Solving a REAL investigation using OSINT
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- I can't talk about the specifics of this investigation, but it is indeed REAL. A private investigator reached out to me recently and asked if I could find the location of a screenshot from a video on Instagram.
No logos.
No street signs.
No obvious clues as to where the image was taken.
Armed with a single piece of spurious intelligence, it was solved in under an hour.
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LinkedIn: / garyruddell
Website: www.garyruddell.com
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Twitter: / gary__ruddell
Great investigative skills there. Loved the tip on adjusting the color to see what other details you can pull. Just shows how having skillsets outside of cyber can help you be more efficient!
Thanks! Yeah those extra skills are super useful from time to time!
WHAT WAS THE PHOTO EDITTING APP/TOOL you were using?
Nicely done. I was thinking that was a hooka, absolutely. I def wouldn’t have thought of the whole “RGB type lighting = Look for colors other than pink” as they looked like actual neon tubing to me.
@p2pportal that was Affinity Photo but pretty much all photo editing apps have shadow boosting these days!
Great OSINT investigation! Please bring out more OSINT geolocation stuff!
Thanks!! Will do!
FREAKING MASTER CLASS IN OSINT Investigation technique. Watched it entirely. Loved the color adjustment move to bring out even more info from the pic. You didnt say it, so I will. "wait til end to see an unbelievable confirmation of the location!". Great work Gary.
Haha thanks! Yeah I’ll do that for the next one! Couldn’t bring myself to do it this time 😂
Dude, that's some impressive detective skills you got!
Thanks mate! Little bit of determination and time pressure helped!
@@garyruddellofficial time pressure is always a good factor for getting things done))
You’re the best, man. Enjoy the videos a lot. Would love to see more of these. New subscriber. Thanks for the wisdom. ✌️👍
Cheers buddy! Week they come up I’ll share them!
Super interesting, Gary! Love the content, as always. I'm definitely learning a lot about OSINT with you! Love how it compliments my University Major at the moment and side focus. Thanks for all this! Can't wait to see more content. Love this video and the investigation process using OSINT!
Thanks so much Rahim. Your presence does not go unnoticed 💚 best of luck with your major!
@@garyruddellofficial My pleasure and thank you so much Gary🙏🏼🤙🏼! I truly appreciate that!
@@RahimLadhajuma thanks!
This was super interesting to watch, I'm hooked and will check out more of your videos to learn more about OSINT in general and whatever else you're doing.
Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your kind words.
the video amongst the photos from the restaurant was key. Nice work my friend, great stuff. Thank you
Totally key for getting that possible confirmation. Thanks mate!
needs more and more this kind of cases. very inspiring
Yeah I need more PIs reaching out for help!
You squeezed every bit of information out of the picture 😅 this is so nice 😊
Thanks!!!
Excellent work, Gary!
Thanks so much!
fantastic video. great to see the thought process and how you used the tools available
Thank you very much!
Interesting video dude! Thanks for sharing how to combine skills. 😎 Looking forward to more!
Thanks buddy!
In TV there was USA-Iran football match not England-Wales
Nice spot! I did wonder about the colours on the pitch! You’re a natural at this 😜
Great job, especially with the window panel knobs.
Glad you enjoyed it!
A good example of IMINT (Image intelligence, gathering data from a photo). Extremely useful skill to have, and probably one of the most underlooked when it comes to posting on social media.. people obviously know about not sharing your name, address, phone number, etc. but typically ignore the countless photos they post on social media.. which a good portion of the time, with someone smart enough, provides a ton of valuable data on the person/where they are..
This is also a really good breakdown on the thought process while doing anything OSINT related, I subscribed.
Thanks for your comments 😊 yeah some people don’t tag their location in photos for security reasons, so if you work on your image analysis skills you can get around that some of the time!
@@garyruddellofficial I completely agree. Not only is it fun, it’s useful and forces you to think critically. Gotta be creative too.
My First video of the day and it was pretty interesting to watch👀...Great work
Thanks 🙏🏼 very kind!
Just found your channel… gobsmacked, really that awesome how you figured all that out. Be expecting a call from Vera!👍
Phone is off silent 😂
You're a true inspiration to someone like me trying to get into the field. I hope to be as good as this one day.
Keep up the excellent content!
Every day is a school day! Even for me buddy. Keep learning; keep moving forward! ❤️
Thank you for the words of encouragement. Trying to get into the industry is proving to be a challenge, will keep pressing forward.
@@garyruddellofficial
Great stuff man! What photo editor did u use? is that Adobe Photoshop?
You can do this in pretty much any photo editor. Super basic functionality. It’s Affinity Photo.
Very interesting and cool video! If you get an "assignment" like this from someone. How do you get a feel for who you're helping so it's not some creep? If that is something you try to do.
