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March 2012
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Monday, March 26th

Good weather and peronal info


Hi,

I hope everyone is enjoying the good weather recently, a bit odd for March! If you need anyone located give me an email through the main website page, you could be in touch with long lost relatives and friends by the summer.

In other news, the ANI reports that a call centre worker from India tried to sell them personal details of 1000s of UK customers. The IT consultant, Naresh Singh, met reporters in a hotel room and brought a laptop containing credit card details of 1000s of British customers.

This kind of trade in your personal information is illegal. This criminal is selling details that could only have been used for financial gain and to circumvent financial security. I'll need to think twice before I give any of my details to anyone over the phone...

Thanks,
Andy

Andy on 03.26.12 @ 01:43 AM CST [link]


Friday, February 24th

The Leveson Inquiry and Online Scams


It was reassuring to read that the Leveson inquiry into media phone hacking has talked to the UK information commissioner and that he gave British private investigators a clean bill of health.

Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, told the inquiry that in the past 5 years he had found no evidence of the media hiring private investigators to steal people's private information.

There will always be bad eggs in any industry, but it's nice to hear information laws and privacy concerns seem to be upheld by private investigators.

On a different note, there has been a larger that usual number of trace requests asking to find ebay or online scammers. These people are very difficult to locate as all the information they have given you is false. A fake name, fake address, and asked you to pay by cash or send cash through western union. Please email ebay first and ask them for the person's address they have on file, it might be at least a previous address of theirs. As always, prevention is better than cure so stay away from any emails out of the blue offering money for doing nothing.

Thanks,
Andy

Andy on 02.24.12 @ 04:20 AM CST [link]


Friday, January 6th

Happy 2012!


Hi,

Happy new year everyone! I hope in 2012 I will help lots of people reunite with their lost friends and family. This Christmas, new year period is always a busy time of year for investigation agencies – there's a lot of people wanting to find family at this time of year.

I will be working through the holidays, only taking a few days off at Christmas and new year. So keep the emails coming! I'll try and help everyone that I can.

After some soul searching, I can reveal that there won't be any immediate price increases on my services. With the recession, the cost of everything is going up. Although that means my budget is being squeezed both for my personal life and the business (dealing with government agencies and public records fees have increased by as much as 50% recently) I don't intend to raise my prices for the foreseeable future.

So if you need to find missing family or friends, now would be a good time to do it.

Thanks,
Andy
Andy on 01.06.12 @ 04:11 AM CST [link]


Monday, September 26th

Happy 10th birthday WAPI


Hi,

Sorry that I've not made a blog post for such a long time. I've been writing this blog for years now and my attention is beginning to wane, I will try and keep it up as I know visitors do check this blog to make sure there's someone still working behind the website.

There are several private investigator associations within our industry, I often then we have more professional associations per worker than any other industry. I am a member of two of them, as they all have the same members anyway! The World Association of Professional Investigators (WAPI) has turned ten years old on 9th August 2011. I have been a member for the past 5 years and I am pleased at their continuing standards and attempts to guide the industry in the ways we have all discussed.

Thinking back, I guess the most important issue WAPI took on was the regulation of the industry. There were many opinions about how this should be done and every association had their own blueprint on how to asses private investigators and licensing criteria. I still think the idea that new PIs should take a written test and if they pass then they can get their license. To take the test there were a few criteria to be met like having some experience or having taken a home study course about the industry. I think this was the most assessed and open route thought up as other associations were insisting that they should be the gatekeepers of the industry and you had to have done a number of years employed by one of their members to get a license. Unfortunately, the government only ended up licensing security industries and review after review resulted in no system for private investigators in the UK.

Thanks,
Andy




Andy on 09.26.11 @ 02:38 AM CST [link]


Monday, May 2nd

Private Investigator Blog - "Phone Hack Scandal"


Hi,

In the wake of the news of the world phone hacking scandals, the Metropolitan Police have decided to investigate the use of such methods. The information commissioner, Christopher Graham, has said in a statement to The Observer newspaper that the laws surrounding this type of activity are 'very uneven and very unclear'.

He could not be more correct. As a private investigator I’m all too aware that information laws in the UK are not made with any coherent plan for our society. They are made as a response to a scandal or a need that suddenly arises, and the law in this area is like a patch-work quilt. Two people obtaining the same information illegally, but in slightly different ways, can expect very different punishments under the law.

Thanks to all my visitors to the website, feel free to email me over the bank holiday period I will still be working and replying to emails.

Thanks,
Andy

Andy on 05.02.11 @ 04:18 AM CST [link]


Sunday, December 19th

Merry Xmas and Happy 2011


Merry Christmas and happy new year! Many of my clients will have a great start to 2011, as there's always the “Christmas Rush” to get in contact with long lost friends and family at this time of year. So don't delay, give me an email and I can try and locate them for your new year reunion!

I am working through the festive holidays as usual, I'm only taking Christmas day and new years day off.

-------------------------------

On another subject, there's been a few requests this month asking me to re-do investigations that other PIs have failed to be successful in. It is true that investigative techniques and skill vary widely between investigative agencies - there's no set path into this industry and no standard training course. I will take such cases on, but I want to be clear about the chance of success being significantly smaller if some other PI has looked at the case and couldn't achieve a result. It is a good idea to send me any report from previous investigators, so I don't end up spending my time and your money pursuing avenues of investigation that have already been done.

The good news is that with my fee structured in a small upfront amount and then a larger amount ONLY if successful, it's worth letting me look at such cases.

Thanks,
Andy
Andy on 12.19.10 @ 02:56 AM CST [link]


Tuesday, October 19th

SIA Closed due to Spending Cuts


The Security Inductry Authority (SIA) was a government body set up to try and regulate the private security industry. Their main achievement was requiring all door staff (“bouncers”) to be licensed with them in order to work. The license cost £235 for three years, and had a great effect at getting rid of unscrupulous tough guys and gangsters. Before the licensing system, you could get into fights and still be hired by the employer at their own discretion. Now, if the SIA took away your license it was illegal for you to work in that job.

The SIA was also being pushed to try and set up a licensing system for UK private investigators, mostly by the investigation industry’s own unions and associations who see licensing as a way of improving the industry and putting it on a par with other countries. I ofcourse, agree with them.

The government announced that the SIA is to be closed as part of their cuts program. They were looking into what quangos could be scrapped to save the tax payer money. While the SIA was staffed by administrators and civil servants who had never worked in the security industry (and this led to many annoyances) it was the only attempt made to try and bring licensing to the UK. At the moment the SIA will still operate in Scotland and Northern Ireland, although with it being closed in England and Wales its future doesn’t look bright.

Thanks,
Andy



Andy on 10.19.10 @ 01:53 AM CST [link]