The ‘art’ of test purchasing . . . how to hook the crook!
Using well-tested skills established during law-enforcement service, IPFGB has developed an ability to build credible and robust legends in order to penetrate target organisations involved in illicit trading. Over a period in excess of two decades, this evidence-gathering formula in the test-purchasing arena has repeatedly succeeded where others tend to fail.
It may appear simple to tempt a rogue trader with a bundle of cash in a face-to-face approach, but the relatively inexpensive exercise of remote purchasing requires an art, whether online or by phone. Over twenty years of experience has taught us that a fraudster’s first concern is whether he will be paid. It is essential to understand, therefore, that what is presented as an identity, or “legend”, may be robustly checked with regard to financial status. IPFGB lawfully maintains a number of “cover” identities located around the UK which have physical addresses, contact details, and bank facilities, so enabling instant trade in order to obtain evidence of fraudulent activity. There is often the added bonus of establishing the banking information of targets prior to litigation or law enforcement action. We also maintain cryptocurrency accounts which add to our arsenal.
Merchandise as diverse as IT hardware, software, vehicle parts, machinery, pharmaceuticals, plastics, designer clothing, handbags . . . the list is endless, and IPFGB has bought them all; regularly succeeding in bringing organised fraudsters and counterfeiters to book.
April 2025 ~ 18 months jail-time for New York PI
Private Investigator and former NYPD hero detective sentenced for assisting Chinese State Security.
Does it sound far-fetched that a routine trace enquiry could be a ‘false flag’ approach from a foreign power with ulterior motives, or maybe an organised crime group? Believe you me, it happens . . . it has happened to us. Would your procedures recognise it?
Amongst the excellent and eclectic cast of speakers at the ABI Annual Conference in Solihull last month was a senior leader from the Home Office, who came along to ensure delegates were au fait with the National Security Act 2023. The ‘Know Your Client’ message reinforced the legal requirement for all UK professional investigators to carry out stringent due diligence on those entities who send them instructions. It should be the natural action of all ABI members and, when we sign up to the Code of Conduct, part of our documented automatic processes.
China refers to its Operations, Fox Hunt and Sky Net, as global efforts aimed at ‘fugitives’, but which US prosecutors say are “intended to stamp out dissent using extortion and intimidation”. Evidence of its implementation abounds, not only in USA, but right the way across Europe . . . and certainly within the UK.
As I have previously described on the ABI News pages, a simple private investigation case which began for former Sergeant Mike McMahon in 2016, brought his conviction in 2023 for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, stalking, and conspiracy. This week, the clean-cut, former police detective, with multiple awards and medals, moved only into its next phase when he was handed an 18-month prison sentence. For him, the nightmare continues.
The New York Times recounts that McMahon had been approached by a mysterious client with scant information about his ‘subject’, Mr Xu. McMahon’s lawyers claimed that he believed the client worked for a construction company to which Xu owed money. He did not question his belief that he was working for a private client even after learning that Xu was being sought by the Chinese government; “parallel civil and criminal proceedings being quite common.” McMahon carried out surveillance on Xu and provided confidential data to his clients.
McMahon became the third person in less than a month to be sentenced in Brooklyn in connection with Chinese repression of its citizens abroad. Many countries are trying to counter the spread of clandestine Chinese police stations; by 2022, three had been identified in the UK.
In our case, the approach was from a ‘recruitment agency’, claiming they needed to locate a large number of Chinese nationals believed to be in the UK, with the offer of lucrative jobs. Our protocols ensured we insist on documented evidence of end-client identity in order to process the data. The ‘agency’ procrastinated, and the instruction dissolved. It was so clearly a Fox Hunt sting. MI5 warns that the most likely approaches will be from China, Russia, and Iran. The Home Office representative at the ABI conference stressed we should consider all possibilities. It is the investigator’s responsibility to ‘Know Your Client’. We don’t want another Sergeant McMahon.
[Also published ABI News 21-Apr-25]
March 2025 ~ Has policing really ‘evolved massively’?
“I think it’s safe to say policing has evolved massively since the time those initial reports have come in.”
In answer to media criticism, these were the words of a Police Scotland DCI. It followed the conviction and jailing of a 38-year old romancer for systematically defrauding nine women out of a total of £214,000 over a period of seven years. In July of last year, he was sentenced to twelve years behind bars for 19 offences, including rape and assault.
But is it not the case that the way data protection legislation has been interpreted and implemented by the police has actually created for themselves an unnecessary obstruction? I contend that in yesteryear, this Tinder predator would have stood more chance of being brought to justice at a far earlier stage.
Earlier this year, a BBC investigation revealed that the fraudster, posing as a “jet-setting, business-owning gym-rat” met his victims and started relationships with each of them. As these liaisons developed, he persuaded them to part with large sums of money; occasionally claiming to make investments for them. A number of individual reports were made to police over those years. Police have said that the complaints were “mainly around the financial situation”. Each of them was considered separately on their own merits, and a decision made in each case that the matter was civil. The essential factor is that none of them were linked until a journalist published one account in Glasgow’s Evening Times. A flood of reports followed, and police only then joined the dots.
One victim said, “From the sheer number of people that came forward, I think it’s clear that there were opportunities to investigate. There must have been a way that he could have been stopped before he was.”
But was there? Back in the bad old days, before data protection legislation was introduced to “protect the public”, police throughout the land had Collators’ Offices. These were intelligence cells. A report of ‘doubtful’ behaviour, although itself not at that time amounting to a crime, the individual’s name and address, together with the allegation, would be scribbled on a card and filed against at the local police station; [remember those?]. The collator was a font of knowledge . . . the best friend of every detective . . . including Jack Frost on the telly! Yes, the system was, perhaps, weeded when the collator had time and, if nothing further came in, the card would eventually be shredded. The collator would remember it though! And if an officer from another district or Force made an enquiry, two and two would be added together.
The DCI told the BBC, “Each one was reported at different stages, so they weren’t all reported together, they were reported in different divisions throughout Police Scotland. There was no reports of physical or sexual abuse ever made to the police at that time. It was mainly around the financial situation, which when they’re treated in isolation, they have been taken as civil investigations. I think it’s safe to say policing has evolved massively since the time those initial reports have come in.”
Yes, policing has evolved. But in the right direction? I’m a great supporter of data protection, but not to the point where interpretation restricts law enforcement from replicating those old-fashioned collators’ systems in a lawful manner. I’d suggest that pre-DPA/GDPR days, once the second report had come in, Old Bill would have been knocking on that predator’s door!
[Facts compiled from BBC website and various other media sources with added personal comment.]
February 2025 ~ The Illegal Empire: “Business is still booming!”
Continuing on our theme of fighting the counterfeiting industry, Crime Stopper International has produced a hard-hitting 90-second video which provides the back-story to this 4 trillion dollar empire. Watch here