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How is it that the most nutty character, Dory, in the movie Finding Nemo actually teaches a very valuable principle? Let me assure you, it is not how to speak whale, it is what to do when you realize that you are being followed by a private investigator. There are certain times when it is most likely that you will be the subject of an investigation, ways to recognize surveillance, and ways to avoid private investigators or “burn” the investigator.
When is Investigation By A Private Investigator Likely
Even the Hollywood image of police or private investigators conducting surveillance on a subject make one thing very clear, there must be some reason to investigate the person. The most likely reasons for investigation include when you have filed a claim with your insurance company for personal injuries, if you are involved in litigation, or for divorce or child support/custody issues. Essentially, there must be an incentive to discover some detail of your private life, such as breaching any sense of bank privacy you think you have, before you need to think about avoiding private investigators. Otherwise, hiring a private investigator to do surveillance on you is just a very expensive hobby.
The economic resources of the person or entity that might be investigating you is also a clue to how much surveillance is actually being conducted on you. In a small lawsuit or in an average divorce proceeding, there are probably only a handful of days, 4-5, over the course of several months in which surveillance is actually being conducted and the instruments of surveillance are probably low tech. The higher the value of the case or divorce, the more resources are likely to be allocated to the surveillance, thus more days in the same period of time devoted to it and the more sophisticated the surveillance is likely to be. If there are specific events that are the subject of the underlying dispute, such as visitation days of children when the fitness of the parent is at issue, the likelihood of having to avoid surveillance on those occasions is much higher. Common sense is a good guide as to when, how and how often a private investigator might be following you.
How To Recognize That You Are Being Followed By A Private Investigator
Far from the image of two guys parked in front of your house for hours in a sedan, drinking coffee and eating fast food, investigators use much more sophisticated methods to avoid detection because avoiding detection is the name of the game for them. The most obvious signs that you are being followed by a private investigator are that you see an unfamiliar car in the neighborhood, you notice a car or a person following you, or if you notice a stranger taking pictures or video of you, your property or your neighborhood. Some other signs that a private investigator is following you are that your friends and acquaintances tell you they have received phone calls or visitors asking about you or you get an increased number of wrong numbers or hang-ups. You may also want to check under your car for any tracking devices that might be attached to it. Once you suspect that you are under surveillance by a private investigator, you may then take action to disrupt or avoid surveillance.
Many people, upon discovering that they are being watched, immediately engage in evasive action, either overtly or covertly, to lose their investigator. This is especially useful if you think you are being watched but haven’t identified the snoop. If the investigator doesn’t think they have been discovered, they will simply return another day and probably still get the information they were looking for. If you have identified an individual as a suspected snoop the best way to avoid being followed and ruin their case is to confront them about it. This takes some guts, especially if you aren’t certain about their activities, but it lets them know that they have been burned. Keep in mind that the investigator will never admit that they are investigating you. Even if you catch them taking pictures of you they will come up with some lame story about how they grew up in your house and are just reminiscing about old times or something like that. If you are wrong about being followed by a private investigator, you may look weird but there will be no real harm done to the other person.
The key to ending surveillance and avoiding surveillance by private investigators in the future is to then follow them until they leave. I have no qualms about recommending this because if they can do it to you, you can do it to them. You do not need to hide the fact that you have reversed the roles, it is actually better if they know you are watching them. You may either be up front about suspecting that the private investigator is following you or pretend that you believe their story and pepper them with questions about the details of what they are doing and why. If their behavior is truly suspicious, you may even be able to notify the police. In either case, the investigation is probably going to end because the investigator has been burned. You can also think about becoming a resident of Uruguay.
Conclusion
If you suspect you are being followed, play the game and follow your follower. The best way to do this is to openly confront them about following you, much like Dory confronting Marlin, and then openly follow them until they leave. This will keep your private life a little more private from any investigator that might be following you. You can also avoid surveillance cameras, keep out of transactional databases, avoid pretexting and ensure tools like Spy Bubble are not on your cell phone(s) to protect your phone conversations to make private investigators jobs much more difficult. The book How To Vanish has lots more tools and techniques you can use to avoid private investigators.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Here is a technique used by me for years. Use a phone card to make all of your calls that you do not want traced. When they try to determine what number the call came from all they will find is an 800 number for the phone card source. There are a few “phone card” companies on the internet you can access.
That is a good example of selectively using certain techniques. Not everything that you do has to be concealed and leaving certain things publicly available can actually be beneficial. Great comment!
Great article Bill and great tip as well Joseph!
Keep up the fantastic work
How about this little question. Could you not technically be used as a pawn to test the new “surveillance” capabilities of @meric@? It is so very easy to spread disinformation today.
Here is a sugestion.
DOnt make fraudlent claims and try being a productive member of society
Earl, get your head out of your #*$, the majority of injury claims are legit, but since people have and many people have filed fraudelant claims you speak as though most everyone does. Let me tell you something, I ve filed 3 legit work comp cases over the past 12 yrs and I ve been followed and never did they catch me doing anything because I was legit, but its not a cool feeling to know you’re being watched and then try to explain to your kids that its ok and they don’t need to worry that a stranger is following us. Another thing Earl, I tell everyone I know that if they sustain an injury at work they better file a work comp claim otherwise they will most likely get screwed with their personal insurance, becuase it was a work accident, they won’t pay for it or after you get tons of treatment they have a right to not pay and your stuck with the bills. We pay money into insurance so were protected, so if your one of those that bashes people for filing work comp claims or anything else that we have a RIGHT and Obligation to then you’re just a complete fool. When you get it you do, then you can be a moron and pay out of your pocket if that makes you feel good, but let me tell you nobody gives a damn about you (insurance companies and your employer) so don’t think your being a company guy by not —behind the scenes they really think your foolish. Remember we, me, and you come first stop worrying about large companies that rob you blind and don’t care anything about you. I for the life of me can’t understand where people like you Earl come from. Pathetic.
