To the average punter, this sort of information might be seen as harmless but for a lawyer investigating infidelity, this could be crucial evidence in a divorce settlement.

Here are few reasons why private investigators use facebook and social networks to gather evidence:

Over sharing.

According to the American Academy of Matrimonial lawyers, over 80 per cent of its members have used evidence taken from twitter, facebook, MySpace or other social networking sites.

The types of this online evidence might include a cheating spouse uploading pictures or updating statuses with their new lover. After finding these photos, a private investigator can legally save these images and present them as proof in cases of infidelity.

A flirting hotbed.

Most affairs usually start with some type of communication and Facebook has proven to be the ideal environment for romantic seeds getting planted. It could be an old high school fling or steamy office romance but according to a 2008 report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about one in five adults use social networking for flirting.

Private Investigators will almost certainly search through facebook messages to gather evidence for cases involving divorce so if you’re a serial online flirter- be careful about what you post!

Privacy.

Most people don’t think about settings or preferences when it comes to social networking. For this reason, private investigators have an extremely easy time of finding evidence in divorce cases and more.

The best way to protect yourself from being exposed online is to update and tighten those security settings. A simple google search will provide you with detailed explanations about how to make all your conversations and photos private. By doing this, you make a private investigators job much more difficult.

Hopefully this article has given you some useful tips about how evidence can be gathered from the many social networks found online.

For additional Lyonswood Investigation enquires, please click here.

Want to know more about protecting yourself from online dating scams?

Then view a previous article on this subject: Private Investigators: The dangers of online phishing scams.

The post The Virtual Reality of Your Divorce: How private eyes use social networks to get evidence first appeared on Investigators.

Should you hire a private detective?

In our last blog post, we discussed two types of situation in which you might consider calling a private eye to investigate your partner or ex – if you were being blackmailed, and if you were being threatened or intimidated. Today we’ll cover two more. Reason number three is…

3. You’re concerned for the safety and welfare of your child or children.

This to me is by far the most clear-cut example of where arranging some surveillance of your former partner is justified. I’m not talking about you being worried that the kids are eating too much junk-food at their place – just give them some extra vegies on the days they’re at yours, and write a passive-aggressive Facebook post about it.

What we’re actually talking about here is where you suspect something serious is going on. Maybe your kids seem scared, or you’ve noticed strange marks or bruises on them. This is especially relevant for situations where your access to your child is infrequent, or where your child is not yet at an age where they can talk.

There have been a few highly publicised cases of child deaths this year under such circumstances, in Australia and overseas, and what was perhaps most heart-breaking in some of them was the way that the relevant authorities seemed powerless or unwilling to help. It’s not always easy for them – the agencies in charge of child welfare are usually understaffed, underfunded, overworked, and forced to operate within what can be a frustrating bureaucratic and legal regime that limits how much they can help. Of course, when your child’s safety is at risk, understanding all this is little consolation – you can’t very well shrug your shoulders and say “Red tape and budget cuts – what can you do?” You have to do something, and the best thing to do is gather evidence.

Perhaps you feel you know your partner well enough to be certain that they would never lay a hand on your kid, so you believe their explanations about the bruises, say. But there’s often a third party in this equation whom you may not know from a bar of soap – your ex’s new partner. They may well be spending more time with the kids than you are nowadays. We wouldn’t want to encourage paranoia – divorces happen, custody arrangements happen, and in the vast majority of cases the kids are certainly not being abused. But if there’s one area where your guiding principle should be “better safe than sorry”, it’s looking out for your kids.

4. Your current partner has a life-destroying addiction over which they’ve lost control.

This is a tough one. Are you calling a PI every time you think your partner might be sneaking a quick smoke, cheeky punt or post-work beverage? In that case, the most unhealthy thing in your lives is not the cigarettes and booze, it’s the relationship.

On the other hand, perhaps your partner has, in the past, lost his or her friends, job, and house to drugs or alcohol, and you stuck by their side the whole time. They tearfully pleaded with you not to let them ever touch the stuff again, and you nursed them back into normalcy and stability. Down the line, you’ve got your own place, maybe even kids, and suddenly you’re having trouble making the mortgage payments because you seem to be inexplicably short on money every few weeks. On top of this, your partner has been acting erratically lately, but after many months still refuses to say what’s wrong. Hiring a private investigator is still not a decision to be treated flippantly, but in such a situation you owe it to yourself, to your kids – and to them – to do something about it, even if it means thinking a bit creatively.

The post 4 Reasons You Might Want to Hire a Private Detective to Investigate your Partner or Ex (Part 2). first appeared on Investigators.

Deciding to hire a private investigator is not a decision that most people would take lightly. It’s hard to picture your average Sydneysider absent-mindedly booking in an appointment with a PI as they flick through the paper over breakfast. Hiring one to investigate your partner or ex-partner may be considered even more taboo; and even in some of the more extreme scenarios described below, it possibly wouldn’t cross your mind that hiring a private detective could be an option.

Even we’d agree that this isn’t necessarily a terrible thing. The fact of the matter is, often when you’re hiring a private eye, it’s because a situation has progressed beyond your ability to manage it satisfactorily on your own. But really, when used appropriately, it’s no different to hiring any other sort of professional. If your toilet broke, you wouldn’t lie awake at night wondering how you were going to manage going to the bathroom from now on – you’d hire a plumber. Far better to call in an expert, and there’s no more shame in admitting you need the help of a professional investigator than there is in admitting you’re not the world’s foremost authority on u-bends. Consider the following reasons you might want to hire a private detective to investigate your partner or ex:

1. You’re being blackmailed by them.

It’s not unheard of for people within relationships to be blackmailing or threatening each other, but let’s focus for the moment on the sort of ugliness that can transpire in the fall-out of a dying or dead relationship.

This sort of stuff isn’t exactly new. In one of his classic short stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes take on a case for the King of Bohemia, who was being blackmailed with love letters and a photograph by a former lover. That was set over a hundred years ago, but lovers have been threatening and blackmailing each other since Adam and Lilith. The modern day equivalent of the King of Bohemia’s problem might be those nude selfies you took of yourself and sent to your mistress. Being faced with blackmail, especially when the source of said blackmailing won’t identify themselves, can be quite overwhelming – what makes for an intriguing plot in a mystery story can destroy lives in reality – and it can feel like you have no one to turn to. How many people are involved? What evidence might be helpful to secure in order to make a conviction? How should I respond? It’s a good time to call a PI and see what they can do.

2. …or threatened, or intimidated.

Some scorned lovers can take things even further. I heard the following story through a friend of a friend: A guy and a girl living in a major Australian city had a turbulent relationship, during which the guy made a few attempts to leave girl, but was manipulated out of it (emotional blackmail is one area a PI can’t help you with, unfortunately.) They had been living together in the gentleman’s apartment, and when the relationship drew to a close, the lady moved out. A few weeks later, the guy returns home to find his house trashed. The damage ranged from the bizarre, to the expensive, to the dangerous – everything from seafood sewn inside his mattress, to pins through the electrical cord of his iron. Even the strings in his piano were cut. Every person who was even passingly familiar with the situation knew exactly who did it (hint – it was the only person who had a motive, a history of craziness and a key to the house), although the heartbroken (and apparently delusional) lad still insisted to all who would listen that there was a possibility it had all been a random crime of opportunity by some passing punk teenagers. Who knows how he had a peaceful night’s sleep after that. I don’t know what ended up happening in the end, but I do know that I would have recommended he call a PI.

The post 4 Reasons You Might Want to Hire a Private Detective to Investigate your Partner or Ex (Part 1). first appeared on Investigators.