Training

This course provides an overview of the actions investigators can take at the outset of a financial crime investigation. Students learn to ask critical questions, gather documentation, and analyze information for leads. Topics include obtaining and working with financial records, red flags in financial cases, money laundering, investigative strategies for different types of financial crimes, and commingled funds.

This one-day course provides foundational spreadsheeting knowledge and skills to enhance workplace productivity. The course covers basic navigation of Microsoft Excel by combining live demonstrations and hands-on exercises.

Work with multiple worksheets within a workbook
Hide, unhide, and protect worksheets
Adjust rows and columns
Use copy and paste options
Find, select, and sort data

This course provides expert guidance in the skills law enforcement officers need to conduct successful online investigations. Topics include IP addresses and domains, an overview of currently popular social media platforms, best practices for building an undercover profile, foundational knowledge related to the dark web, and the use of the dark web as an investigative tool. Instructors demonstrate both open-source and commercially-available investigative tools for social engineering, information gathering, and artifacts related to social media; as well as automated utilities to capture information and crawl websites.

*Internet basics. IP address assignment; resolving domains and IP addresses; networking overview.
*Popular sites. Facebook, Twitter, KiK Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, tumblr, and more.
*The dark web. Surface, deep, and dark web; how data flows through the internet. Who uses the dark web and how?
*Tor. How to access Tor; how Tor traffic works; how a Tor Hidden Service works; installing and configuring the Tor Browser Bundle.

This three-day course covers the fundamentals of financial investigations and incorporates some of the more advanced processes that elevate an investigation. During this course, students will learn about investigative processes, practical tools, and sources of information necessary to plan and conduct financial investigations. The course begins with a description of the basic composition of elements within illicit financial networks and how they work to compromise legitimate business and financial sectors. Course material will describe government, regulatory, and investigative actions within the United States, and by international partners to detect and investigate illicit actors and networks. The course also includes considerations for investigation planning and promotion of creative thinking.

Mobile devices dominate the intake list, and the desks of most digital forensics analyst globally. Devices are becoming more secure, with an increase in security the need for detailed analysis is increasing as well. SQLite is a self-contained, serverless database engine. It is found on nearly every operating system and dominates iOS, Android, and macOS as one of the most prevalent and relevant data storage mechanisms. Rather than hope our forensic tools support the newest applications or be tethered to how a certain utility parses data we can arm ourselves with the skills and techniques needed to conquer the analysis of nearly any application.

What is SQLite and how to identify and analyze logically
Recognizing relevant locations of valuable data within SQLite database.
Develop skills needed for crafting custom SQLite queries.
Learn how to recognize and decode a variety of common timestamp formats.
Learn how to perform SQLite analysis with automation.

This course promotes a multi-agency approach to the problem of financial exploitation of senior citizens. Bringing together law enforcement personnel and adult protective services investigators, the course enhances students investigative skills and interviewing techniques while facilitating networking and cooperation that can extend out of the classroom and into real cases. Topics include recognizing elder abuse, working with victims, identifying perpetrators, and resources for investigation and community awareness. Students work together to conduct a mock investigation into a hypothetical case.

*Financial investigation basics. What constitutes elder abuse? Family and trusted persons as perpetrators. Statutes and sentencing enhancements.
*Senior victims. Reasons for vulnerability. Special needs like Alzheimers or dementia.
*Resources. Community awareness and investigative resources.
*Hands-on experience. Work a case as part of an investigative team.

This course provides hands-on investigative training at a basic level. Students develop the practical skills, insight, and knowledge necessary to manage a successful financial investigation from start to finish, including the acquisition and examination of financial records, interview skills, and case management and organization. Additional topics include forgery and embezzlement, financial exploitation of the elderly, working with spreadsheets, financial profiling, and state-specific statutes and legal issues.

*Emerging issues. Current trends in various types of financial crimes. Recent cases and their implications.
*Financial records. Learn to obtain and manage bank records, including basic spreadsheeting skills.
*Working with data. Extract leads and draw conclusions from bank records and other financial data.
*Hands-on experience. Work a mock financial case as part of an investigative team.

This course introduces the information and techniques law enforcement personnel need to safely and methodically collect and preserve digital evidence at a crime scene. Topics include recognizing potential sources of digital evidence; planning and executing a digital evidence-based seizure; and the preservation, packaging, documentation, and transfer of digital evidence.

*Prepare. Prepare to respond to an incident or crime scene where digital evidence may be present.
*Identify. Learn tow to identify relevant sources of digital evidence in an ever-evolving landscape.
*Collect. Learn the proper methods of digital evidence collection.
*Preserve. Build upon the three previous principles to ensure valid and legal preservation of digital evidence can occur.

This course is for officers, investigators, and analysts who encounter cell phone evidence that includes information external to the phone. Class concepts include instruction on how to request, read, and analyze call detail records from cellular providers; and how to plot cellular site locations to determine the approximate position of a suspect during a given period. No special hardware or software is required. However, this course focuses heavily on analysis; as such, a strong working knowledge of Microsoft Excel is highly recommended. Students are provided with a free copy of NW3Cs PerpHound tool, which assists in the plotting of call detail record locations.

*Cellular technology. Land-line and cellular networks. Types and generations of cell phones. Cell site design and its implications for law enforcement.
*Analysis of call detail records. Request information from service providers. Convert records into a useful format. *Merge two related spreadsheets. Read and analyze using filters, sorting, and pivot tables. Plot location information.
*Hands-on experience. Hands-on experience with NW3Cs free software tool PerpHound and Microsoft Excel to analyze various types of records that are available from cellular providers.

This course provides students with the fundamental knowledge and skills they need to investigate crimes involving virtual currency. Instructors explain foundational concepts like the characteristics of money, virtual currency, and cryptocurrency. Blockchain technology, proof work, and proof of stake are covered; and students learn how industry-leading cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero) work and how they differ from each other. Finally, students learn investigative techniques for tracking and documenting transactions; and best practices for seizing and securing cryptocurrency.

*Virtual currency basics. History of money and of virtual currency. Categorizing virtual currency.
*Blockchain. History of the blockchain. Understanding different protocols.
*Cryptocurrencies in detail. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and other privacy coins.
*Investigative techniques. Seizing virtual currency; tracking transactions through the blockchain; documenting investigative results.