Chapter 18, Page 18
Undercover Operation Report
Operation: Sumter Private Academy (#9238-BN)
Reporting Officer: Cherie Algrave / Cyber Crime Division
I’ve set up a solid Net-presence for the Doray Soap company. Since the operation’s only days away, this isn’t my best work (still new to all this undercover op stuff, btw!), but I’m confident it’ll get the job done.
As we previously discussed for this operation, Doray Soap will be owned by “Lennox Doray” who now has a complete “presence” on the Net. Everything from his academic records to business history has been fabricated and is readily searchable. I infiltrated various media outlets and inserted comprehensive articles into their Net-archives, all relating to Mr. Doray’s business ventures and philanthropic endeavors (various articles were dated and digitally “timestamped” anywhere between 6 months to 5 years ago). Again, all of these are easily searchable—but only accessible if someone inputs certain keywords, like “Doray Soap”, etc. This means no one else should accidentally stumble upon our fake articles…
Our fictional Mr. Doray even has his own SocialNet account, where he “interacts” with friends and family (all bots, thanks to an intuitive A.I. algorithm I created). In case someone wants to play detective, I also set up birth records for Mr. Doray and his daughter, Reena Doray (both Net-searchable, of course).
I designed a corporate NetSite for the Doray Soap company and, to play it safe, took some extra precautions. We’ll keep the cover story that Mr. Doray and his daughter were both born and raised in Pallad City. However, I set up his company to operate outside the country—with the “luxury soap” being sold exclusively to select international markets due to strict distribution contracts (this avoids any suspicions as to why it’s not sold here, or why no one in this country’s heard of the Doray brand!).
It might still seem fishy that no one can buy the stuff so, to give an additional layer of authenticity to our operative’s cover, I also set up places where customers can “purchase” Doray Soap via third-party sellers (all fake, of course). After placing an order, buyers will be notified that there will be a 2 to 3 month wait before their soap ships, because of manufacturer delays, limited supply chain availability, and the soap being in such “high demand.” This provides our operative with “insurance” in case a student or teacher attempts to see if the soap can be purchased via the Net.
I covered our bases on several other fronts as well (BID-chip identification for Reena, old school records, etc).
Again, this isn’t foolproof by any stretch. It’s far from perfect and a skilled Netraver could pick apart our operative’s cover in no time at all. But to infiltrate Sumter Academy, this should be more than adequate. And, not to toot my horn, but Doray Soap looks as legit as it’s going to get with the short time we had to work with.
—Cherie
Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Salaiix.
A bunch of preppies or arrogant teachers probably won’t check.
A serial killer, on the other hand, just might.
I get the feeling someone will check now.
Something tells me that this may backfire spectacularly in the most unexpected ways…
I mean what are the odds of someone, who isn’t the killer, but just someone clever to look this up and take it apart ?
Typo in the last paragraph of Cherie’s report – “full-proof” should be “fool-proof”.
Thanks for catching that! It’s now updated.
‘Someone’s’ going to care enough. It’s inevitable. If there’s one thing everyone picks up on reading comics or books there’s at least one person who’s always thorough enough with background checks.
Nothing is fool-proof for a sufficiently talented fool. Make something idiot-proof and they will build a better idiot.
I’m going to tell my friends I use “Doray” soap, and just act like a snob when they are confused