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How to Improve Investigations in Online Classifieds

How to Improve Investigations in Online Classifieds. Hosted by: Allen Atamer LTAS Technologies 1-647-892-6477 www.harmari.com. Allen Atamer. MIT graduate 2001 (S.M.) 10 years experience in artificial intelligence, text mining and software engineering 1 US and 1 Canadian patent in my name

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How to Improve Investigations in Online Classifieds

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  1. How to Improve Investigations in Online Classifieds Hosted by: Allen Atamer LTAS Technologies 1-647-892-6477 www.harmari.com

  2. Allen Atamer MIT graduate 2001 (S.M.) 10 years experience in artificial intelligence, text mining and software engineering 1 US and 1 Canadian patent in my name 8 years in the aerospace industry Personal motivation: 2 daughters 2

  3. CraigsList & Online Classifieds • Cheap, effective way to reach many people with your product/service • Many postings to investigate – sometimes thousands per day • Anonymous nature of listings, limited validation of personal information • CL hides behind the law when questioned* * S230 of the Communications Decency Act 1996

  4. Illegal Activity • Auto crime / Auto fraud • Child prostitution • Unlicensed Contractors • Weed / Drugs • Fraud / 419 scam (King of Nigeria) • E-Fencing stolen merchandise

  5. Free Monitoring Tool - RSS • CL provides RSS feeds free • Limited utility • lack of prioritization • Information overload for > 5 feeds

  6. Webscrapers Database • Cost about $50 - $500 off the shelf • Crawl a single page to many destinations • Limited utility • No clustering of similar postings • No clustering of phone numbers • No cleanup / filtering / prioritization of data • Page 1 2345 • The quick brown fox • the lazy dog Page 1 2 345

  7. Hand-Bombing Tip • Repeat ad that keeps coming up over and over? Use the - prefix

  8. Auto Crime - Reporter • Curbstoners – sell salvage title / grey titling vehicles • list bogus private sale ads in CL: “for sale by owner” EXAMPLE: 416-527-4626

  9. Auto Crime - Reporter Receive report compiling and separating list of sellers Instantly identify high-profile sellers without searching Sample Excel file below: 9

  10. Auto: Investigator • CL limits display of postings • Only 7 days old for major cities • Typically 30 days old for smaller cities • Additional matching against historic data up to 1 year old • “TGTBT” price rank EX. 2009 Acura for $9k, where average is $11k+ • “TGTBT” mileage rank  odometer spinners (felony)

  11. Auto Example: 2005 honda accord CURBSTONERS TEND TO PUT THEIR PRICES ABOUT $1-2000 BELOW THE GOING PRICE … THE RESULT? TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!

  12. The “Game” Career Criminals adapt when they feel the heat Move their ads to another website Obfuscate phone number in ad Change cell numbers often We can meet the challenge Harmari can analyze all major classifieds Craigslist, AutoTrader, Kijiji, Backpage, (more coming)… Future development You need a long-term internet investigation partner to be one step ahead 12

  13. Automation benefits • Text cleanup (spelling, decorations, acronyms, abbreviations, synonyms) • Automated License Plate Recognition (50-70% accy) • Duplicates filtered out (97% duplicate-free reports) • Merges info from similar listings • Posts/data are stored on our server for 3 months • Reporting allows you to prioritize the leads • By region, number of posts, price, posted date

  14. Breakdown of postings

  15. Find the phone number Obfuscated numbers foil the Reverse Lookup Search Harmari Engine is 98% accurate in retrieving such phone numbers

  16. Spot the difference

  17. The Competition

  18. Auto: Reporter Pricing Prices are negotiable!

  19. Product Line and Features 19

  20. NEW! CL Reverse Lookup Matching Live And Historic Ads Try it out for free! * Limited to Auto FSBO + Skilled Trades section Enter Phone Numbers Here

  21. Proactive 1. Receive Tip Or Complaint of Internet ad 2. Search the phone number on Harmari 3. Gather evidence against the Perpetrator -website -office location -false advertising Excel Report Delivered Weekly Report Divided Up Amongst Investigative Team Avoid Hand-Bombing Each Ad; Saves Time Reactive

  22. Show Excel File

  23. Case Study - OMVIC CL ads ---- --- --- - - - -- - -- Dealers DB • Subscribed since August • Reports delivered monthly • TGTBT modifications • Raw mileage number rather than ranking • Below Market Value (Yes/No) instead of 1-5 • Triage list • Inappropriate dealer ads vs. true curbstoners Harmari Engine Marketing Investigations

  24. Case Study – Virginia HEAT • Currently in evaluation phase • Sample report for Tidewater, VA area • Report for Craigslist with 243 phone numbers listed • Out of 28 phone numbers with 6+ vehicles, 7 were found to be unlicensed dealers • Report can be “very useful to the Virginia State Police, local LE, DMV, MVDB and other State Agencies for investigating curbstoning, vehicle crime and fraud, unlicensed contractors, fencing merchandise, prostitution, etc.”

  25. Future Development • Image Analysis – Stolen / Altered / Geo-tag ( see Blog on website) • Tipline / Complaints DB Integration • Email / Voice Agents • Auto Flagging Ads for Removal

  26. Next Steps Free quote specific to your needs Free sample data for your review LTAS Technologies www.harmari.com 1-647-892-6477 Email: info@harmari.com 26

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