About

About this site

This site collects original practice exercises for open-source investigation, along with write-ups on method and tooling. The aim is to give you scenarios you can work through, check against a solution, and learn from.

About the author

I am Matamela Ramovha. I trained in psychology, with a BA at the University of Johannesburg and an Honours in Social Science at the South African College of Applied Psychology. It taught me how people reason, where bias creeps in, and how to test a claim before believing it.

After my studies I spent several years working a range of jobs while teaching myself to build for the web and to investigate open-source information properly. That led toZone2Freelancers.co.za, the registered company I founded, where I build websites and digital products for clients.

This site is the next step: an OSINT practice focused on verification, geolocation and identity resolution, built around published exercises and write-ups that show the working behind each conclusion. I also build FORGE-OS, a South African civic intelligence project.

How I work with AI

When someone asks what I do, the first thing I say is that I am a prompt engineer. I did not study computer science, IT or DevOps, and I do not claim to have. My skill is working out what should exist, describing it precisely, and directing AI systems to build it, then checking the result until it holds up. I built this site that way.

I am optimistic about where large language models, chatbots and agents are going. For the first time, a person with a clear idea and sound judgment can build things that once needed a team or a degree, and I think that raises what anyone can reach in their career. It feels like an if-you-can-think-it-you-can-build-it moment, and I want to use it well.

Using it well comes back to psychology and OSINT. When anything can be built quickly, checking what you built matters more, not less. AI writes fluently whether it is right or wrong. The habit this site teaches, state the claim, show the working, verify against sources, applies to working with AI as much as it does to an investigation.

How the exercises work

Each exercise has a briefing, a set of tasks, optional hints and a hidden solution. Every exercise carries two ratings from 1 to 5, one for newcomers and one for experienced investigators, where a higher number means harder.

Scenarios are fictional unless an exercise says otherwise, and no exercise is meant to identify or expose a real person.

Get in touch

Corrections, suggestions and questions are welcome. If you need a website built, or want to talk verification and OSINT methods, message me or send an email.