How to Use Social Media in Fraud Investigations

When it comes to investigating potential fraud, modern social media platforms can be a tremendously useful resource. The reason for this is simple: a lot of us are active on social media these days—and we tend to share more than less. At the end of Q1 2020, Facebook reported 1.73 billion daily active users and 2.6 billion monthly active users, with around half of all social media site visits in the United States going to Facebook. Add Instagram’s 500-million daily active users—not to mention the 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute!—and you’re left with a lot of potential digital evidence.

As with other social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, organizations often need to archive their official Instagram accounts. In the public sector, this is usually to satisfy FOIA and Open Records recordkeeping requirements, while in the private sector, it is generally in preparation for a regulatory audit or legal matter. One recent example of a lawsuit related to a company’s use of Instagram is that of Teami, which was accused by the FTC of misrepresenting the health benefits of its tea.

The COVID-19 pandemic is, amongst many deep global impacts, reshaping the world of work. Many organizations have turned to 100% work-from-home models, using enterprise collaboration tools for the first time and engaging in valuable discussions around employment and labor policies.

If you’re a public information officer (PIO) or government social media manager, you’re undoubtedly very familiar with angry comments on your official social media accounts. Whenever members of the public are angry or frustrated, an official government social media account is the first place they’ll head to make their displeasure known. 

As both government organizations and private-sector companies deal with the realities of a global pandemic—specifically the need to get crucial work done with a distributed, remote workforce—team collaboration tools are proving to be incredibly valuable. 

I’m extremely proud to announce that Pagefreezer is now SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 compliant. We have always made use of compliant data centers to store information, but over the last year our organization itself has now gone through the rigorous SOC 2 auditing process to achieve compliance. 

The COVID-19 Pandemic has forced many organizations—both large and small—to quickly change the way they operate. As formal lockdowns and social distancing guidelines were published by governments all over the globe, companies were left to figure out how they can get the job done with a remote workforce. 

The impact that COVID-19 has had is unprecedented. Of course, there is the impact of the disease itself, but it is also forcing organizations to continue to operate while a large portion of its employees work from home. 

There are many reasons why organizations need to keep accurate records of online data like website content, official social media accounts, corporate chat tools, and mobile text messages. For instance, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state-level Open Records laws demand that public-sector organizations keep accurate records of this information in order to respond to Open Records requests. 

Every November, Oxford Dictionaries announces its Word of the Year (WOTY). And back in 2015, Oxford Dictionaries announced a WOTY winner that had many linguists throwing up their hands and proclaiming the end of human civilization. The Word of the Year was revealed as 😂. To be clear, the WOTY was not the word “emoji”; it was the actual Crying From Laughter Emoji.