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For comments, please contact the author at Ettisch-EnchelmaierGmbH@t-online.de The following article was first published in February 2000 in the DETEKTIV/Lubljana/Slovania, then in the NEWSLETTER of the Canada Association of Private Investigators, Alberta in Summer 2000. A broker is a person who has a client looking for something needed and the broker finds a source being able to satisfy that need. We have it in many walks of life, e.g. ship broker, even a travel agent is a broker. The information broker (IB) handles the transfer of information, be it by letter, phone, email or any other mean. The origin of this industry goes back to the 19th Century when such entities as Schimmelpfeng or Bürgel in Germany, Dun and Bradstreet in the USA, the leading one worldwide, were founded. Some (like Schimmelpfeng, Bürgel) established a form of "society" because of legal reasons and were and still are able to supply the information to their "members" who have to pay an annual membership fee and also buy "tickets" ahead. One ticket is good for a normal (speed) report in one's country, for an express service two tickets are needed and superflash requests 3 tickets. The price of a ticket depends on the amount of tickets (reports) a client needs a year, the more the less such a ticket costs. Additional fees for possible translations and surcharge for foreign reports. The farther a country is and the more difficult the political and economical situation prevailing in that country the dearer is such a "ticket". Not everyone uses this system, nor does the writer of this article. The client pays (like with leasing) for what he has asked for. Already from the beginning the entities ("associations", companies, sole proprietorships) did not stop at being solely IBs, they more often than not also did the research themselves, mostly "locally" which may mean only in their town or in their country. As the needs of the clients grew with their growing activities and the geographical distances, the IBs either looked colleagues in other locations or opened their own offices in places where they were interested. This development is still very present. Creditreform/Germany opened offices or took over companies e.g. in Rumania, Dun and Bradstreet took over Schimmelpfeng/Germany, Equifax/USA (second largest in the world) bought up DIL/Argentina and the list of examples is long. One may start the IB business on your "kitchen table", needing only a telephone and a typewriter. These days it is advisable also to have a computer and fax equipment (the telex, once a very important tool, is alas dying out). The writer of this article really "stumbled" into this profession because of the knowledge of several languages and therefore being engaged as the office manager of and information brokerage. Since the street investigators did not always meet the handling time and quality, partly because of the lack of English the writer had to pick up the phone and do the investigation. And it worked, after all having a background of many years of university studies and research. The writer started the business 28 years ago in the evenings using the living room table and a mechanical typewriter at the beginning, but by now also very versed also in cyberspace. There are a few prerogatives to be a successful IB: An ability to deal with people of all kinds at any time, good contacts and vivid imagination in order to find new contacts (to have contacts is half of the company's "capital"), commercial and legal knowledge and if doing international work, also languages and the same international requirement. Especially when working globally, one must be ready to be early, but also late in the office due to the time differences. An important legal requirement is these days also the Right of Privacy Act: what is permitted or forbidden in a certain country. An IB's clients come from all walks of life. It may be a small one-man baker or an intentional company as Siemens, a small bank giving a loan to a private customer or the Deutsche Bank which may lend money to a big company to build a new head office. An IB provides the need to supply information of all kind, e.g. in- formation on a private individual (his creditworthiness and credibility, education, employments, abilities) or on a company (date of foundation, legal form, owners, directorship, activities, number of employees, financial data -often incl. a balance-, size, reputation, bank relations, decision of amount of credit grantable), market research. Nowadays also supplying the information available on the internet, needed e.g. for learning whether a patent for a certain good has already been developed. Again, there are few if any ONLY IBs, but they also act in some extend or another as researchers. And here for instance the DATA BROKER, thejust mentioned information broker and researcher on the internet is new fast growing industry. One cannot say which information is more important or of most demand. It is as varied as the clients' needs. A small firm wants to hire a person and needs to know more about him, a man wants to let an apart- ment to a woman and wants to know whether she is trustworthy and can pay the rent, a group of companies intends to intensify their acti-vities in the Far East and wants to know what requirements are needed (legally, commercially, equipment wise etc.) to be successful, what contacts are needed. Here again there are specialists such as credit information agencies look into the creditability of persons and companies, market research (information) broker do just that, technical IB specialize in information on certain technical information, again often doing the search themselves. To gain clients an IB must be a good sales person: He must sell himself and his services, but of course it is not enough to gain a client, but by proficiency and good service afterwards he can keep his clients and hopefully gain new ones through "mouth propaganda". To gain clients there are quite