Social media has taken the world by storm. According to Ofcom, in 2014 66% of adults that use the Internet in the UK have a social media profile on at least 1 platform. Facebook is still the most popular, although Twitter and Pinterest amongst others are catching up. In the two youngest age groups measured by Ofcom, 16- 24 year olds and 25-34 year old, they found that approximately 98% of these two groups had a social media account. Surprisingly 42% of people who are over 65 that go online also have a social media profile. That’s a lot of people.
There are two main reasons that professional private investigators should be aware of the all-consuming nature of SM.
- It can help an investigator catch a cheating husband or cheating wife.
- Build their own brand awareness.
In this weeks post we will be looking at the first point. First, lets look at why private investigators would use social media in their investigations:
- As we have seen in the statistics provided by Ofcom, a lot of people use social media. By accessing the cheats status updates by becoming an online ’friend’ the investigator can bolster the evidence gained by the more traditional observation techniques
- It is possible that an emotional cheat will just cheat online. The effects are just as devastating.
Here are the top techniques that a private investigator can use to catch a cheating husband or wife.
- Set up a honey trap profile to test your partner and their fidelity by seeing if they can persuade them to cheat. This can be a good way to distinguish between an emotional cheat and a cheating husband or wife, that will take the next step and actually meet up with someone else.
- They may install a piece of software on to the device where the social media accounts are being accessed. There are laws surrounding this option, mainly to do with data protection. The professional Private Investigator will ensure that they only install spying software on devices that are owned by the person requesting the investigation.
Alpha 1 Legal conducts all of our investigations with the same ethical and legal considerations. Join us next time as we look at how a Private Investigator can build brand awareness through social media.
