Hello, good day Welcome to human intelligence advanced one which is number four, series number four point of contact or PLC, as you'll see during this brief. The aim of this is to ensure that point of contact is included as a critical component of talent spotting. Remember the ANP, OCC the access motivation point of contact and capability, the component parts of transporting This is sometimes missed out point of contact phase. But it's actually very important and you need it to get information from your sources. So it's relevant but it's sometimes an afterthought. That's why it's here.

It's a relatively short, brief lesson. And so keep up but also you can access the PDF which I'll include them as part of the course as usual. And the other aim is to encourage overall Safety and Security when managing a source. So consider how you contact them. And we're going to look at some of the options. But also at every stage, you have to consider your safety and security as well as the safety and security of the source.

And develop some expectation management between you and the source. This isn't strictly part of point of contact, but it's something that comes up a lot when you're dealing with sources is managing expectations. And quite often, it's left out to the last minute. And if the source has a problem, or you haven't fully detailed the relationship between you and the source, then that that could become difficult later on in the relationship. So one thing that I think I failed to mention really in the talent spotting phase, but it's very critical. So bearing in mind, don't disregard the sex of potential sources.

Okay, just because they're female, don't disregard them just because they're male, don't disregard them. And I appreciate there are cultural challenges in this process, but bear opposite sexes in mind. Use the right source for the right information. Don't just stick to men, or don't just stick to women, because you think they're more reliable or culturally, you only deal with men or women and be flexible. Because at the end of the day, you have to find the right source that wants your information requirements or the information requirements for your client. Whether it's a man or a woman is a side issue is whether they're reliable, whether they're credible, whether they have access and whether you can maintain a point of contact with them is the key part.

So there may be male or female, it should not matter as a human enter as a handler. Then you have to remove any sort of blinkers that you have that will rule out one sex over another or rule in one sex over another, or your preference will be men instead of women or women instead of men, you have to rule that out be flexible, because the end of the day, your whole purpose is to answer the information requirement. So point of contact, it means of passing on your information requirements to the source is how are you going to make contact with that source, either on an initial basis, or on a day to day basis? Because nowadays, they can vary with technical technology as a means of whereby the source capacity information to you how are you going to get that information? Now, I've handled sources on different continents.

So obviously you have to use technology. Look at the technology closely Do you want to use encrypted can the source access that encryption the app for instance, if it's WhatsApp, if it's wicker, if it's signal, can source access those kinds of sources use them in their country? If not, how are you going to manage, contacting and getting information from the source, so you're going to use it verbally your Skype or something like that, you're going to phone them, you're going to text them as secure as that text as secure as that phone. If you needed to be very secure, so on and so forth, you're gonna look at all those individual problems, and then work out how you're going to contact your source initially, when you want to cultivate them to be a source and also on the day to day basis, like I mentioned. Overall, your means of contact should be as secure as possible.

Otherwise, you're going to compromise yourself, your information requirements, your source, and maybe your organization if you're working for a company. And so you have to be careful and you have to encourage that security with your source. You have to encourage that security with their sub sources if if they're asking people questions to answer your eyes, and you have to at every stage, encourage safety and security for them and for yourself. So it's it's a definite safety factor. When you're contacting sources you have to bear in mind. So, a point of contact can be remote by remote I mean in a different town in a different city in a different region in a different country in a different continent.

It's relatively easy to do these days. But there are some considerations. As I mentioned, electronic means most people are on the internet nowadays, obviously not all in some ways, it makes it easier to contact them and not actually be net be able to reach out and touch them. Our physical safety is not compromised by this means but the information security reference Security has to be borne in mind. And online security and safety has to be borne in mind. This stage you're going to go on, we're going to use my real name maybe?

Or am I going to say I'm somewhere else? Or how am I going to approach this person and keep the information requirements safe and secure if you have to do that, there are definitely some serious security considerations. And one way it makes it harder, excuse me, with no direct physical contact with the source, it's a little bit more of a challenge to ascertain whether they're giving you good information, telling the truth telling the lies trying to conceal things, when it's remote, especially if you don't get actually get to see them. It's not it's not remote and you're not using video chat, for instance, but even then, it's easy to mask and conceal body language. If you're listening to them on a phone for instance, it's easy to easier to pick up new ones. But you're not seeing the whole package.

So face to face is good. But of course, if you meet them face to face and a cafe or restaurant or something like that, then it comes with a certain physical security challenges. There may be risks to meeting people in cafes and bars that that means you have to take more people with you, you have to have a partner who works with your co handler, they call him in the trade. So there's lots of differences between remote and physical. And you have to work out what's going to be the best means of contacting the source to answer your information requirements, it may be that live in a different continent and you're never going to see them or be able to reach out and touch them physically as what I what I mean. It can degrade the rapport.

