Investigating on the Internet: Research Tools for Fraud Examiners
Cynthia Hetherington Top Tools forHetheringtonGroup.com Internet Investigations Simply… My top Internet resources for starting each and every investigation. Cynthia Hetherington
2 of 22 Google
Bigger More than 1,000,000,000,000 possible URLs
Faster Functionality through advanced searching
Better Popularity makes it “the place” to be seen
3 of 22 Google Features Not to Be Missed
. Google Alerts are a MUST! • Google.com/alerts . The proximity search feature “*” • expression * expression . Images searches • Images.Google.com . Archived news • news.google.com/archivesearch
4 of 22 Bing
. This new search engine offers robust results • bill gates = 24,000,000 results • bill gates (gates foundation) = 700,000 results • bill gates -(gates foundation) = 15,200,000 results
5 of 22 Archives
. The Wayback Machine • Archive.org . Google.com and Bing.com . People’s profiles • Zoominfo.com (look at the cached version of matches against a name)
6 of 22 Blog Searching
. Technorati.com • Printed media is no longer the providence of news. To be comprehensive, you have to search blogs, tweets, and social networks. • Take advantage of common phrases we use in speech. People tend to blog with informal language and use popular expressions. • “better than,” “gotta try,” “hate my,” and “can’t wait”
7 of 22 Backdoor Blog Searching
. Icerocket.com • Icerocket not only covers blogs well, but you can also search Twitter and MySpace through Icerocket, which is great if your office blocks access to these services.
8 of 22 Social Network Searching and Tracking
. Icerocket.com — Twitter and MySpace searches . Spokeo.com — Search and track . Trackle.com — Search and track . Monitter.com — Search and track Twitter users . YoName.com — Search (email searching notifies the email address you searched)
9 of 22 YourOpenBook
. This relatively new website searches Facebook status posts for keywords, phrases, and company names.
10 of 22 Twitter
. Search.twitter.com • Start with the basic search. Try the person’s name, cell phone number, or user handle if you have it. If not, then use the advanced search feature and try searching places “near this place” option • Don’t understand what they are saying? Visit Search.twitter.com/operators
11 of 22 Friendfeed
. Friendfeed.com • Conduct searches in the same fashion you would for Twitter. Here, though, Friendfeed catalogs its own blog feed, Twitter, Youtube.com, Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com, Delicious.com, and other social networks for your viewing.
12 of 22 Yauba
. Yauba.com • Real-time searches, social network searches, basic Web, by file type (Word, PowerPoint, etc.). The unique thing about Yauba.com is that it is adamant about privacy. This is a good site to start your sensitive searches from.
13 of 22 Real-Time Searching
. For very real-time searches, visit Oneriot.com, Scoopler.com, Crowdeye.com, Addictomatic.com, and Collecta.com. • Each of these sites tracks RSS feeds, blog posts, Twitter, Flickr, other social network sites, and news. However, you will not find historical information on these sites, as you would from a traditional search engine.
14 of 22 Videos
. YouTube.com • You can search directly in the largest network of video material available. . Video.google.com • If you don’t have access to YouTube, go to its parent, Google. In addition to YouTube, Google captures videos from other feeds, so it’s a bigger search!
15 of 22 Photos
. Photobucket.com . Picasa.com . Flickr.com . Images.google.com . Images.bing.com • Remember to search by name, company name, username, and everything else that identifies that subject.
16 of 22 News
. The professional resources • Factiva.com • Nexis.com • Dialog.com . Free Resources • News.google.com — Use the archived news • News.yahoo.com
17 of 22 Nonprofits and Donations
. GuideStar.org • Nonprofit searches for free, name searching for a fee . Noza990pf.com • A beta rebuild of Grantsmart.org . Followthemoney.org • The United States’ most complete resource for information on money in state politics
18 of 22 Public Records
. PublicRecordSources.com • A comprehensive and dynamic source for locating quick links to state and local governments • Organized by geographic area . VerifyProLicense.com • Verify state-issued licenses for individual occupations and businesses
19 of 22 Intellectual Property
. Ipmenu.com • A global intellectual property research source . Monitter.com • For tracking any mention of your products or intellectual property being mentioned in Twitter
20 of 22 Corporation Search
. DnB.com • The largest international collection of public and private company information. Search for free through the Advanced Search Feature. . Kompass.com • Search by products, services, company name, trade names, and executives. . Corporationwiki.com • New on the scene, this resource connects businesses and associates together based on public records.
21 of 22 Online Tracing Resources
. Arin.net • Whois searches • Arin might direct you to another NIC . Traceroute.org • Traceroute directory from different global start points
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