Hey! Oh I get plenty of creeps asking me to hack their girlfriends Instagram etc this was a request from someone I know at a company that’s registered in the UK.
Thanks for answering! Yeah, that makes it easier. I guess it's the same kind of problem a Private Detective faces. Someone I know got a "professional" (as in, I think it's the only thing that person did) stalker who systematically made fake social media accounts to increase his reach, and even visited other countries to stalk IRL. There are some real wackos out there. @@garyruddellofficial
Fantastic video!!
Looking forward to more of OSINT content!!
Cheers Christine!!
Beautiful work.
Thanks Erica! Are you an investigator yourself?
The level of imagination and the colour contrast to find minute details. I hooked up with these video and your skills are amazing.
What should I have to be Osint Pro like you
Just keep learning and messing around with tools. The only reason I know about the shadows etc is because of my love of photography.
Amazing video, Just a tip, when you found the IG of the shisha place, you could've went to tagged pictures of that place, you surely would find some clues.
Next time!
@@garyruddellofficialhi Gary, I use all the above tools including exif… uploaded tones of pics to try and relocate a scammer that took my life saving …. Any ideas.. …. Greeting from California via limerick city, Ireland.
Is there really a career path in OSINT? I really love this!
There absolutely is! You could ask ChatGPT. But there’s a ton of careers that are centred around it: fraud investigations, law enforcement, military, business analysts, cyber, journalism etc.
Enjoyed the video! What photoeditor is that?
Affinity Photo 😊
Hi Gary,
Great video. Would you mind saying what software did you use for the image analysis.
Thank you
It’s Affinity Photo but you can use pretty much any photo editing software for this!
Great video 🤞🏾
Very kind 😊
What is the program behind the search photo - the one where you've adjusted light to dark areas?
Thank you!
Hey! That’s Affinity Photo but basically every editing app can do it! Even native smart phone apps.
From IT, to coding, I've been trying to see what field I'd like go to at 48. This might be it. When I was young, I always wanted to be a Detective. I went to school for graphic design when I got into reading comics. Jaded with the personal experiences I was having I dove into hip hop and eventually producing/engineering with no training or knowledge. Two years ago I found out why my life was so bouncy. (?) I have ADHD combined subtypes.
This makes it very hard to choose and stick with things. I have since learned that my mind *should* do multiple things, with an area of more focus. (Apparently, you have to make a living? Lol) This seems so conducive to my kind of brain and abilities. Recently went to a new movie with my daughter (who also has ADHD cst, but still young.) and explained what was going to happen exactly. (She was stunned that the main character dies so early.) "Dad, you always come up with stuff *NOBODY* thinks of!"
At the end, it happened exactly like I said and she slowly turned her head to me. (we're so theatrical!) "DID YOU SEE THIS ALREADY?!" 😑"Nope! I told you, poppa is smart!" Lol. I just pick up on patterns and things that render an image in my mind, or that seem off. Which might explain why I'm good with geo-spatial reasoning. This is exciting.
Hey! Yeah cyber and intel are HUGE fields that all touch on each other. I would imagine that people with your way of thinking would do great here 😊
@@garyruddellofficial Thanks for responding. Yeah, I think it would be great for me too. Funny enough, my current day job can sometimes be detrimental to my ADHD and I lose focus and make mistakes. The thing I discovered that works great? Listening to true crime. Lol.
If you have any suggestions for semi structured (track) learning courses I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
@@DarkGloComics look up Michael Bazzell from IntelTechniques
Damn, I do this all the time, now just gotta figure out how to get paid for it. There's also a camera on the cafe looking at the club which would be great for entry/exit times, presuming the club wouldn't cooperate.
They definitely would not in this instance!
@@garyruddellofficial Fair enough, that's the way the cookie crumbles!
Well played!
Great work, but you could've saved some time there by checking the pictures people uploaded on Google. Someone posted a picture of the same window with the TV two years ago. But I assume you know that, the comparison to the sign on the outside and the roomtour made it a bit more interesting 🙂
Cheers!
What screenshot application did you use? Loved this
I use Cleanshot X 😊
@@garyruddellofficialthank you so much!
How did the Leeds location info come about? Was that the location of the PI or the target?
That was the location of the actual client 👍🏼
the 20mph sign... well done!!
Yeah that was a fun little detail!
Super interesting! But what was the actual investigation for/trying to uncover??
I can’t say! NDA! 🤫
Thanks bro ❤
Welcome 😊
Great job Gary , I wish you success
Can you give me some resources to learn open source intelligence like this way
Thanx Gary
Hey! Learning OSINT is mostly about playing around with all the different tools at your disposal! If you didn't know that Google Street View and Instagram existed, you'd struggle to solve this case. Why not check out Bellingcat's OSINT Toolbox and play around?
