There are no fedoras, femme fatales or .38 specials.
But make no mistake: Digital Evidence International (DEI) of London is a real detective agency, sleuthing out the cybercrimes of the 21st century.
Headquartered in an elegant Victorian mansion at Queens Ave. and Colborne St., DEI staff root through hard drives and troll the dirty back alleys of the Internet, tracking down the villains who steal software, sell company secrets or harass former spouses or bosses.
Clad in a company golf shirt like the rest of his staff, founder and chief executive Steve Rogers couldn’t pass for Sam Spade, but he does have an extensive police background.
A native of Wolfville, N.S., he spent 25 years with the RCMP — including a stint in Grise Fiord, Canada’s northernmost community.
Rogers was assigned to the RCMP’s commercial-crime unit and was stationed in London in 1996.
He held several investigative, management and training jobs at once when he was in the commercial-crime unit.
Police forces struggle to find the staff time to deal with complicated white-collar crime, and the investigations often take years, Rogers said.
When he retired from the RCMP he figured there was an opportunity to do the same work in the private sector.
“I get jobs from the private sector that are criminal offences but they are dealt with civilly because police just don’t have the time.”
Rogers founded DEI in the basement of his home and started building the client base. The company has grown to eight employees.
Though violent crime gets far more attention, Rogers said criminals with any degree of skill and sophistication move into white-collar crime, where they can make huge profits, hiding behind a fake Internet identity.
“They are smart people. They are a lot harder to catch.”
The “bread-and-butter” cases usually involve copyright or theft of intellectual property — video-game programs, satellite-television codes and counterfeit products or logos, he said.
