Twenty articles on investigations, polygraph, security, firearms and gemology — written from 36 years of casework rather than from a search engine. No hype, no folklore, and an honest account of what each method can and cannot do.
20 posts, newest first.
The machine does not detect lies. Dan Ribacoff explains what a polygraph really measures, why the pre-test interview matters more than the charts, and what separates a valid examination from theatre.
Read article →Crossed arms, broken eye contact, touching the nose: the popular list of deception cues is mostly folklore. What actually correlates with lying, and why an investigator relies on facts instead.
Read article →Licensing, insurance, retainers, deliverables and red flags. A practical checklist from Dan Ribacoff for anyone about to hire an investigator for the first time.
Read article →Automated screening reports miss the things that sink deals. What genuine pre-transaction due diligence looks like, and where the real risks hide.
Read article →Dan Ribacoff's book hands professional tradecraft to ordinary readers. Here are the core lessons it builds on — and the one chapter people should read first.
Read article →Relationship polygraph is the most emotionally loaded work in the field. An honest look at when it resolves a marriage and when it should be declined outright.
Read article →Nine hours in a vehicle, four minutes of usable footage. Inside the least glamorous and most decisive part of the investigative trade.
Read article →Financial exploitation of older adults is the fastest-growing case type in South Florida. What to look for, and what to do the moment you see it.
Read article →Internal theft rarely comes from the new hire. How losses actually happen, why owners miss them for years, and how to investigate without destroying the business.
Read article →Dan Ribacoff is both a GIA Graduate Gemologist and an investigator. Here is how those two disciplines combine into a short list of rules for buying stones.
Read article →As the polygraph expert on numerous productions, Dan Ribacoff explains what broadcast gets right, what it necessarily compresses, and where viewers are misled.
Read article →Trackers, stalkerware, and physical surveillance. Practical detection and response steps from an investigator who deploys these techniques professionally.
Read article →Employers, landlords and daters all run background checks. Very few understand what those reports contain, what they legally cannot contain, and what they miss entirely.
Read article →The order most people do this in is backwards. What to settle before buying anything, from a certified instructor who has spent 36 years around real risk.
Read article →Romance fraud is not about gullibility. It is a professionally engineered process. How the script runs, and how to verify someone before money moves.
Read article →Not all proof is useful proof. What matrimonial attorneys need from an investigator, and what clients waste money gathering.
Read article →Technical surveillance countermeasures, without the marketing. What a professional sweep involves, when a business genuinely needs one, and why the phone app will not do.
Read article →Locating a debtor, a witness, a birth relative or an absent parent. The methodology behind skip tracing and the legal lines that constrain it.
Read article →Investigators build detailed profiles from freely posted material. Here is what is visible, how it is assembled, and how to reduce your own exposure.
Read article →Lessons from 36 years of casework across New York, Florida and London — what holds true regardless of the case type.
Read article →Confidential consultations. Cases handled worldwide from offices in Manhattan, Long Island, Westchester, Boca Raton and London.