You can get it here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18rtqh8EG2q1xBo2cLNyhIDuK9jrPGwYr9DI2UncoqJQ/edit#gid=930747607
@@garyruddellofficial Greetings Gary! Do you have any book recomandations on this? Maybe by Michael Bazzell? Thank you.
@@eduarddd7 yeah his books get good reviews and Rae Baker!
very interesting
Glad you think so!
If you don't mind me asking, How much would you charge a private investigator for a task like this? I dabble in this myself and am only just finding out there's a whole field behind it.
It really depends on the cost of living where you are and who the client is. It could be anything from £10 to £5,000 🤷♀️
What computer program are you running?
The photo editor is Affinity Photo. But all photo editors can do this 👍🏼
@@garyruddellofficialthanks, dude! 😊
It's interesting. Are you a government (police) officer or private cyber investigator ? How did you decide to start searching for the location in the photo in Leeds ?
I’m ex Military Intelligence, now a Cyber Threat Intel specialist. Leeds was a hunch based on the client being based in Leeds!
@@garyruddellofficial Currently, are you working independently (in your own business), part of a private company, or still in a government agency ? So the client who uses your services in this case lives in Leeds, so you suspect the location he is looking for is also in Leeds ?
@PeterAdiSaputro that’s right. The client was there so we made the assumption that the target might be there too. I’m ex Military Intelligence and currently a Cyber Threat Intelligence specialist for the private sector.
I want to learn OSint for private investigation, background checks etc. can you recommend any training courses or a path I should take?
I don’t really have any course recommendations. Books are good though. There’s loads on Amazon. It really depends where you live. You don’t need a license for it here in the UK. In the USA it’s a licensed profession etc. so check your countries rules.
The way you are responding to comments is amazing Sir... I want to learn from you as a intern.. can I...? please ?
Hey 😊 thanks!
I don’t have much free time (2 kids and a dog!) but you could follow along here, join the newsletter at www.garyruddell.com and come join in on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/garyruddell
You’ll meet a lot of great people.
oh Okay sure sir..@@garyruddellofficial
I need to learn this skill
It's just Googling really!
this video was really cool, if i wanted to pursue this as a career what would the job title be? OSINT Specialist maybe?
Hey! Yeah OSINT specialist/analyst - also SOCMINT too (social media intelligence). Or just Intelligence Analyst :)
which software is that you are using?
Just photo editing software. Any will do. This is Affinity Photo
Ok i would probobly never think of adjusting the color of the image well played gg
And now you will! Knowledge has been gained 😊
impressive
Thanks Zimizi!
what photo editor software is this?
It’s Affinity Photo. But it doesn’t matter. All image editors can do these things.
Nice 👍
Thanks ✌
The ultimate stalking guide
Some of us get paid to do professional ‘stalking’ 😉
Hey ignore my handle name, but I really appreciate your videos. I am currently learning practical ethical hacking from TCM Sec, you can consider me as a total noob at this point. But I love the OSINT thing. Any advice for a newbie?
Handle is great! We are all many things! TCM is really nice! 👏🏼 advice for a newbie on OSINT: I guess I’ve covered a fair amount of it here on the channel but I’d recommend learning Maltego and Google Dorking. Two skills you’ll need for sure!
Thank you So Much for the advice & I am looking forward to see many more amazing videos from you. @@garyruddellofficial once again thank you.
That's a good book you've got behind you there
Sandworm?
💥💥
🙏🏼
What route would you have gone down if Leeds didn't bring up anything?
Yeah this is something I need to revisit. My initial thoughts are that I would have been stuck!
I searched "upscale hookah lounge uk" on Google and did not find anything in 10 pages of results. To me the wall lighting could just as easily be seen in a nightclub so next I searched "club hookah lounge uk" and found the same picture on the 4th page of results, not bad. But this is also with me still assuming its somewhere in the UK. Going in blind, I likely would've ran those searches for all 8 countries that played in the WC on 29 Nov. Also I checked the highlights and USA/Iran wore the kits seen on the TV screen, so knowing me I probably would've spent way too much time looking in the USA and Iran first lol.
Good work! Nice to see people trying to find their own ways!
How to check for cameras open in my location giving us live feed using osint
www.earthcam.com/mapsearch/
Also Shodan might help
@@garyruddellofficial oh cool
How did you know that it was in Leeds ?
The client who requested the image be found was from Leeds. So a rough guess.
Did you already have the postal code ?
No but the client lived in the Leeds area. So it was a guess that there’s a chance the target is in the Leeds area. Got lucky!
Hi,
If I will send you a video, you'll be able to tell me the street from the video?