It takes a little bit more effort to build rapport with people remotely. But nowadays people are used to being on Facebook, different social media, and they can build reports. They pretty much self build rapport. So in a way, it can also be easier to do it remotely. I know I'm looking at both sides of saying both sides are good. I come from more of a reach out and touch physical relationship background, but I'm using remote contact much, much more In fact, almost 99% of the time these days.

So I says the way ahead, and it depends what your situation is, of course. They can compromise security. Once you put information out there, you start asking the questions, you start getting information back, you got to be careful that you're speaking to the right person and be your information is not being eavesdropped on by people you don't want to to to know your information requirements or the information so you have to be careful. So I can compromise your security. And you have to have strict rules when dealing with sources Tell them exactly what you want and how you want it. And that could be the means of delivery I and encrypted social media app, or encrypted messaging app, or you just talk on the phone and you just talk in general terms, you're not being specific about details that you don't want other people to hear.

Now face to face, or F to F as is written there, but it's actually face to face as we call it. It obviously comes with its own risks. Meeting people can be risky. Any points in a relationship or whatever the relationship the first time, first few times, or even deep into the relationship problems can occur. But it can be easier to build and maintain rapport. If you meet someone in a cafe BAM cup of coffee using your body language, you're nodding your head.

You can see all that interaction in them as well. So you get a much more a much better feeling from them, and a Face to face meeting. Remote contact may take a little bit more time. So as I said, you look at your body language, you're looking at I accessing cues which I mentioned in the course one, and you can start to build that rapport or not as the case may be, it may be that they're sending the wrong signals and you don't trust them. You can get this on video chat. It's a little harder.

And it relies on their ability to use technology I their ability to have access to a video camera, or a camera that's going to interact with with your software. And they can mask a lot of what's going on as far as body language goes. For instance, you may only see the head, the top of the shoulders and the head so you can look at the eye accessing cues. But it's difficult to see the rest of the body language you may get mixed messages or you may only get parcel messages. Obviously, face to face is less technical really all you need to do is be there at the same time, maybe a notebook, maybe a recording device if you want to record the conversation as long as they're happy with that. And so it can rule out a lot of technical difficulties, but it comes with its own difficulties.

I getting two people at the same time in the same place in some environments can be a challenge. handlers are usually very well trained and getting somewhere five minutes before having the meeting, and then leaving as quickly as possible for security reasons. sources, on the other hand, may work to a different timeline. Culturally, there may not be such a thing as be there at 10 o'clock and they're there at 10 o'clock. They may historically be 2030 minutes late, which can leave you vulnerable in a place if that's the situation. So there are different difficulties of Meeting people face to face.

But it doesn't allow for better rapport building and better vision reality on their body language. Just fulfill physical challenges actually getting that you know, how are you going to get they're going to use a car, you're going to use taxi? Are they going to get that? Do they need money for that? Then they they need the sauce needs payment for the taxi? Do you think you need additional security?

Like I said earlier, you may want to co handle to come in to keep an eye on the wider environment. If it's loud and busy cafe in the evening and you think there may be something strange going on or it's just the first time you've been there for whatever reason you feel unsure about the place. So it can come with a lot of physical challenges. So there are combinations. Start off with face to face as long as you're not in Nigeria and your sources in Brazil for instance, which is impossible but face to face. If you have have the opportunity to build rapport build that contact.

That's why in business it's always good to meet the person first hand over business cards and then that's it you move on to emails and messaging because you're happy that you like the look of the person and the way they respond to your physical presence. technical means use that to continue the contact with the source on a day to day basis Yep. So keep them warm may not be day to day Don't say that to literally it may be I mean day to day I mean, work a day basis so it may you have contact once a week, once a month depends on the relationship depends on their ability to deliver the information depends on your information requirements and how much you want from them. So use technical means to keep in touch and keep them warm. If you can. You can use technical means to ask questions.

Give them guidance and feed in any additional information requirements. So it doesn't have to be a face to face meeting every two weeks. For instance, you can drip feed that in as long as you keep an idea on what's going on with a relationship and what what you're asking them, they can come back and ask for guidance, can you can you advise me on this, this this or the return date for this information? And also they may want to know how to use a camera, you can provide links to YouTube, web web devices, that little answer questions about how to use cameras and technical items stuff like a lot easier than doing it face to face meeting which will only be arranged every two weeks, for instance. So lots of Simplicity's. Generally, I would say use encrypted secure means a lot of the apps nowadays say they're encrypted end to end which is great They may well be read by certain governments.

