name in Google Images (put quotes around your name) and see what comes up: then visit those sites and ask if they would remove the photos.

7) Keep doing searches on your name and finding out what turns up, and getting in touch with the owners of the sites. Be prepared to get rebuffed, especially if the site is in the US.

8) Be aware that anything that you’ve posted outside Facebook, Blogger or WordPress might still live on in the  Internet Archive . This archive which aims to crawl the entire web again and again and store what it finds, for ever. The Internet Archive doesn’t have an explicit way to remove sites once they’re in its index aE” which is absolutely huge. It does take a case-by-case approach to requests for removal.

9) Be aware too that even if you remove explicit mentions of your name, a determined searcher may be able to dig up your past through leftover postings and hints of whatever sort. Mentions by other people, photos where even though you’re not tagged, you’re mentioned in related information.

In this, we’ve not taken the more extensive move of deleting your Google web search history. If you don’t want to be (silently) tracked by Google, then stop using Google’s search (there are plenty of other search engines that won’t track you, such as DuckDuckGo.com or Blekko.com. DuckDuckGo is improving all the time, and saw a  big jump in traffic  with the change in Google’s privacy policies last year.

Vanishing your digital life from the internet is very, very hard. As far as is known, nobody’s succeeded but of course if they had, how would we know?

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency  (IPIA) along with our sister agency  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency  (BEPIA) are  fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.