Surveillance Equipment For Your Business

Fraud can financially ruin both small and large businesses – you don’t have to be running millions through the books to be affected by fraud, and many small companies have gone under because of a little underhand activity.

The recession puts lots of financial pressure on both business owners and their employees, and the temptation to commit fraud has never been higher.  There are many ways of committing fraud but the most common ways are through the exaggeration of profits, simply stealing funds or making false insurance claims to get a quick payout.  If you are a business owner with staff on the books, there are some simple ways in which you can protect your company from fraud.

Do you have total control over the finances in your business?  Perhaps you have a trusted accountant or admin person who takes care of the money on your behalf.  There’s nothing wrong with this but withdrawals and deposits should always be double checked by you – if not every day then certainly on a regular basis.

Something else to watch out for is fraud via a method of poaching.  Your business will undoubtedly have some information which we be valuable to others – whether in the form of your finance details, client lists, names and addresses of suppliers, or even your own personal details.  Before working with anybody that you do not know personally, check them out thoroughly first.  This also rings true for new employees – Twitter and Facebook are amazing resources for this kind of thing!

If you have reason to believe that something dodgy may be going on right under your nose, it’s time to invest in some surveillance equipment for your place of work.  Whether is be voice recorders placed around the office or computer monitoring devices on employee’s PCs, you need to do whatever you need to in order to protect your business.  Other surveillance equipment includes common security measures such as CCTV systems and alarms and locks.

You should view the security of your business as a priority, and do all that you can to safeguard it.

Focus On Stalking

Stalking is not something that only happens on late night drama series’.  It is a terrifying experience for the person being stalked and can be a  nightmare to gather evidence to get people to believe the victim.  It doesn’t have to be the scenario of a darkened alley with someone following ten paces behind in the shadows – with today’s spy technology you can be stalked on through social networking sites such as Facebook, in broad daylight outside your home, from your partner’s jealous ex, or even in the workplace from a colleague who has it in for you.  But, with the technology that stalkers use to bully their victims, you can turn this to your advantage and make technology work for you.  Here are a few things that you can do if you think you are the victim of a stalker.

First and foremost (and if you are able) make sure that the stalker knows that you want nothing to do with them and their behaviour is unacceptable to you.  Threats can often make the situation worse so simply let it be known firmly and seriously that you don’t like this behaviour from them.  It is also very important that you let those close to you know about the problem person and this is for two reasons.  First, it gives you more evidence for your case as others will be able to back up what you are saying.  Friends and family may even witness the stalker while spending time with you.

The more people that know, the better.  Second, as well as being aware of the problem, they may be able to help or deter the stalker.  They are an extra pair of eyes for you so never underestimate the power of people in numbers.  Also, tell the police and get a crime number so that they can start to log the behaviour.  Phone your local station with your crime number every time there is an incident and they will log it against your case.  You can also keep a diary to log when incidents occur for your own records and this will back up the police statement and help you to recall key timings and facts if the case ever comes to court.

If you are the victim of ‘cyber stalking’ or any sort of electronic stalking, do all that you can to change email address, phone numbers, etc, as this will make it harder for the stalker to contact you.  Turning off your Facebook profile for a few weeks is a small price to pay for piece of mind.  This is also where the technology will work for you as you can invest in computer monitoring equipment to record any emails sent to you, a mobile recording device to monitor your mobile phone and even a voice recorder if you are receiving phones calls so that you can record details of the conversations.  You can buy a voice recorder which is small enough to fit into your pocket so you can record any direct confrontation too, if this is the form that the stalking takes.

Most importantly, keep all evidence safe as it will often be a case of your word against the stalkers and you will need to prove what has been happening to you.  A voice recorder and some common sense will go a long way to proving your case.

Chinese Whispers In Iran

Iranian authorities declared before Christmas that they have detained a CIA spy on their territory.

The man (said to be of Iranian origin) is reported to have received sophisticated intelligence, but it is not clear whether the man was caught in possession on spy gadgets or was in the process of carrying out any specific spy surveillance when he was caught.  In fact very little is known about the man or the circumstances if his arrest by the Iranian police.  In fact, American officials have gone so far as to indicate to the BBC that they reject the claims that anyone has been arrested in the first place.

The Iranian intelligence ministry have issued a statement on the alleged spy, which was broadcast just before Christmas across their television networks.  It claims:  “This CIA agent of Iranian nationality began his mission after receiving training in weapons use.  But he was identified by Iranian intelligence agents and his espionage missions were revealed.”  The spy was not named in the broadcast.

This is not the first time that Iran have cried wolf over spy claims against the United States.  There have been a few occasions where Iran has announced arrests of alleged American spies, and the use of spy gadgets against their country, but have provided little or no information to substantiate the claims.  In May of last year, Tehran announced that they had detained a network of thirty CIA agents and claimed that the US had offered visas and residency to educated Iranians in exchange for information on Iran’s nuclear and defence capabilities.  Then, on December 13th, Iran made a statement saying that they had indicted fifteen people on charges of spying for America and Israel, but again gave few other details.

Who knows whether there have been actual arrests, or indeed whether agents are being held for crimes against the country.  For such a secretive and deceptive nation it remains their word against the world and there is little that can be done about that.