In today’s society, corporations are more and more finding themselves in a position of having to address the growing incidence of direct or indirect workplace violations by members of their internal workforce and sometimes from those on the outside. Further, recent legislative changes have made the penalties and liability risk to companies and individual managers, much higher than they have ever been before.

One area which is often prevalent and misunderstood in many organizations is the distribution and receiving of anonymous and or threatening communications. Such communications may come in many forms and be submitted or perpetrated by either known and or unknown individuals or groups. In either case there exists a duty of care for management to fully investigate and to protect its employees from such unwanted workplace or personal violations.

Anonymous and threatening communications can be a particular problem for any security department or investigative agency. The types of communications received and the motivations behind such messages are varied. But all have the potential to create dissension in a business organization, undermine the structure of an established career or disrupt the harmony of a home and human relationships.

This session will explore various classifications of anonymous and threatening communications, while taking into account several different forensic and investigative methods in order to assess the validity or content of such communications and outline other important security considerations.

SESSION TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Identifying the problem of anonymous and threatening Communications
• How do they communicate, writings, emails, text messages, the web, graffiti, etc.
• The ebb and flow of workplace communication
• Defining the reasons for such unwanted communications
• Typical profiles of individual or group communicators
• Understanding and identifying the warning signs
• Understanding and identifying the various stages
• Establishing intervention techniques and utilizing prevention tools
• Training managers and supervisors
• Reporting models and risk management
• Your duty of care

As human beings we would all like to think positive thoughts about each other, especially as it relates to our own family members and those whom we would call our close friends or caregivers. Rarely do we want to view such individuals in the negative, nor do we want to consider the possibility that those we love and or trust would seek to do us harm.

However, it is often a very sad fact that there exists a darker side in some family dynamics. A side that reveals hidden or perhaps well known dysfunction within the family unit due to long held jealousies, old grudges or unresolved disputes.

Often times the family dynamics will change due to divorce or simple distance between family members as some choose to live in distant lands and or contact with loved ones is less frequent.

Certainly as we age we often become more and more dependent on others for basic needs and in some situations long term care.

All of the above are situations which can expose individuals or the family unit to undue risk from those who would want to benefit from the misfortune or vulnerability of others.

Nowhere does this unfortunate condition become more obvious as when issues arise that involve estates and family inheritances. From mortgage fraud to outright theft, forgery of wills, powers of attorney and care. The diversion of rightful inheritance is a phenomenon which is widespread and it affects thousands of families every year and at all levels of society.

This session will look at the problem of estate and inheritance theft, the perpetrators and the victims, including identifying the lurking family danger signs and how to protect you or your family from becoming a victim.

Forensic document examination involves the work of a questioned document examiner who makes critical examinations, comparisons, and analysis of documents to establish genuineness or expose forgery. Specifically a document examiner may be utilized to reveal alterations, additions or deletions, to identify persons through documents or parts of documents, as by showing the authorship of handwriting, or the source of computer printing, typewriting or mechanical impressions, to aid in fixing liability or culpability for any kind of fraud that makes use of documents, and generally to help protect the integrity of documents.

This session will discuss a wide area of how and when the services of a forensic document examiner can be utilized to assist you in specific areas of your fraud investigations and examinations.

SESSION TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Authorship of handwriting, signatures and initials
• Alterations, additions or deletions in documentation
• Establishment of date, source, history and relationship of documents
• Identification of paper, ink and writing instruments
• Identification of Mechanical Impressions
• Identification of typewriter and computer generated documents
• Forgery identification and the authenticity of art and artefacts, including artists signatures and related marks

Graffiti is considered to be amongst the top three problems that most cities and communities face worldwide. It is a complex crime that costs businesses, the public and governments millions of dollars in damage every year.

Gang Symbols and related affiliation signs such as logos, markings, inscriptions, tattoos and such non-verbal clues are images often found in open view and can be an excellent source of intelligence for investigators and security personal, but only if known and understood.

But exactly what are these signs and how do they affect you?

Graffiti and gang symbols are the “language of the street” and if read correctly can be very revealing. These signs and symbols are used as a means of communication, a form of art, a mark of territory, a tag of identification, a political message and often a very powerful form of intimidation.

This session will explore those who use graffiti and gang symbols as a form of communicated street language or a badge of identification.

SESSION TOPICS INCLUDE:

• The history of graffiti as a form of written communication
• How to decipher the various graffiti signs and symbols
• What do the words say and what is their meaning
• How to tell the difference between graffiti which is artistic in nature from those of simple street taggers to that which is gang related
• Why do they tag
• The evolution from tagger to gang member
• How to decipher the various gang affiliation signs and symbols, including body tattoos
• How to identify the threats against the community, security and law enforcement
• Hate crimes and graffiti
• Using graffiti and gang symbols as an investigative tool

Despite your best efforts to manage the flow of your personal information or to keep it to yourself, skilled identity thieves may use a variety of methods – low and hi-tech – to gain access to your data. This session will discuss some of the most common ways that impostors can get your personal information and take over your identity.

SESSION TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Overview of common frauds, scams and identity theft
• How identity thieves get your personal information
• How identity thieves use your personal information
• Most common methods of document forgery
• How do you protect yourself

This two part session explores the concepts and applications of linguistic profiling and forensic discourse analysis in order to narrow down the identity of a suspect through sociolinguistic concepts and to assist in determining deceptive behaviour as seen through the analysis of written texts and investigative or conversational transcripts.  

As the CSIs of language, you will be given the opportunity to explore and then put into practice the various factors which affect an individual’s communications and how they are revealed as you traverse through your next written crime scene. 

The successful processing of a crime scene takes a skilled investigator who is well trained and technically competent in systematic search and identification procedures. Having the ability to reason backwards in order to uncover the facts which will then allow an investigation to move forward and uncover the truth of what actually happened is a must.

Like the crime scene walk through, the successful processing of written text takes an experienced analyst who is well armed with the learned ability to recognize what has been written and what has not been written in order to determine the accuracy or truthfulness of what is being said by a subject in question and or to identify key evidence that will assist the investigation in identifying critical information about a person or an event.