How Do Private Investigators Use Social Media to Crack A Case?
With an estimated 2.7 billion active users on Facebook, 1 billion on Instagram, and 330 million on Twitter, it’s a lot harder to keep your private life private in this day and age. Even if you don’t have a personal account, a friend can still share a photo with you in it and post on their profile for their connections to see. Et voila: you are no longer as anonymous as you’d hope to be.
Ironically, this is one of the ways in which a private investigator can trace someone, right down to the location and date of the incident. For private detectives, social media is an information goldmine and is more commonly being used in cracking cases.
What can social media investigations be used for?
There are many circumstances where a private investigator will look to social media to find the answers they need. Here are just some of the cases:
How is social media beneficial to cracking a case?
1. The expectation of oversharing
Social media is set up to be, well, social. From uploading photos to checking into locations and writing status updates (“Just booked a trip to Thailand!”), a private investigator can simply click on a profile and view all recent activity.
2. Instant reach
Due to the urgent nature of social media, private investigators can monitor Facebook groups in real time and gauge reactions from participants with a single post. In the case of finding a missing person, reporting that so-and-so was last seen near a famous landmark can speed up the investigation process.
3. Combining various accounts
Most people don’t just have one social media account. A private investigator will compare several social media accounts belonging to the one person to source and uncover new information. In many cases, the information on different accounts can be cross-referenced.
What types of information can be found on social media?
You’d be surprised how much social media can reveal about a person. A private investigator can use social media to look for photos, tweets, reposted images, hashtags, captions or even comments that have been left by the user on other accounts. Other types of commonly found information include geotagging and career history or current places of employment.
Why you need an expert when it comes to social media investigation
It can be time-consuming looking up someone’s information on social media. And there’s nothing worse than accidentally double tapping on their post to let them know you were on their page! There’s just no way to recover after an incident like that.
So, just to be safe and sure, hiring a private detective to do the sleuthing for you will mean there’s no trail left on your end and the person in question will never even know they are the subject of an investigation.
Leave it to the professionals at Melbourne Private Investigations
Find the answers you need with expert assistance from Melbourne PI. We can help you gather the information you need to confirm or allay your suspicions. Contact us now on 1300 416 730 for a confidential chat with our professional Private Eyes.
