What is due diligence?
It is defined as an investigation of a business or person prior to signing a contract, or an act with a certain standard of care.
In certain circumstances this could be a legal obligation, but in many cases it is a voluntary procedure, design to mitigate against losses.
Many large businesses investigate large clients, checking they have the assets and backing to pay for large orders, allowing recovery of any unpaid debt, should things go wrong.
Large corporations often have in house experts and systems to complete due diligence enquiries without need for a private detective.
Small firms may use private investigators to carry out due diligence.
But what about private individuals? Why would they need this service?
A recent case worked on by EJM Investigations involved tracing an individual who had taken a four figure sum deposit off the client and not sent the goods as agreed.
Initially the client had an agreement of ½ deposit, exchange the goods, then 2nd ½ of money would be transferred. Being sensible the client requested proof of address and name before sending the deposit via bank transfer. The deal went through, no problems.
The client then received an offer to buy a second similar item on the same terms.
He sent the deposit, then all contact stopped.
The clients initial instruction was to simply attend the address and establish the situation.. This our investigators did, and the news wasn’t good. The person our client dealt with didn’t, nor ever had, lived at the address.
Our private detectives were able to eventually trace the person, although it cost nearly ½ of what the client stood to lose.
Luckily, the person who took the money quickly offered it back, as well as paying the cost of the investigation, rather than face police involvement.
The lesson learnt was that the experienced investigators at EJM Investigations would have flagged up numerous warning signs had the client come to us first, even if it was just to confirm the address.
Quite often people involved in this sort of online scam are untraceable, based abroad, have no recoverable assets. This client was extremely fortunate that his only loss was the inconvenience of it all.
EJM Investigations can assist in a number of situations:
• Online transactions
• Offline business dealings
• Verify identities off dating sites
• And many more….
Just remember it may be cheaper to call our Rochdale private detectives before you get scammed!!