a number of means possible, similarly used in other fields of activities: by personal visits, letters, exhibitions, mouth propaganda, becoming members of professional associations, compiling newsletters and articles, speeches. Nowadays one can also use the internet by joining professional chat rooms and lists or even establishing one's one list, which is a synonym for an "association". The undersigned has established such a list of international profes-sionals nearly 2 years ago with now some 250 members, new ones joining nearly daily, also publishes a column under the name of "Chit Chats", which touches the field of IBs and private investigators (PIs), legal matters, computer, internet, email, since the latters are becoming the most important tools these days. Ethics: Beside the customary ethical conduct of a true and honest professional the main criterion for an IB as well as a PI is to abide to the laws of the Data Protection Act. In very few words: The client must have a JUSTIFIED interest for an investigation: the investigated person has applied for a loan, a job, wants to rent an appartment, the company checked is either a potential client for a big volume, a slow or bad payer, or wants to be a representative for the IB's client. There are of course more reasons. These days it is "customary" to order a request via the internet, often not even supplying the requester's first name. The IB has to insist on the potential client coming into the open with the full name, address, best also telephone and fax numbers and the justified interest. Better even a full or a partial down-payment, depending on the case. In Germany there is no special law under which an IB can open his business, like any other entity the business must be registered at the companies' register and depending on the legal form also be registered at the commercial register, e.g. limited liability companies, share-holding ones and the like, not any trading companies. However, the data protection authorities may check on the business as to whether they abide to the law. If there are more than 4 employees having an access to the confidential data, the company itself must appoint a data protection representative, whose job is to see that everybody adheres to the law. There is really no difference to PIs, in Germany there is NO licensing for these two groups as yet, only since a few years there is a licensing for the guards. Of course since many years especially the PI industry has attempted to get licensing required by law, but unsuccessful. The national associ-ations try by examinations to substitute this deficit, but they are still not very successful to this writer's opinion. The legal and commercial as well as other specific knowledge for the PIs is not much different to the IBs at the beginning. PIs however may be much more on the street, use special surveillance equipment, need electronic knowledge, but should also have a good computer skills these days. Of course a PI may specialize in domestic cases, others in industrial investigation, then the special skills of course differ, but the basic knowledge is the same. It is like becoming a doctor, first one learns the general basics, later one specializes. Then of course special skills are attained. It is not mandatory for a IB or PI to become a member of a professional association. As with all such associations, one meets colleagues, enjoys the camaraderie, have a network of colleagues who may help in the case of need, but all in all one puts in more than one gets out of it. However, towards potential clients it may be of some impression. However, these days one may get most of it also on the internet free of charge. The writer's internet list, called Investigationsworldwide, has a website to be viewed at http://www.kaleinvestigation.com/world.html and publishes an electronic roster (members' list) once every two weeks. ALL free of charge to the members. It is not obligatory for an IB or PI to be a member of the appertaining chamber of commerce because of these professions. In Germany companies by law must be members of the chamber of commerce. The field of acti-vities is irrelevant. I f a company is e.g. a shoemaker or painter, then it does not belong to the chamber of COMMERCE, but the apper-taining chamber of trade. The mode of payment varies from country to country or even from company to company. In the USA mostly a credit card is used, less a bank transfer. As mentioned before in the IB field it is still quite common to use the "ticket" or "bulletin" system which are pre-paid/pre-bought. Contracts are also signed, again varying much. It would take too long to go into it now. In the PI business one also signs a contract, in the USA the liability part is even more pronounced. Therefore an American PI should be "bonded and insured" with quite a high sum, mostly at least US $500,000. When, what, how payments are done, must be decided from case to case and from client to client. It is not unlikely as in the producing business. The writer of this article employs all kinds of forms. Prepayment: with odd clients, small cases. If the client is located overseas, the client is requested to fill out a check for instance and fax it to the writer. The writer then starts the investigation, but may only supply the information when the original sent by airmail has received. In bigger cases a prepayment, perhaps by a bank transfer, of 50% - 75% is requested, mostly such an amount that the envisaged costs at least are covered. It is always best to confirm the oral agreement in writing (by mail, fax or email), already to avoid any misunderstanding, but also from the legal point of view. Whether a client pays or does not pay does not depend on the contract or the written word. One may get paid upon an oral agreement and not paid even if an agreement has been signed before a notary (as it has happened to me. One company fraudulently went bankrupt, others did not pay what the judges ruled or refused to pay what was agreed upon. All were IB firms) |