Undercover Investigations

Business:

There are a number of distinct problems in business which requires someone to locate, define, and help resolve. The most common is mysterious disappearance of stock and inventory. Many will consider it employee theft, and ask why they shouldn't have their store security personnel, or their loss prevention personnel uncover the problem with their methods?

When the problem of unexplained inventory loss occurs, and becomes great enough for upper management to notice, then a specialist in loss prevention who is not a store employee, who is not known by any other loss prevention personnel, must be utilized. It is quite possible that the loss prevention personnel are tacitly, if not directly, involved when inventory shrinkage becomes noticeable.

Drug use among employees while working is a more common problem than most management personnel realize. When this activity is suspected, only an undercover person of experience can root out the problem and call in the proper drug enforcement agencies at the right time. Employee drug use is also a strong indicator of potential employee theft.

Business involvement:

Unfortunately there are companies who hire undercover operatives to infiltrate a competing company to learn their trade secrets. This is defined by law as industrial espionage. It is illegal, but the law in itself, is not enough to protect a company from infiltration. When such infiltration is suspected by the victim company, only an experienced undercover operative is able to determine the extent of the infiltration and, with proper conduct, who is directing the operation. Once that information is uncovered, the means of correcting the problem becomes apparent.

Company relations:

If, for example, Company A decides to do business with Company B, either through stock trade, assets trade, of direct purchase of goods and/or inventory, it is necessary for Company A to determine just who they are or will be dealing with. This is particularly important if the business is to be conducted on a continuing basis. A type of business background check would be most helpful in this determination. What is the business reputation of the other company? Who are the principals? How reliable is the business? Is their quoted capability factual? These factors are inclusive in the company relations category, and should be considered whenever major transactions in this regard are considered.