Private Investigator License Required for Workplace Investigations
November 3, 2022 | Business Crime
On 4 June 2020, the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority (PSPLA) issued an important decision addressing the issue of whether persons or companies carrying out workplace investigations for employers into employee conduct are carrying out private investigations and therefore, are required to hold a private investigator license.In the case, “C Limited” was contracted by Mrs A’s previous employer. Mrs A complained:
about the way the investigation was conducted; and
that the directors of C Limited who conducted the workplace in…
Exclusive: Patrick Gower on Cyber Crime - Featuring Daniel Toresen
September 28, 2022 | Technology, Fraud
A Kiwi South African woman is issuing a stark warning after her online boyfriend was revealed as a Nigerian scammer. Thea has always been a romantic. She fell in love with her husband and married young before he was tragically murdered.Following his murder, Thea and her three children moved to New Zealand to leave her trauma behind. After a decade in New Zealand, she met and married someone new - but he died of a heart attack eight years later.
A widow again and dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns, Thea turned to the internet to find lo…
You Can Now Unsend and Edit Texts With Apple's New iOS 16 Update
September 27, 2022 | Technology
This week marked a significant milestone in iPhone history: the debut of the option to rescind and fix embarrassing texts and typo-riddled messages.Apple announced in June that its fall software update, iOS 16, would allow users to unsend and edit texts. It became available to download in mid-September.I installed it on Wednesday, and the first feature I tried out was changing my messages after sending, a feat that felt so foreign and fun on my iPhone that I'm convinced it's one of Apple's neatest software updates to date.
Here's how…
Exclusive: How to Approach an Employment Investigation in New Zealand
September 15, 2022 | Business Crime
After more than 30 years investigating wayward employees in the workplace, The Investigators have figured out a rock-solid process to achieve a positive and swift outcome in these cases. The cases can be very wide ranging:
Conflict of interest investigations
Suspected backhanders
Theft
Bullying allegations
Sexual harassment allegations
Theft of intellectual property
Procurement fraud
Ghost employee fraud
Initial meetingWe usually have a very in depth meeting with the client and/or legal representatives. Preferably in person t…
Daniel Toresen on 'Runaway Dad' Thomas Phillips
August 29, 2022 | Other
A fugitive dad on the run with his three children “psychopathically” believes in his cause, but his luck can’t last forever, private investigators say.Thomas Phillips was due to appear in the Te Kūiti District Court at 11am on January 12 on a single charge of wasteful deployment of police personnel and resources in relation to a large-scale search for him and his three children, Jayda Jin, Maverick and Ember, in September.
Failing to appear, a warrant was issued for his arrest and the search for Phillips and his children has been goi…
Exclusive: Re-Entry & Eviction of a Commercial Premises in NZ
August 19, 2022 | Business Crime
New Zealand's Leading Private Investigators are ready to assist with any commercial re-entry. Rent Arrears? Damage to commercial property and breach of contract? Contact us now.A re-entry is often referred to as an eviction.
Before taking matters into your own hands, seek counsel from your lawyer. There are a number of procedures and processes that need to take place to ensure you do not end up on the back foot, or worse, facing legal action for undertaking the commercial re-entry process incorrectly. If you would like our recomme…
Exclusive: The Potential Perils Of Process Serving
August 18, 2022 | Other
Guns, knives and vicious dogs. It’s not every day, but it absolutely happens in the life of a Process Server. For those who don’t know, process serving is the act of delivering legal documentation to a party involved in the proceedings. Process serving is required as part of the legal process in certain proceedings, or simply because one party to the proceedings is refusing to cooperate.Some people will be over the moon to receive the documents; they might be happy to be finally getting that divorce, or happy that the process, however…
Exclusive: Triage An Email Security Breach
August 12, 2022 | Technology, Security
E-mail security breaches are on the rise and are having a large impact on New Zealand businesses in 2022. These are as a result of an attacker gaining access to a mailbox through password compromise or a successful phishing link attack.PasswordsPassword comprises are a typical entry point for an attacker into a mailbox. There have been a number of well publicized password compromises such as the LinkedIn password compromise here and archive containing data purportedly scraped from 500 million LinkedIn profiles has been put for sale on…
Exclusive: 'Find My Family' - Locating Your Long Lost/Estranged Family Members
June 27, 2022 | Other
'Find My Family' is a common term used by Private Investigators NZ when we are looking for lost family members such as birth parents, misplaced siblings, half-brother and half-sisters, ex-flames and anyone else that you have lost contact with from the past.With over 100 years of combined experience, The Investigators New Zealand specialises in all things relationships – including locating missing family or friends. Locating a long lost family is actually a very satisfying part of the private investigations industry compared to many of…
The 'Sickening Gut Punch' When You Learn You've Been Scammed
April 30, 2022 | Fraud
It started, as so many modern crimes do, with a Google search.
Retired New Zealand couple Sharon* and Derek* were trying to squeeze the most from their modest savings, and were shopping around for the best term deposit interest rates.
They entered their contact details into a site purporting to offer comparisons, and were soon called by someone who introduced himself as Daniel Evans, a senior compliance officer at Westpac Investments.
Evans, communicating by phone and with emails with Westpac signatures and the bank's name in the e…