Cases
GREY MAN Case Studies
THREAT SUPPRESSION – our client, an entrepreneur in the UK, was threatened by a ruthless competitor who attempted to eliminate our client’s business as a competitor. The attacker employed “difficult customers” who disrupted our client’s business with bogus complaints. When this didn’t work out, the attacker attempted to “steal” our client’s suppliers, employees and customers. At the same time, our client received direct threats against his life. At one point, ou client received a life rifle cartridge along with a written note, asking our client to “close his business, or else”…
At this point, our client asked Grey Man to step in. Our expert “Brad”, former special forces and trained undercover expert, investigated the attacker in-depth, run surveillance, and discovered a number of criminal activities. After securing sufficient hard proof, Brad and his team confronted the attacker, making clear that there would be a number of consequences to him if he didn’t stop his threats and actions against our client. The attacker understood that our client was no longer vulnerable and that the repercussions against the attacker would be extreme. From that point on, our client was no longer bothered by his competitor.
RESOLUTION OF FRAUD with SKIP TRACING and DEBT COLLECTION – our client, a middle-aged lady in the Boston area had been conned by a “romantic con-man”. He was a skilled fraudster, and over the period of about 8 months tricked our client into making several substantial payments for an alleged business the con-man claimed he wanted to set up, and then pay back the money. When, at a later point, our client asked for proof that the business was really set up, the con-man disappeared.
On behalf of our client, our intelligence expert “Eitan” started to analyze the case and all available digital communication our client had exchanged with the con-man. The phone no. he used was a “burner” and no longer active. But based on the email exchanges, Eitan was able to identify the real IP address of the computer used. He was eventually able to trace the con-man in South Africa to where he had escaped to meanwhile. The man resided at a hotel from where he had sent his last few emails.
Eitan, along with a team of South African operators from our partner Brillstein Security Group, surveilled the hotel internet facility. When the con-man replied to an email from our client, Eitan was able to identify the individual. The man was then confronted and “convinced” to pay back most of our client’s money.
CRISIS RESOLUTION with EMERGENCY EXTRACTION – a corporate client and a number of employees traveled to a country in Central Asia in order to conduct business. An uprising occurred unexpectedly in that country, and not only prevented our clients’ party to leave, but also directly threatened the life of our client and his team.
Luckily, the client was (still is) a VIP SOS client, which included the use of our “travel tacker” service. By means of a special application, our emergency extraction team was able to locate the client very accurately and quickly.
A team of Emergency Rescue Specialists was dispatched to a neighboring country – as direct flights were unavailable. The rescue team then entered the country where our client was located, established contact, and then extracted our clients’ party outside the country – over land, then by helicopter. They finally returned safely back home.
INVESTIGATION, SURVEILLANCE, INFORMATION SERVICE with UNDERCOVER – a large European industrial company suspected one of the upper rank managers to steal company data on certain products, and have the product copy in Asia, and then sell the product to our clients’ customers at a lower price.
Our intelligence expert “Joel” was tasked to investigate the suspect, surveil him during his trips to Asia, and clarify if the suspect indeed committed treason, fraud, and other crimes.
Joel followed the suspect to Hongkong and mainland China where the suspect visited trade shows in the name of our client. Over the course of several days, the suspect not only visited a number of competitors of our client directly at their company offices, but also had his very own company set up in Hongkong, without the knowledge of our clients (thus, his employer). Through continued surveillance and intelligence measures (digital and through direct contacts with the suspects partners), Joel discovered that indeed the suspect had the products copied in China, and sold them through his own company.
After all the proof was collected and the suspect had returned to Europe to pretend to be still working for our client, Joel approached the suspect pretending to be interested to buy the product in large quantities. The suspect took the bait, offered the pirated products to Joel. The whole conversation was documented. The suspect was then confronted a few days later. He was not only fired by our client, but “convinced” to sign a “cease and desist”, and also pay back the costs for the whole investigation. All the clients’ customers where informed, and the suspect was out of business.