Hey, maybe, but I don’t take requests like this unless they are through companies. Don’t want to risk giving into to potential stalkers etc. That’s not me saying that you are one, just me explaining why I don’t take random requests like that 👍🏼 if you do have a business enquiry, please reach out and I’ll see what we can do 😊
What I don’t understand is how you deduced the city of Leeds. There is nothing in the image indicating Leeds. Without that tidbit of information, you would have never located where the photo was taken.
I address this in the video. The CLIENT was based in Leeds. So maybe the target is too?
was it not the USA vs Iran match played on that same day? I think the TV is showing some people displaying the USA flag quite clearly, and the other one is probably the Iran flag
It was!
just like on the Baker Street 21 investigation
What’s this?! I’m intrigued!
@@garyruddellofficial Sherlock Holmes house as i remember
Ah yes my other video! Gotcha!
💙
💚
Wouldn't checking the image metadata have helped also with the location, date etc..
What image metadata? This was taken from an Instagram post.
@@garyruddellofficial yes, correct i missed that point 👍
How did you know the postcode?
That was the one piece of info I got on the task. And remember, that was the postcode of the client, not the target. I made the assumption that the target might be in a rough proximity.
Can you do block and Wight cctv footage in to colour
This has nothing to do with cyber or OSINT. But if you simply Google it, you’ll find tools like this: neural.love/video-colorization
What about meta data from the photo itself?
Impossible. It’s a screenshot of a video on Instagram. The meta data would be about the device the screenshot was taken on.
Make sense. Thank you for explanation@@garyruddellofficial
interesting
Thanks Mark!
Wow
Cheers buddy!
Affinity Photo 😊
HOLMES?!
😂
Why not enhance the image Quality
Like using some AI image enhancer? Got any recommendations?
...20 mile and hour sign? ...i thought y'all used metric, puzzled
I know. It’s a national disgrace.
It's a shisha bar.
It sure is! Shisha/hookah 👍🏼
It looked like a cheap brothel.
😂 I wouldn’t know!
that's iran vs usa
Tensions must have been high!
Not that impressive. If you hadn't had the clue that it was from Leeds there's no way you could tell where the picture was taken. How would you figure it out then if you hadn't got that clue?
Yeah I would have been stuck then. But fortunately, I did have that piece of information. Such is life.
Like this if you’ll do a night job reveal at 100k subs‼️‼️🙏🏻
You must have a few ideas already?
Maybe I'm too dumb for this but I don't like the fact that you started out of random. Like what is the investigation about, why are we even checking some random Instagram video, and how do "we know that the person who wants it to be phones their Post code is Leeds post code". Like how? Where did you check it? You just stated it and it's hard to follow up on what you're even talking about. Please make it more clear I feel too dumb.
Edit: now that I think of it maybe you run a channel where people send you some cases for you to locate someone? And you receive their emails or something, manage to find out their IP and locate it, and this is probably what you're doing in this video, and why you are saying "person requesting - want to phone it"? A little disclaimer in the beginning of your videos might help, just a little tip. Otherwise it's super confusing. I like to listen to those things, been doing it during work and I just could not follow up with you because there is so much information you made me sit back and reflect on and come to assumptions and yet with no definitive answers!
Thank you for your feedback 😊
2022 WORLD Cup was in Qatar bro ......
It sure was!
They are in a shisha lounge
That’s what I said! 😂
Tell me this man doesn't sound exactly like Sean Harris lolol
You mean the scary baddie from Mission Impossible!?
@@garyruddellofficial Yes hahah. Or the bad guy from The King. I think he was also in Prometheus too.
@@christopherberetta7210 i have been told I look like Jesse from Breaking Bad. And now this. Can you put me in touch with someone in Hollywood? 😂
Try EXIF viewing.....
Lol 😂 that doesn’t work. It’s a screenshot from a video on Instagram buddy…
Also,
OSINT: Where was this photo taken?
ua-cam.com/video/QLolPkJ2_k0/v-deo.html
Whats a fake investigation?
One that’s made up for a game or a capture the flag event VS one that actual has implications in the world?
It not that impressive, my missus could find all this out from a text. 🤣
They have super powers, Peter!
Pffft. Bare bones basic if you ask me. The real guess what your other job is a graphic designer, because how many forensic investigators would know how to use Photoshop as well as you do. Am I right or am I right? So how about showing us some real OSINT reverse searches and character trait reveals or is that too much to ask?
I’ll show what I’m allowed to and when it arises. What you see here is exactly what I did the first time I looked at that image. That’s just a fact. 🤷 and I’m not a graphic designer, but I have some graphic design skills.
Just comment from girls account and ask for location 😂
Ha, if only it were that easy ;)
How many Muslims did you guys import to have that may shisha joints?
I think the U.K. has a pretty strong Muslim community. About 5% maybe?