I
am Bill E. Branscum, a retired Private Investigator and
former owner of Oracle International,
an investigative agency I established following my career
as a federal agent. I was awarded a BS Degree in Criminal
Justice from Eastern Kentucky University where I graduated
“With Distinction” and I was the Honor Graduate
at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center prior to
my career as a Special Agent, US Department of the Treasury.
The Institute of Internal Auditors
recently invited me to deliver a presentation regarding the various
and sundry scams and frauds promoted via the Internet. As I prepared
the outline for that presentation, several of the investigators
I network with requested copies for their review. Many reported
that they found the drafts useful and informative and several suggested
that I write a book.
As
most of you know, I have one time consuming project;
raising four children by myself leaves me little time to write books.
Rather than continue to produce copies of my outline, revise them
and re-revise the revisions for my professional colleagues, I have
established this web site. I hope that those among us who are interested
in the investigation of swindlers, grifters, frauds and scams find
it useful.
Those
of you in the market for books would do well to visit Les Henderson's
website at www.crimes-of-persuasion.com.
As far as that goes, anyone with an interest in fraud should visit
his website; it is probably the Internet's most exhaustive single
resource. Unfortunately, his website was offline for a while - a
notorious FOREX fraud feasor sued him and, Canadian law being what
it is, they were effectively able to shut him down and stifle him,
temporarily.
This
website is intended to provide a resource for other professional
investigators. For those of you who may not already know me, be
aware that I am not an attorney, I don't "play one on TV,"
and I'd rather have it said that I attempted to surgically remove
your "hot" appendix with a Swiss Army knife, than have
it alleged that I gave you legal advice.
In
addition to purely factual matters, I hope to share with you my
thoughts and observations regarding the peculiar breed of sociopath
that makes their living perpetrating "crimes of persuasion."
I want to talk to you about strategy, I want to share insights and
encourage you to be realistic in your approach to these investigations.
The better you understand this particular type of thief, the better
equipped you will be to deal with them and their shenanigans.
I
should also mention that any investigative reports you find on this
website are public record, and/or published with the consent of
my Clients in the interest of promoting professionalism through
education. There is nothing for sale here, there is no promotional
material and there are no advertisements.
