HUNTING SEASON Want to track down a troll? No problem, but it’ll cost you $300 an hour.
BY: Kartya Vucetic
While most of us deal with online hate by simply blocking and moving on, it appears some influencers have started to get creative and are taking things a little further. Like, private-investigator-and-64-page-report further.
Yes, of course we’re talking about Indy Clinton (IYKYK). And if you’re not in the loop, the crux of it is essentially that the Aussie influencer and mother of three has recently brought on a PI to help unmask her anonymous trolls.
Clinton, who’s amassed a following of over 1.5 million, and frequently shares content about her family, has been vocal in the past about the toll online abuse can take. Having recently undergone cosmetic work, she’s reportedly attracted an influx of “trolling”, “harassing” and “defaming” comments online, and has finally declared: enough is enough.
Earlier this week, Indy shared on her Instagram the news that her PI has delivered her a 64-page report after an arduous three-month investigation. Allegedly, the document outlines the names and personal details of multiple accounts that have been harassing her online. In fact, it goes so in-depth as to reveal the ABN numbers and even the names of these trolls’ gynecologists.
And while the report may have read like the world’s worst guest list, it turns out this kind of digital sleuthing isn’t as niche as you’d think. So in an attempt to perform our own little deep-dive, we chatted to Lipstick Investigations, a Sydney-based private investigations firm, about what this type of PI work really looks like.
How often do influencers and public figures request this kind of work?
As it turns out, Indy isn’t the first influencer to attempt a troll hunt.
“There has definitely been an increase in this sort of work over the years,” Lipstick Investigations tells us.
They confirmed with us that demand for this type of work has been on the steady rise for a while now, particularly as influencer work has become increasingly lucrative. And while the firm is approached for similar assignments on a weekly basis, they typically anticipate “a couple of jobs” to convert each month.
How much does this kind of work cost someone?
While Lipstick Investigations weren’t able to confirm the exact costings that Clinton would have been charged, they did give us some ballpark figures. And newsflash: it’s a lot.
“Surveillance-based investigations are charged around $150 per hour, but when we are trying to hunt down and identify these trolls it is usually done with specialist desktop research at around $300 per hour,” they tell us.
That means for a standard 8-hour daily rate for online troll-hunting, an individual can expect to pay up to $2,400. What’s more? It’s not exactly a click-and-collect service.
“Some investigations come easy, some not so easy, and in some there just aren’t any results at all”, Lipstick Investigations says.
In other words, there’s no ability to even really estimate how many hours it will take to find these answers. So for jobs spanning across multiple months, we can reasonably assume this has set Clinton back a fair amount of dosh. Purely speculating, I’d say a ballpark figure would be landing anywhere from $18,000 to $36,000, at the very least.
What happens once a troll is unmasked?
Lipstick Investigations tells us that from their experience, once an investigation is complete, clients will typically send a stern letter, which may or may not also result in further legal action. And given Indy’s already made it clear she has no plan to ‘out’ anyone, we can reasonably expect she’s probably getting her pen and paper handy as we speak.
“The trolls are usually shocked that they have been identified, and once they lose their anonymity they have opened themselves up to all sorts of issues. In most cases [they] back off”, the firm tells us.
Nevertheless, they note that “not everyone thinks rationally in these scenarios”, especially if a troll’s public information has been disclosed. There’s also risks to unmasking people who may be mentally unstable, which is a whole other facet to this situation that we hadn’t really considered before.
How do PI’s find these trolls in the first place?
Despite common misconceptions and your favourite Get Smart movie, private investigators are still bound by the same privacy laws as the rest of us.
“All we can see is what the victim can see,” Lipstick Investigations explains to us.
Image: Criminal Defense Lawyers Australia
This means that licensed private investigators rely mostly on public databases that many aren’t aware they can access themselves, private subscription databases that collate public information, and Open Source Intelligent resources.
As far as tracking down anonymous online accounts goes, this can also become a tricky task. Hypothetically, if someone sets up an account with fake details purely with the intention to harass a public figure, there may be no starting point for the investigator. However, the firm notes that most of the time someone makes a mistake somewhere along the way in sharing their personal details.
“[This] is where we get our entry point,” they explain.
Indy and her family | Image: Instagram @indyclinton
The moral of the story?
So while most of us are still rage-typing replies in our drafts folder, some creators are choosing the high road (or at least the expensive one). And while it’s a solid approach to getting the job done, you’ve got to be prepared to pay a dear sum for it.
For more, check out Lipstick Investigations, who were kind enough to share their insights (and yes, they do offer non-influencer services too, just in case your ex is acting a little too off the grid).
