BEHIND THE MASK | The Investigator

Behind the Mask: Spotting and Understanding Digital Identity Manipulation, 11 May 2026

Workshop explores contemporary challenges and best practice around Digital Identity Manipulation, a tactic criminals use to disguise their identity when using mobile devices in their criminality.

This can be increasingly challenging for investigators and analysts who are trying to establish the identity of the criminal.

We’ll explore three of the most common examples of Digital Identity Manipulation and provide best practice around how to address these challenging areas.

The workshop will cover:

Call Spoofing: Manipulating Trust in Voice Communications

How caller identity can be falsified, and how criminals exploit spoofed numbers to create authority, urgency, and credibility

We will explore indicators of spoofing, evidential challenges, and how investigators assess call data in investigations.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs): Obscuring Digital Location and Attribution

We’ll explore what VPNs are, how they alter the apparent origin of internet activity, and why they are commonly used to frustrate online attribution

We’ll provide best practice around how to identify a VPN, understanding our limitations, and how to work around them.

Burner Phones and Prepaid SIMs: Fragmenting Identity Through Disposability

We’ll look at how criminals deliberately break continuity of identity using disposable devices and short‑lived phone numbers.

We’ll examine why this tactic is effective, common patterns of use, and how investigators reconstruct identity over time by linking behaviour, communication patterns, and human error across multiple devices.

Who should attend?

This session is a must-attend for any digital investigator or analyst involved in digital investigations who want to develop and enhance their skills.

Held online via Teams

Certificates of CPD available.

Our speaker

Fenella Wheatley is an accredited communications data investigator who has worked for the Met Police and is currently working for the National Digital Exploitation Service (NDES) as a Band C CCTV Investigations Manager.

She has also delivered training courses to investigators and analysts in a number of law enforcement organisations.

She is the author of published work on Stop and Search Proportionality, Crime Mapping Analysis in Greater Manchester – Awarded Q-Step Award for Quantitative Analysis.

HOW TO BOOK

Cost: £209.99 + VAT (GBP) per delegate per workshop (LEA and Government Agency rate). £249.50 + VAT (Industry rate), per delegate

Group bookings: We offer various discounts for group bookings depending on numbers, please contact us for details.

Student discount: We offer a 35% discount on all of our online events/workshops on condition of payment by card and a valid University email address.

Booking: Please send the delegates name(s), email address(es) and purchase order (made out to The Investigator) to booking@the-investigator.co.uk or telephone +44(0)844 660 8707 for further information.

Payment can be made by PayPal/debit/credit card. The meeting link will be sent out 7 days before the event.