Today's fraud investigators need to have an arsenal of tools toassist them in identifying fraud and building their cases. Whilethere are many resources available on the Internet, it would beirresponsible to assume that everything you find is true andaccurate – therefore it's vital that you verify, verify,verify.

Besides verifying any information you find, it's important tocapture anything as soon as you see it, so print pages or use theprint screen function and create PDFs of all relevant information.If you're building a legal case, you'll need to produce the recordsat some point and sometimes it's difficult to get back to a page ifyou've traveled down a few rabbit holes.

At the recent IASIU conference, Joe Stephenson, managingdirector of SIU for Hagerty Insurance, spoke about investigativetools that are available for free on the Internet.

Here are 10 sites you probably didn't know you could access thatcan provide a treasure-trove of information at your fingertips.

Siuhelp.com

This free information clearinghouse provides a wealth ofresources for SIU professionals. Your price for admission – awillingness to share what you've learned with your peers. This mayinclude other websites, training courses, helpful hints, basicallywhatever will help everyone do a better job. There is a help deskas well as news, tips and advice.

Mamma.com

There are plenty of search engines available: Google, Yahoo,Bing and Ask to name a few. Mamma allows you to open multiplesearch windows and creates tabs for each new search so you cantrack who you've searched for.

millionshort.com

Another search engine is millionshort.com. Most other searchengines will capture the most popular search results. Millionshortremoves them from their searches, allowing you to dig deeper foryour information. You can set the number of popular sites you wantremoved from the search such as the first 50 or 100sites.

Google+

A Google search can involve a lot more than just typing a nameinto the Google landing page. Click on the icon in the upperright-hand corner that looks like a bunch of little squares and youcan access Google's advanced search settings. Click on “images” andyou can search for specific images or .jpgs with someone's name –like the “friends” who have tagged the person you're looking for ona Facebook page. You can also change the search settings, createadvanced search parameters, and use Google's search tools. The moreinformation you add to your search combinations, the lessinformation you will actually have to search through.

Spydialer.com

Sometimes investigators only have a phone number. Spydialerallows you to search for the owner of the cell phone number withoutcalling it. This free search will go directly into the voicemail ofthe phone number so investigators know who owns the cellphonewithout tipping off the owner.

Blackbookonline.info

A scary amount of information is available online. Think of allof the online forms you've filled out or the websites that allowyou to log in through Facebook or other sites. User names andemails are the Social Security numbers of the Internet, saysStephenson, so guard them carefully and be creative when generatingthem.

With that being said, if you need to check public records,blackbookonline.com will give you access to arrest warrants,criminal records, federal records, military information, sexoffenders, incident reports, parking tickets and a plethora ofrecords you probably didn't consider. You can also search publicrecords by state.

Again, verify the information you find because it may not beaccurate.

Twiangulate.com

We can't seem to help ourselves – social media has made it tooeasy to post useless information for millions of people to see. Wecan share our feelings, our thoughts on the latest trends or ourdispleasure with a vendor at the touch of a button. Facebook,Twitter and Snapchat are just some of the social media options.

And our love of social media has spawned a variety of programsthat can help you track people by their posts. Twiangulate lets yousee who's following whom, what kind of reach they have and whatthey've posted recently. Tweetpass can provide a map of someone'stweets, helping to identify places where they spend a lot of timelike work, home or school. TweetTunnel will color code tweets tohelp you track who's tweeting what and find friends or associatesof the person you're seeking. As their site says, they help you“chart Twitter's hidden networks.”

Dualmaps.com

Another Google product, dualmaps allows you to customize themaps you need and combine features like street view, Google mapsand Bing's map features. You can get a bird's-eye view, add streetnames, put in markers for specific locations and create tabs withdifferent information on the locations. The program also works onmobile devices.

Batchgeo.com

Another cool mapping program is Batchgeo because it makesmapping easy. It creates Google maps from all kinds of data:addresses, intersections, cities, states, zip codes – even websites– and maps out the data in an easy-to-read format.

If you import a table with information, it creates a Google mapof your locations, color codes the flags according to the differentgroups, and when you mouse over the various flags, the informationon that area will pop up from the table. Then you can save the mapand import it into other documents.

Instagram

If you're not using a mobile device as part of your research,then you're missing an entire segment of social media. Some of thenewer paid programs available actually allow you to map a person'sconversations via their social media posts. In addition to Snapchat(where posts doesn't actually disappear from their servers, eventhough they disappear users' phones), Instagram is another highlyvisual program that allows users to post videos and photos. It'sfree for all users and it can be shared in conjunction withFacebook, Twitter and Tumblr. (See how we connect the dots?)

There are literally hundreds of other sites with information,videos, names, addresses and information most people think they canhide. You just need to know where to look.