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Tag Archive for: Miami Private Investigator

The Apps your Children don’t tell you about: Uncovering your Child’s Secret Life

Keyboard with hand on the background of face of young boy with headphones, collage

More commonly in private investigative work we receive questions about “hacking” or “cloning” devices. The majority of these requests come from parents desperate for a look into their children’s life. Most parents do not have the ability or the knowledge to find the hidden tricks our Gen-Z children come up with. This generation of children are brilliant in technology, but sneaky and parents who grew up being told “Come home before sunset” or “Go play outside” aren’t always particularly weary of most of what goes on in their own child’s phone. Most kids nowadays are sewn with an Iphone or Ipad at birth.

Most parents are at a disadvantage not having full access to their kids’ devices 24/7. Teenagers usually use their devices anywhere else, but in front of you. By the time you ask to see their phone they have deleted chat room apps, dating apps, social media, private photo album apps, and to a parents worst nightmare explicit photos of their child. In our line of work it is incredibly difficult to inform a parent that their child may currently be a victim of an online child predator. We want to use our platform as an agency being open for almost 20 years to help you save your child from the trauma and dangerous path this secret life can create.

4 tips for finding deleted apps or secret photos on your child’s Iphone

  1. First, go to your child’s device and view their app store application. Next, click on the personal icon on the top right corner. Then, click on “Purchased”. You will be able to see any apps that have been downloaded through their Apple ID on any device that Apple ID is logged into. You will also be able to see when the app was downloaded to know how recent it was deleted.
  2. Apps such as KeepSafe are known as a secret photo vault. They can store photos here and lock them in albums with a passcode. Apps like these can also have a camouflage of calculators on them. It is to deter parents or unwanted users from clicking on the application. Note this for your search into your child’s phone.
  3. Some parents have access to their childs Instagram. If you do Click settings, then security, finally download data. Once you do this you can enter your personal email and have a copy of all the data on that account. Any messages they may have “deleted” before you took their phone will be included. Instagram stores every single message in their data collection and provides files with each instagram user’s message thread.
  4. This one is for the parents who don’t have the first clue about passwords on their child’s phone or even their own. Apple saves all passwords through a setting called keychain. More than likely the child has saved all their passwords attached to fake email addresses that you can now have access to.

Hidden Assets and Questions to Ask? Getting Divorced

I am writing this article to address the very important topic of Hidden Assets and the investigating of such.  If you are getting divorced and don’t know all the assets the first thing to do is try to gather all the banking documents related to the other spouses businesses and or personal accounts.  It important to know what exactly the bottom line is so the following are tips you need to follow from my years of finding hidden assets:

  1. Gather all banking documents that you know of and try to check personal, business, and or phones for accounts that may be unknown.
  2. Gather all Whole Life and Variable Insurance Policies.
  3. Determine what real estate is known.
  4. Gather all safe deposit boxes locations, hidden safes in the home, and other places when things were friendly where hard cash was stored.
  5. Gather all information regarding off shore bank accounts and or companies.
  6. Determine and or establish places where your spouse frequents to determine possible locations of countries visited.  An account may be there and monies hidden.
  7. Art Pieces and or timeless jewelry such as Rolex, Tiffany Rings, and or other expensive jewelry pieces.
  8. Lastly you’ll need to determine his CPA as he will have the usual keys to the house and all the information needed.

 

My advice is to seek a professional when the majority of these items are gathered and have them review for ideas as to finding what may not exist at present.  If things don’s add up then seek a private investigator with the proper experience finding hidden assets related to divorces and or fraudsters in general.  However, if you presently going through a divorce call our offices at (305)232-0056 and or email us via dlm@mayaandmayainc.com to discuss your case.

 

 

Real and Licensed Private Investigative Agencies

My name is Daniel L. Maya, owner of Maya & Maya Inc, and until recently, I have stayed out of a controversy among my colleagues. However, I do, in my opinion, have a valid argument that I would like to make now. There is a big difference between real licensed investigative agencies and PI Dispatchers.

Most investigators, like myself, join the investigative industry to help people. They, like us, are licensed by their state’s regulatory board and go through all the requirements to be able to call themselves a licensed private investigator.   Why is all this important? Because it safeguards the public’s welfare and the integrity of the profession. Lately, I have seen a trend via “Google Ad Words” where certain investigators “Pirates,”  I will call them – because they are not licensed to do complete the tasks they are advertising – pitch investigative services in states where they are unlicensed.

Let me explain.

When you hire a doctor based on their qualifications, education, certifications, and experience – would you feel comfortable with that doctor subcontracting out his services to a different doctor who lacks the experience you were seeking? Would you be okay with that same doctor invoicing you a premium rate because of his experience while his – novice – doctor performed the procedure? Would you be okay in knowing that the doctor you hired is unlicensed and unregulated in your state? Most of us wouldn’t. Unfortunately, this is exactly what’s happening in our industry. Currently, there are unlicensed and unregulated companies who act like so called “dispatchers” by sub-contracting the work to other investigators. They take your case, manage the investigation, accept fees from you, and in turn, submit evidence to you. They handle the entire case and investigation – remember, these companies are unregulated and unlicensed in the state.

How do these “Pirates” get away with this? By hiring a local private investigator at a fraction of the cost. An investigator who you did NOT hire to begin with and may lack the experience and certification you were seeking.

In the three states where I am licensed, Florida, California, and New York, I was required to go through regulatory testing, a background screening run by the FBI, supply verification of education and, finally, had to show documented experience. All of this was done so I could get licensed and offer investigative services in those states. Furthermore, in Florida and California, it is a criminal offense to work as a private investigator without an active and valid license.

Why is this pirating trend so problematic? Very simply, you are being sold services that are regulated in that state by a company that is not licensed nor authorized to perform such service or, even, follow the state-imposed regulations.  So, the argument is they hire a local private investigator that they have supposedly vetted. Really? You can do that yourself.  At the end of this article, I will put links where you can verify licenses in the states of Florida, New York, and California.

When you’re sick, you call you friends and family and ask for a referral and look for reviews. You call the doctor and make an appointment, and go to a physical office for that visit. Private investigations should be approached the same way. You need to screen your investigator the same way you screen your doctor.  If your investigator has a local office, visit them. Look for the required postings, certificates, degrees, and other proof that they are following state regulations.  Why would you pay for a doctor through a referral service and then accept service from a contractor being paid less than half of what you paid? That doesn’t make sense, logically or economically.

I will empower you to do your own research and hire a local private investigative agency that is properly licensed in the state you are seeking private investigation services from.  Many of us in this amazing field and career are former military, law enforcement officers, paralegals, federal law enforcement, or journalists.  We come from many different walks of life and try to help our clients, whether the have a corporate, insurance, or personal / domestic issue, to the best of our ability with integrity and honesty.

It is a requirement in the state of Florida, if you’re advertising in print or digitally, to post your license number on the advertisement.  In Florida, that license starts with an ‘A’ and is followed by numbers.  My agency’s number is A2300340, which means ‘A’ is the term for a private investigative agency and 23 means 2003, the year my agency license was issued.  The rest of the numbers are assigned randomly, perhaps indicating the number of licenses issued in that year.

With all of this information in mind, I hope you are empowered to make an informed decision on who you are hiring. Do not be afraid to ask questions, to visit a local office whenever possible, to meet the professional in person, to request a contract, and to ask to see a state-issued Private Investigator License within your state.

God Speed and Good Luck.

The following links are for your assistance to verify licenses and the two professional associations in Florida that you could verify if someone is a member of that organization as well: