Simon Smith of eVestigator uncovers a major social media identity fraud

Simon Smith of eVestigator uncovers a major social media identity theft fraud

Beware of real Social Media Identity Theft — it’s real — it’s here.

It started off with an innocent facebook invitation. As you do more and more of these Cybercrime cases you see the trigger points looking at you straight in the face. The question that some might ask is, “Why?”. Facebook has an established trust based on ‘friends’. Your instinct tells you that if there is a ‘blonde bombshell’ wanting to be friends with you gentleman, that you should automatically accept!

Well instinct can be very deceiving. In this last case, Simon Smith of eVestigator uncovered a major fraud that was so intertwined between aliases, social networks, stolen identities, and fixations of stalking that it was a great cybercrime catch. There is always a reason behind cyberstalking, and Mr. Smith explains the psychology like this:

“Cyberstalkers want to live in the shoes of another. They want to make an impact, whether it be in the shadows or in the public. They thrive on sharing their stories with others. They find that it is both funny, and a game until they get so far into it — they start believing they are in fact the identity they are portraying themselves as. This is when it turns serious. This was the case recently. I was tasked with finding a serial cyberstalker that not only was living the life of another person, but was living friends lives through that of her immediate family. It become ‘sickening’. She made herself out to be the perfect person that she always wanted to be at the detriment of a innocent young man, almost costing him his life and his sanity”.

Not many people understand the psychology of cybercrime. Mr. Smith recently had the benefit of being trained by the world renown Steve Van Aperan, as a Master in Detecting Deception, the reading of body language, and conducting effective behavioural interviews. He is one of the most advanced criminal profilers in the world. After he assisted police in 68 homicide investigations and two serial killer cases, the media gave Steven Van Aperen the moniker ‘The Human Lie Detector’. To help police read people, Steve developed his unique four-stage process and his hugely successful ’60 Second Profiling Technique’. He has trained intelligence agencies, homicide detectives, the Defence Security Authority and Department of Defence personnel in how to read people and detect deception by analysing verbal, non-verbal and paralinguistic behaviours. His training complements Cybersecurity and Cybercrime as the element of human reasoning plays a key factor in determining both intent and motive which can only assist an investigator.

This case was a huge success and the person found is likely to be charged with a sentence that will see her convicted and jailed, although that is up to the Crown Prosecutor. The family was very happy with the results. There are 4 key lessons to take away from this:

1. You do not know anyone until you have met in person and validated who they are from what they have said;
2. You should not invest in anyone who will not invest in you. We are physical beings and need physical contact. The internet is an illusion to many, and cannot be supplemented for reality;
3. If there are always barriers and deflection, then there is a reason. Set some trigger points, give some chances, then walk away;
4. There is no such thing as internet dating — whoever made that term up must not have been conscious. The internet is used to introduce humans to one another and should be seen as nothing more than that.

You can read more about Simon Smith at https://www.evestigator.com.au or on his media site, https://www.evestigatormedia.com.au. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsmithinvestigator