Online Investigations: Adam4Adam, Ashley Madison, Grindr, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Tinder, and More

153 Pages·2015·3.44 MB·English

by  Aaron Edens

ONLINE
INVESTIGATIONS:
Adam4Adam, Ashley Madison, Grindr,
OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Tinder, and
More
CI Publishing derives material from active-duty law enforcement officers and instructors with years of
experience in the subject matter. The authors of ONLINE INVESTIGATIONS: Adam4Adam, Ashley
Madison, Grindr, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Tinder, and More chose to remain anonymous as they are
prevented from disclosing their identities for operational security reasons and due to departmental policies
regarding attribution and endorsements.

FIRST EDITION
CI PUBLISHING
ONLINE INVESTIGATIONS: Adam4Adam, Ashley Madison, Grindr, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Tinder,
and More
© 2015 by CI Publishing. All rights reserved.

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CI Publishing
4695 Chabot Drive Suite 200, Pleasanton, CA 94588
Publisher: CI Publishing
Editor: Elizabeth Peterson
1. Law Enforcement 2. Investigations 3. Social Media
First Edition
Printed in the United States of America
INTRODUCTION

Websites and applications for dating, ‘hookups’, and casual sex are abundant.
They can be found online and in the application stores of Apple and Google.
They offer the chance to meet someone with minimal effort and varying degrees
of anonymity. These services have millions of users. An estimated 41,000,000
Americans have tried online dating. Two of the largest sites, eHarmony and
match.com have a combined membership of close to 37,000,000 people.
Customers spend a lot of money of online dating and casual sex services. The
average users spends $239 annual on these types of services. The industry
generates approximately $1,249,000,000 every year.
While many are looking for a long term relationship, others are interested simply
in sex. In one study, 33% of women respondents reported they had sex on the
first online date encounter. Unfortunately, the nature of these sites makes them
hunting grounds for those who would prey on the vulnerable. According to one
source approximately 10% of registered sex offenders use online dating sites to
meet people. These can include pedophiles prowl these sites looking for
underage children to begin the process of grooming them and rapists who use
these sites to set up their next victim for drug facilitated sexual assaults.
Robbers also use these sites to entice their victims to a meeting site knowing
they are unlikely to report the crime as they were attempting to engage in casual
sex, often with the same gender.
Those who use casual dating sites and applications may feel anonymous or at
least discrete. However, there is an abundance of investigative leads that can be
followed up on to lead to the true identity and location of suspects using these
types of services. Each comes with its own unique particularities and
challenges. Some of these services are out of the country. Others store very
little usable information on their servers. A few are particularly vulnerable to
forensic recovery of evidence from devices used to access the service.
The following chapters cover some of the most popular hetero and homosexual
dating sites. The information they store, service of process information, and
forensic vulnerabilities for each site are covered in detail. But, before getting
started with a dating service investigation, there are some important
considerations to address.
Before You Start

The nature of dating and casual sex applications and services makes them
generally not suitable for work. Many contain graphic images of genitalia and
detailed descriptions of sex acts. Accordingly, many law enforcement systems
block access to these sites by using firewalls and monitoring systems. It is
prudent to advise the information technology staff of your department that you
will be accessing these sites during the course of an investigation.
Similarly, it is also wise to make sure supervisory personnel are aware.
Accessing these sites may trigger a notification that could make it appear you are
trolling for sex on the department’s time. Advance notification can intercept
uncomfortable conversations and internal affairs investigations before they
begin.
Mental preparation is also key to successful investigations involving casual
dating/sex sites. While most law enforcement officers are accustomed to graphic
images, some law enforcement officers might be uncomfortable dealing with the
graphic nature and descriptions found on some of the sites. This is particularly
true when investigating many of the services catering to the same sex.
EVIDENCE PRESERVATION

Preserve Locally

Many online dating and casual sex applications do not preserve data on their
servers once it has been deleted. This makes it imperative to preserve digital
evidence as soon as it is located. In the time it takes to get a search warrant,
court order, or subpoena, the suspect may irretrievably delete evidence.
The quickest and easiest way to preserve evidence from one of these applications
or service is to capture the page as either a PDF or using screen capture
software. This allows the investigator to retain a working copy of the profile or
message. It may also serve as evidence in the event the profile or message is
deleted. PDF and screenshots are not the ideal evidence. However, if nothing
else exists after the profile or message is altered or deleted, the PDF or
screenshot could be the best and only evidence.
Most law enforcement agencies are fairly restrictive about installing software
onto a departmental computer or mobile data terminal. For reasons the defy
explanation, police officers can be trusted with a handgun, Taser®, pepper spray,
impact weapon, patrol rifle, and handcuffs but they can’t be trusted with
installing software on a computer.
Using OneNote to Capture Web Pages

Fortunately there is a solution already on most law enforcement desktops and
mobile terminals. Microsoft’s OneNote is packaged with other software such as
Word and Excel. It is one of the most underutilized software programs by law
enforcement officers and is a tremendous tool for organizing case files and other
information. OneNote can be used to save webpages into a work book and then
printed or exported in a number of formats.
To save a profile, posting, or any other webpage, into OneNote select File then
Print.
Within the print options select OneNote and the entire web page will be saved.
The advantage of saving webpages this way is it captures the entire page and not
just the visible area. Using the Print Screen function in windows only prints the
visible area and it may take several screen captures to get the entire posting.