Ways you can protect your identity:

At home: Keep you financial records, social security and credit cards in a safe place. Shred papers that have your personal information. Take mail out of your mailbox as soon as possible.

On the computer: Use passwords that are not easy to guess. Use numbers and symbols. Do not respond to emails or other messages that ask for personal information. Do not put personal information on a public computer.

In business: Do not give out personal information to someone who calls you on the phone.  Only give your social security number to someone you are sure is legit.

It is a good idea to check your bank, credit card statements and credit report frequently. There are companies like credit karma and credit genie that will let you check your credit as much as you like without affecting your credit score.

We are proud to announce that we have partnered with Choice Parenting, a childcare consulting service for expectant and new parents. Founded by Holly Flanders, she has a vision and passion for helping professional families find quality childcare.

Choice Parenting helps parents who are expecting a baby and need to create a childcare plan for their return to work. Helping to decide if daycare, nanny, nanny shares or au pairs are best suited for their families. She also offers how to search for or hire a nanny or nanny share on their own without an agency. In addition, Holly also offers childcare coaching sessions, childcare workshops, nanny training classes, nanny vetting and custom hourly services.

For more information on Holly and the services she offers, go to her website www.choice-parenting.com

Gold Shield Elite Investigations is proud to be in partnership with the Carlie Crusade Foundation. It is a not for profit organization located in Marlboro, N.Y. dedicated in memory of Carlie Brucia, a beautiful eleven year old Long Island girl, who was abducted , sexually assaulted and brutally murdered in Florida on February 1, 2004.

The program teaches children of all ages about abduction prevention, internet safety and self preservation. Over the past five years they have brought their workshops to over 75 schools in 7 counties in New York State. Anyone interested in learning more about this worthy foundation, or would like to make a donation, please go to their website at www.carliescrusade.org or call Dominick Magistro or Bob Fisch at 1-800-496-6720.

Recent analysis from the FBI and other government agencies demonstrates that malicious actors are targeting travelers abroad through pop-up windows while they are establishing an Internet connection in their hotel rooms.

Recently, there have been instances of travelers’ laptops being infected with malicious software while using hotel Internet connections. In these instances, the traveler was attempting to set up the hotel room Internet connection and was presented with a pop-up window notifying the user to update a widely used software product. If the user clicked to accept and install the update, malicious software was installed on the laptop. The pop-up window appeared to be offering a routine update to a legitimate software product for which updates are frequently available.

The FBI recommends that all government, private industry, and academic personnel who travel abroad take extra caution before updating software products through their hotel Internet connection. Checking the author or digital certificate of any prompted update to see if it corresponds to the software vendor may reveal an attempted attack. The FBI also recommends that travelers perform software updates on laptops immediately before traveling, and that they download software updates directly from the software vendor’s website if updates are necessary while abroad.

Anyone who believes they have been a target of this type of attack should immediately contact their local FBI office and promptly report it to the IC3’s website at www.IC3.gov. The IC3’s complaint database links complaints together to refer them to the appropriate law enforcement agency for case consideration. The complaint information is also used to identify emerging trends and patterns.

Sean Banks was arrested this February after allegedly raping a woman he met on the widely publicized dating site ChristianMingle.com. In a similar case, Wade Ridley was sentenced to 70 years in prison for killing a woman he had met on the social website match.com.

Numerous cases have become public in which individuals have been courted and then swindled by persons they met through the Internet.

A hit song of the mid-1950’s, “The Tender Trap,” sung by Frank Sinatra, tells the story of romance trumping reason:

“You see a pair of laughing eyes

And suddenly you’re sighing sighs;

You’re thinking nothing’s wrong….

Those eyes, those sighs, they’re part of the tender trap.”

If you are a person who might be a tempting target for a con artist or for someone even more dangerous, it makes sense to get some background information before attraction overpowers common sense.

A private investigative firm, such as Gold Shield Elite Investigations, can perform a range of discreet inquiries on a confidential basis that can determine if the person is who he or she claims to be…and whether the life story you have been told matches up with the checkable facts.

Facts are important. Facts about finances, employment, past residences, criminal convictions, legal entanglements, marital status, etc. can either reassure you or persuade you not to become further involved.

You owe it to yourself and your family not to become ensnared in “the tender trap” with someone who is not to be trusted.

*****

Don’t be nearly sure. Let Gold Shield Elite investigate. Be certain.

For a free initial consultation, call us: 845.561.4734 or 888.213.8881.

The conclave that selected the newest Catholic Pope, Pope Francis, was protected by extensive, sophisticated security measures and devices, not only to assure the safety of the participants, but to protect the integrity of the election process by keeping the deliberations and voting secret until after the world saw the puff of white smoke emitted to signify election of the new Pontiff.

We all have secrets, few of them of such international interest, all of them of possible personal or commercial impact. To keep our written materials private, we use locked doors and file cabinets and safes …and paper-shredders.

What can we do to keep our conversations private?

For the conclave, the Vatican’s security experts used electronic instruments to “sweep” the chambers to assure there were no recording devices, no “bugs,” hidden within.

If you have reason to believe someone has installed a recording or transmitting device on your premises, you will want to employ an organization, such as Gold Shield Elite Investigations, to check your telephones and to “sweep” your rooms to detect any surveillance equipment. Such equipment would have been installed by someone trusted or by someone never considered…like a maintenance man or an “installer” of something or an “inspector” of some type.

Modern counter-electronics, in suitably trained hands, can find such devices. You decide whether to remove them or to feed the listeners misleading information.

Sometimes, we want to know a secret. Sometimes, others want to know ours.

*****

Don’t be nearly sure. Let Gold Shield Elite investigate. Be certain.

For a free initial consultation, call us: 845.561.4734 or 888.213.8881.

From the back cover of the book by Lenny Golino [and Douglas Winslow Cooper], a memoir  to be published in 2012 by Outskirts Press:

In The Shield of Gold, private investigator and former New York Police Department homicide detective Lenny Golino informs, amuses, and sometimes saddens the reader with real-life stories from his twenty-one years with the NYPD and from his current position as head of Gold Shield Elite Investigations, LLC. Among the chapters are “Gratitude and Attitude,” “From Kid to Cop,” “‘Street Eyes’ and ‘Street-wise,’” “World Trade Center Attack, September 11, 2001,” “Line-ups, Show-Ups, and Screw-Ups,” ”The Murderous Mom,” “One Who Got Away,” “Cache of the Day,” “Through a Cop’s Eyes,” “Who, or What, Is Bugging You?”

This candid memoir describes some of the highs and lows of being on The Job. One needs a sense of humor and a philosophical perspective not to become victim to three common hazards of police work: alcoholism, divorce, and suicide. “To serve and protect” successfully one must have insight and compassion, along with street smarts and a desire to see justice done. One cannot be too soft-boiled nor too hard-boiled…nor scrambled.

After retiring from the NYPD, Golino found that being a detective had become addictive. He established his Gold Shield Elite organization to continue his calling and to provide private investigative services in Newburgh, NY that are timely, professional, and affordable.

The Shield of Gold gives a first-hand depiction of police work and private investigating that both informs and entertains.

**********Leonard Golino is a decorated veteran of twenty-one years of service with the New York Police Department, the last seven years of which he served as a robbery-homicide unit detective, solving 46 of 57 homicide investigations he conducted. He is currently a private investigator.