1. How to Improve Investigations in Online Classifieds
Hosted by: Allen Atamer
LTAS Technologies

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 Cost about $50 - $500 off the shelf
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
The quick brown fox
the lazy dog
Page

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:
1998 VW BEETLE TDI DIESEL
2000 VW JETTA GLS "NEEDS BODY WORK"
2003 Honda Accord, Auto, One owner, No accident, Private Sale

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 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
$ 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 Requirement Hand-bombing CL Harmari Effort required
High
Low – Excel compatible report
Effectiveness
Low
High – prioritized list of suspects
Coverage
Limited
Complete
Cost
Your time
$ next slide

18. Auto: Reporter Pricing
Price per Month
Level
Posts/ Day
Example CL
CL, BkPg
CL, BkPg, EbayCL 3
0-500
Omaha,
Louisville
$350
$650
$800 2
Cleveland,
Detroit
$1050
$1300 1
1000+
NYC, LA
$950
$1400
$1700
Prices are negotiable!

19. Product Line and Features
Reporter
Investigator
Available?
TODAY
Database updates
bi-weekly
weekly
postings stored offline a
Analyze live data
Analyze historic data
up to 3 months
Price and mileage filter by make/model (Auto) 19

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

21. against the Perpetrator
Proactive
Excel Report
Delivered
Weekly
Report Divided Up
Amongst
Investigative Team
Avoid Hand-Bombing
Each Ad; Saves Time
Reactive
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

22. Show Excel File

23. Case Study - OMVIC Subscribed since August Reports delivered monthly
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
/ Voice Agents
Auto Flagging Ads for Removal

26. Next Steps Free quote specific to your needs
Free sample data for your review
LTAS Technologies 26