Okay, well, that's fine. It depends on what work you do. And of course, it depends if you want to rely on commercial encryption, commercially secure means, for the most part, I suggest, as long as you're not breaking the law anywhere, then that's fine. The government will read your messages, not physically or they won't have people sitting at desks, reading every single message. But as long as you're not breaking the law, as long as you're just doing your business and answering legal information requirements, then there should be no no concerns. If you are out there somewhere.

Not doing so much in the in the legal framework, then obviously, you have to look at more encrypted and that's that's a different subject and I am not allowed to advise you on criminal activities. I totally, totally counter that. But it's a it's a consideration if possible, use face to face meetings every now and then to ensure the welfare. So how's the family? How are you getting on? How are you getting on with this information requirements?

What's likely in the future? Are you going to improve your access, you get promoted, all that sort of stuff. You can ask it by technical means. But if you ask it on a face to face, you get so many more brownie points. And you look good in the eyes of the source, believe me. So a combination of technical means and questioning, keep them warm on a regular basis.

And if you have the opportunity, you close with face to face meet just to say, Hi, how are you? And also security. Obviously, conversations can be eavesdropped, but it's a lot harder. Whereas technical means can be eavesdropped, and it's quite easy nowadays, even with the end to end encryption. And that's why I'm pretty much certain last line there. If you don't want the conversation to be overheard, get somewhere secure face to face with the client, in the car, on a bus.

In a cafe, obviously that element of security, you'll have to look at yourself and say, all right, well, this place isn't secure because it's packed full of people. And each person in there can overhear a conversation. Or maybe you want to go to a noisy place that is busy, where everyone's talking and no one can hear your conversation and no one really cares. It's It all depends on what you're trying to achieve and security level which which you want. So the sauce him or herself without physical contact is not having met them face to face. Face means that as handlers, you need to be alert to changes in motivation, capability, access, background circumstances, location, family, rapport, welfare, all that stuff a little more, a little more achieved, you have to watch out for you have to watch out for dropped information in a conversation where they say, Oh yeah, my son's not well, and then move on to the next subject, you have to pick up on that little bit of drop out information and question them on it, how is your son or what's wrong with them?

And it may be that, you know, they they've been taken to the hospital and maybe that they're ill, that may not be much you can do about it, but you can talk to them a little bit, which builds rapport. And as I've said previously, if you don't deal with welfare issues, in long term relationships, then there will be reluctant to go and answer your information requirements. Maybe they're going to be looking this way or motivated. factor for asking for more money. They have to pay doctor's bills or hospital bills, so on and so forth, they need more fuel for the car. That's expensive because that work in they need it fixed to get their son to hospital.

So that can be a little bit of dropout inflammation can actually change the motivating factors which may change the capability of them to do it because their hospital more often or you haven't dealt with their welfare issues. So they can give you less inflammation, they've got other things that are more they've now become more important. In a physical situation is sometimes a lot easier to pick up on slight changes and nuances in the conversation that may indicate that something's going on in the background and motivating factors changed. They no longer hungry for the work. They've only got 50% of the time because the rest of the time they're driving backwards and forwards to the hospital for example. All that it can it can will still come out in video conversations and probably a bit less likely to come out and just quick message conversations.

So there are advantages and disadvantages. And I would suggest mix and match once a week have a video conversation the rest of the time it's it's WhatsApp or signal or whatever else you want to use for the day to day routine and then maybe once every month once every six months, you have a face to face meeting, obviously depending where you are geographically. So here it says carefully log all interaction with the source. That doesn't mean keep a detailed diary keep means keep a log of the information requirements that you've asked them to provide the information that they actually do provide your thoughts on their motivation, their acts Point of Contact, their capability and any changes, any red flags that you may consider where they're not fully committed anymore. Or their motivating factor means that they may be getting more information on the internet than they're actually getting from their village and the people around there and they're trying to deceive.

So keeping that log will help look, you look back before the next call, and say, Okay, well, I need to pressure a little bit more on his motivating factor to see if there has actually been any changes, if it hasn't fantastic. But if the hazards that could affect the whole veracity of the information at some point in the future, so keep a log so that any changes or aberrations can be identified in the future. It could be that remote access sigh being on the internet using apps and messaging may feel momentum. Give the source a feeling of comfort when it comes to fabricating information. It's a lot harder to lie to someone face to face, generally. So it's much easier if you're just gonna write a sentence that says, I can no longer do this because of this or I can do more of this because of this.

So it's a little bit easier to fabricate information or avoid doing some work if it's if you're doing it remotely. I on an app on signal on WhatsApp, as an example. So watch out for that. Question them and the the the means by which you communicate is usually quite easy. You just say, confirm that you can no longer do this. Why is that is your access changed?

