Investigative Guides & Resources
Practical, professionally-informed guidance on protecting yourself online — whether you're verifying someone you met on a dating app or vetting a potential business partner.
How to Vet an Investment Opportunity Before You Wire Money
The questions to ask and checks to run before committing capital to any investment — verifying registration, understanding who holds your money, testing return claims, and spotting the pressure tactics that signal fraud.
Read guide →How to Check If a Phone Number Is Real or a Burner (VoIP)
How to tell whether someone's phone number is a real mobile line or a disposable VoIP/burner number — the lookups to run, what Google Voice and Twilio numbers signal, and why a non-carrier number is a romance-scam red flag.
Read guide →Military Romance Scams: Why the 'Deployed Soldier' Story Is a Red Flag
How military romance scams work, why fraudsters impersonate deployed service members, the specific money requests to watch for, and how to verify whether a soldier you met online is real.
Read guide →Signs of a Fake Online Profile: A Complete Checklist
A complete checklist for spotting a fake or scam profile on dating apps and social media — photos, account age, engagement, bio inconsistencies, messaging patterns, and AI-generated tells — plus how to verify when you're unsure.
Read guide →What to Do If You've Been Scammed: A Step-by-Step Recovery Guide
A calm, practical action plan for the hours and days after discovering you've been scammed online — how to stop the bleeding, preserve evidence, report to the right agencies, try to recover funds, and avoid the recovery-scam second wave.
Read guide →How to Tell If a Company Is Legitimate Before You Invest
A practical checklist for verifying that a company is real and legitimate before you invest, buy, or sign — how to check registration, domain age, ownership, litigation, and reputation, and the red flags that should stop you.
Read guide →Pig Butchering Scams Explained: How Crypto Romance Fraud Works
A clear explanation of pig butchering scams — the long-con romance-plus-investment fraud that has cost victims billions. How the scam unfolds, the warning signs at each stage, and how to verify before you invest a dollar.
Read guide →How to Reverse Image Search a Photo to Catch a Catfish
A step-by-step guide to running a reverse image search on someone's photos to check whether they are who they claim to be — which tools to use, how to read the results, and what a clean search does and doesn't prove.
Read guide →Business Partner Due Diligence: A Complete Guide
How to conduct due diligence on a potential business partner before you commit — what to verify, the warning signs of a bad partner, and when to hire a professional investigator.
Read guide →How to Verify Someone You Met Online Is Real
A practical guide to verifying whether someone you met on a dating app or online is real — including the warning signs of a romance scam and when to hire a private investigator.
Read guide →