HOUSTON – Nancy Craig, the mother of 30-year-old Tiffany McAllister said she’ll walk to the ends of the earth to find her missing daughter. “I thought God sent this man to me to help us,” Craig said.
This is a tragic story made worse by a fake investigator
As a professional Investigative Agency, we are always on the lookout for “un-licensed” people and will actively make a report and do a follow up to make sure this activity stops.
The complete story can be read here:
The heartbroken Florida mother said “If he had asked for my soul, I would’ve sent it to him.”
She said she got a Facebook message from a random stranger, offering to help find her daughter, who has been missing for three weeks.
“It was, like ‘I will have her in 24 hours,'” Ms. Craig said.
The man claimed to be a private investigator.
“He told me everything that I wanted to hear,” Craig said.
He said he’d find her daughter, and he’d do it for free.
“I’m so vulnerable, and I think he preyed on that. He knew,” Craig said.
But his promises quickly faded.
“He needed $2,000 for this. He needed a car,” Craig said.
The family did everything he asked, and trusted every word he said.
But in the end, they learned the truth. “He scammed us, plain and simple. He just scammed us,” Craig said. A family broken at its lowest point is now out more than $1,000 because they wanted a con man’s lies to be true.
If you EVER need to hire a Private Investigator, here is what you need to know…
In Florida, All Private Investigators are required to be licensed. In fact, they need TWO licenses. Here is how it works… To hire an investigator, you must first contact the licensed Agency. That is who you actually hire. The Agency will then assign an investigator to work your case.
All Agencies have a license number that starts with “A”. All investigators have a license that starts with “C” (or “CC” in they are in training.) All money that you pay is paid to the Agency, not the investigator.
Florida also requires that every Private Investigator have identification for the agency they work for, and their original Florida issued license (C or CC License) Both of these documents will contain a photo. Having just a business card is not enough – they MUST have both forms of ID on them while working. Be sure to check the expiration dates.
Also, Florida requires that the license be displayed on websites and business cards. You will notice that we display our agency license on every page of our site.
To verify Licenses use the below links:
To file a complaint, use this link. (All Private Investigator licenses are regulated by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.)
Always go with your gut feeling. You must feel comfortable with anyone that you hire. Ask questions, find out exactly what they can do and how much it will cost. Yeah, about costs…. It is very hard to quote and exact price for an investigation. Every case is different and sometimes the plan of action will change. It’s just the nature of the work we do. Even the hourly rate can change depending on what is being done. As an example, you would not expect to pay the same rate for vehicle surveillance as you would for pulling court records. What we have always done is to keep our clients informed as the investigation progresses and be as cost effective as possible to get the job done right.
Most people never have had to hire an investigator in their lifetime. And that’s a good thing. But if you find yourself in need, we hope that it works out for you in a positive way. If you ever have questions, we are available to talk to you anytime. We never charge for that. We have even been known to buy a cup of coffee and chat for awhile. We are here to help and we take pride in the services that we offer…