You can ask and interrogate them just as easy as they can. They think They can fabricate or lighty on those sort of means. So it's a plus plus gives them an advantage and a little bit of control because you're not actually looking at them. They're not looking in you in the eye on a video or face to face. But it also gives you the opportunity to question and interrogate them a little bit more about what's going on in the background here. Okay, you're going to hospital because your son's ill.

Okay, that's fully understandable, and maybe other sources you can use to stand in short time or maybe he can recommend his brother or his cousin to help answer the information requirements and earn a bit of cash. But you have to interrogate conscious take information that's sent on messaging apps at face value. As I've said, any changes in behavior changes in conduct changes in language, which may indicate change. motivation and access and capability have to be looked at some some apps will destroy the message as soon as you've read it, which is another reason why you have to keep a log of the information. So you've got a record, and others will keep it. So you can we can view back my feeling is that you want to get rid of the messages on the apps as quickly as possible.

Once you've made a record of it, then delete the conversation. But make sure that the source knows that's going to happen so that they keep a record of your information requirements, bearing in mind again, that this is more of a business relationship, so that he has to answer your information requirements so that you can pay him that's the bottom line for most most relationships like this. So he has to understand or she has to understand fully what you are trying to achieve and what information you require. So there has to be It's good if they keep a record. But it's also good if they act safely and securely with that information so that it's not it doesn't pop up again when they lose their laptop or it gets stolen or they buy a new one, that that one gets passed on to their cousin or their brother or their son or daughter.

Like said previously, mix and match your technical means video conferencing maybe once every two weeks that will keep them on their toes sources and allow you a little bit more oversight on to their triggers that may flag up deception or or stress on their part there may be stressed anyway, which is potentially natural. And well, if they're, if they're lying or trying to fabricate or the veracity of the information that they're providing is not as good as it should be. Then you may also see elements of stress which you can pick up on question and also a question So managing their expectations. So, the relationship should be clear from the start, I want information from you, you may not see it in say it and those means, it may be a roundabout way of saying, I would like information from you and I will pay you $50 for it.

If that's the case, then they know the boundaries of the relationship. They have to provide information ABCD and E which should be clearly laid out. No less, more if they want to. So quite often they do provide more information because they have that information as part of their inquiries or their investigations, but also they may they may just keep that in the bank for next time. So you have to keep drilling away for further answers to you questions or any sort of background information that they may have collected. But also, if you promised to pay them on delivery of the information, as long as the information is in the his answers the IRS the information requirements that you've given them, then payments do.

So you right from the very start, you say, I'm going to ask you this, you're going to deliver this. As soon as that's delivered in the correct format or the way I want it, or this is the this is the boundaries of the information I need, then I will pay now. They're all that's all managing expectations. The other the other element is tell them when they're going to get paid. So as soon as I get the information, I'm going to make a payment through whatever means you usually pay your sources and that will take X amount of days. If you haven't heard of bye At that point, get back in touch with me, or check with your bank or look in your bank account.

But manage those expectations. If there's likely to be any hassle with the payment, any problems with the payment, then ensure that that is also included in your expectations. So say I will pay you on this day. It usually takes five days, but there's sometimes problems or five working days there's sometimes problems with payments to this country. And often I've seen it take up to 15 working days, man is their expectations because if they think you're fiddling them, I if you just say I've just paid you and it doesn't come for 15 days and they expect it in two days. Even though nothing's been written down or set, then they're going to feel a little bit upset and rapport is going to be dented.

So manage their expectations at every level explained to the source exactly what you want back from them. In the form of information, or photographs, or whatever else you're you're looking for. And definitely over the payment side, manage their expectations carefully. Be honest with them, be fair with them, but also be firm with them say, look, you will not get the money until probably fifth working day, but it may take 15 working days, okay, it's out of my hands. It's up to Western Union or it's up to the bank, or it's up to whoever else is involved. So manage your expectations in that way.

They go carefully and transparently manage the expectations of the source. If you don't tell them beforehand, there's a good chance they'll make it up. And then you'll have difficulties trying to reset that and reset the report with the source because if they lose faith in you, then that's going to impact on the information most likely So some considerations. You mentioned security. It's always a prime directive. quoting from Star Trek that you consider the physical safety and security of the source.

If you're sending them to drive up a road to get some road details, is the road open, is the bridge working? Are there any checkpoints, floods, so on and so forth. You must make sure that they appreciate the risks. They understand that when they travel, they should travel with some means of communication or maybe spare tires if it's a rough road or water and fuel and food if it's going to be a long journey, or they only travel during daylight so that they stopped at guesthouses. Just before it becomes dark. Whatever the considerations, you should encourage them to think about their safety and security and then confirm that.

They're happy to go through and answer the information requirements. Despite the additional physical safety and security concerns. always remind them about the security of whatever communications you using. And ask them to be very careful. Most of them actually have very good. They understand they appreciate the needs for security, but there's no harm in reminding them just like you're reminded when you're going on a flight to fasten your seatbelt.

Make sure they don't lose your information. If they're using a laptop, maybe a shared laptop in some in some, some locations because the family only has one and then They that information has to be secure anything they use laptops flash drives, hard drives, password protect encrypted if possible. And the electronic means that they used to contact you has to be secure. So if it's shared or even if it's likely to be lost, like a phone, for instance, delete any information that's on there, make, make a note somewhere else. Make sure that note self doesn't compromise you and then and then make sure that anything can be lost or stolen is as clean as possible. You don't want to lose business sensitive information for instance.

And anything you write down on technical technology and also on note paper, can be copied can be copied and paste it can be put elsewhere. So you have to be very careful how you as a handler, explain your inflammation requirements and many other issues, too. The source Yeah, be very careful, the information you're providing them is not going to bounce back and bite you in the backside. And I think finally for on the security side of point of contact, you have to make sure you speak to the person you think you're speaking. That's gonna be a challenge. Sometimes you may want to just confirm it using a reference back to previous conversations.

Remember, you said you had a car? What color? What color was it? If there's a delay, if you come back with a wrong answer, you could be speaking to a different person. So you may want to qualify that even better. And make sure that the discussion you're having isn't on WhatsApp or signal or all the others is with the actual person.

They haven't lost the phone or not being forced to communicate this to the world. Secret Police has a bizarre example. So all this this point of contact links with the cultivation of your source? How are you going to approach the source the very first time you realize you want information in this village? How do you identify someone? How do you cultivate someone?

How do you know that they can provide you the information that your information requirements demands? How do you cultivate a lot of his rapport? All of his welfare? payment? motivation? Yeah, fit in with their motivating factors.

Are they capable of answering the information requirements? I mean, are they smart enough? Do they understand the technology? And are they have the access? Can they go to that person at the end of this information line, get information from them and report it back to you until they have that access or they the right person to speak to or is their cousin is their brother. And then you continue to cultivate in factor in their direction.

And a lot of this comes down to the point of contact, not just the initial one. But every single point of contact or time of contact you have after that any bad conversation you have with them could impact on report means you no longer have access to the information, any late payment, content report, so manage their expectations as part of the cultivation, part of that growing rapport. If they appreciate the fact that you're trying your best, and it's the banks or Western Union or whoever else is you're using to pay then that will also continue to build rapport. But initially, cultivating your source. Are you going to meet them face to face? Are you going to meet them online?

Are you going to send them a message is there someone nearby you can send a message to or social media that you they can link you To the to the source. So a lot of a lot of thought process needs to go into suddenly new cultivation of sources. So this relates to the growth and development of the source, but also the identification. And as I've said, It relates to the access of source and capabilities. And bear in mind that this can be an ever changing process. motivating factors change, as I've mentioned before, so does access not necessarily as quickly as motivating factors do but they could be promoted, they can we move to a different job they can move to a different village for work, and wholly lose their access or gain more access.

So that has to be monitored, of course the capabilities you're partly responsible for their capabilities I you can teach me how to use cameras teach my use neck technology, you may have to teach them how to use messaging apps and where to get way To find them. So although capabilities, you have to judge at the start, you can improve their capabilities as the relationship goes on. So in summary, safety, security is critical to everything everything in the relationship, you you source, your information requirements, the information, and of course your organization, whoever you're working for, that you're developing this business relationship for. manage the expectations of your source bear in mind that don't always fixate on men and all women. Yeah, cross you're looking at their capabilities and their access and their motivation, rather than are they male are they female. Constantly constantly review their access motivation point of contact capability that the teleporting process and and then also the rapport managing process.

Look at your own personal security during face to face meetings if that's a possibility, or do you just want to meet them and talk to them online, which also comes with its own challenges, as we've discussed, and begin to be very careful what you document in messages. Don't over commit yourself in messages. Be careful that once you've released that information in a message, or online, somehow, it's out there, and it could bounce back and bite you in the backside, as I've said. Well, that's it. Thank you very much for your time. I hope you've enjoyed point of contact.

It's usually a quite short lesson. But I look forward to seeing you soon or talking to you soon. Should I say for the next lesson. Thanks very much for your time.