Your article on avoiding these insurance slaves ( aka ‘snitches’ aka ‘wannabe commandos’ aka ‘failed cops’ aka ‘slimy pink things that crawl out of a hole’ aka ‘pry eyes’ ) is kind of good, but I think it could be greatly improved. For example, no mention is made of simply setting up a fake pattern, and then breaking it. Shampoo, rinse, repeat. The ‘target’ can, for example, go for a ten minute drive every Tuesday at 3pm using the same roads and do this for one week. If during that time they notice the snoops are around or following, terrific. Break the pattern instantly you know they’re on to it and start a new one. Also, if you believe you are being followed via car ( and following with only one car is extremely difficult as it’s too easy to lose one car ), then simply perform what’s called a ‘box manuever’. Take 4 consecutive right turns while driving. If someone takes 4 consec rights WITH you – even at a distance – the odds they are following you are astronomically high.
Also, purposely change your sleep patterns. Turn the lights off early at the same time every night for a week. Even pretend to sleep and use a nightlight to read. Next week, alter the light patterns in your room. The next week, get up with the dawn. Change how/when your exterior lights come on and off. One week always make sure all your window blinds are open. Whoopee! They might get a camera shot inside. Next week, keep ‘em all closed. Start a pattern, break it. Start a route, change it. Point is, they’re looking for patterns, places, people. Just keep setting the stage and then rearranging it over and over They hate that!
I do agree that the battery removal of the celly is a good idea but I’d go one farther. I’d take the SIM card out as well. You can store them in seperate baggies if you like. Place them in different areas that only you know of. Also, if you think they might be trying to hack your home network, NOW is the time to close that puppy up. And when you leave home, shut off the modem, the router, and power down your computer.
One thing I would’ve liked to have seen: How To Find Hidden Micro-cameras ( which can now be wireless ) in your home. Also, anything about defeating illegal entry or figuring out if someone’s jimmying those locks or not. The thing is, for wc claims you’re often talking about people who just do NOT have the money to invest in counter-surveillance and frankly, simply can’t physically handle installing ( and not everyone has an ideal situation of tons of friends to call on ). So, maybe something for those folks as well.
I read one story about a guy who found a wireless surveillance camera buried at the base of his tree in hopes of catching him doing kartwheels in the yard I guess. Boy the FUN I would’ve had with that thing. Anyway, it’s AT LEAST evidence that the jerk who placed it there was trespassing. Which is illegal. And no evidence gained illegally can be submitted as sub rosa evidence. Not to my knowledge anyway.
And Earl my dear, the VAST MAJORITY of injured workers ARE injured. Private eyes are a waste of money by the insurance company who SHOULD be using that money to help the injured worker get back to work OR get re-educated into another field OR, and here’s an astounding idea, see GOOD doctors instead of being sent to insurance mills. In the last decade, less than 2% of all IW’s have been proven to be fraudulent. SUSPICION is NOT proof. You types are used primarily for ONE reason…one that you do not like to admit to: YOU are being used simply to harass the IW. That’s all. Know why? The court doesn’t spend hours and hours looking at all your sub rosa. There’s just no time to. Next, they also know it’s coming from the ‘defense’ side of things. The work comp system is EXTREMELY adversarial against injured workers, but people like you NEED to believe otherwise so you can feel better about what YOU do, not because you actually believe the sick and the injured are ‘bad’ in some way. You tell yourself these things so you don’t have to think about how many IW’s are destroyed financially by insurance companies, how many families are torn apart, how many children will go hungry, how the injured workers body is often permanently reduced, how the careers they spent their whole lives learning to do, how the experience and time they gave to their companies, and how their personal pride is utterly and totally devestated. Put THOSE facts in your lopside brain and see if it can’t equalize back to normal for a second. There is no ‘gold’ and there is no ‘rainbow’ for injured workers. They are often injured and then fired and the companies get away with it and all with the help of people LIKE YOU.
They are bankrupted while they try to heal and recover physically and MANY of them can’t because they are permanently disabled and often THAT is due to the failure of recieving proper medical treatment at the onset of injury, other times merely to the accident itself. But shill doctors certainly do not help buddy boy. The IW has NO choice during the intial phase of injury about which doctor they can go to. Your assumptions are not based on fact, they are based on a very powerful and wildly profitable insurance industry, often highly unregulated compared to other underwriting fields, who has the money to spend on decades of PROPOGANDA and lobbyists. Injured workers do NOT have high powered, spoiled, and rich lobbyists representing their interests as the insurers do and have had. Their attorneys salaries are CAPPED by the state whereas the ‘defense’ attorney rep’ing the employer can demand ANY salary and they are usually 3x more expensive than any injured worker could ever hope to afford. Hey Earl, time for another brain straightener: Ever heard the term,”Follow the money” to indicate where the truth REALLY is? OK, now think real hard Earl….WHO makes more money in one year: an injured worker whose salary is reduced nearly 40% per week or an insurance industry that pulls in BILLIONS every year?
Here’s some more math Early my boy: Insurer X has 10 claimes. Insurer X hires a PI to snith on 10 claimants. Even if the professional snitch manages to twist out two seconds of video over MONTHS of surveillance that also manages to PROVE only one claim in the 10 is fraudulent, that means the insurer has to pay out on 9 claimes. Guess what? Even paying out on 9 claimes, the insurer is STILL AHEAD.
Don’t you get it? Or did watching Rockford re-runs and all those dinnertime news stories of the injured back guy digging a pool with a shovel ACTUALLY program you effectively enough to believe the drool that spilled from your brain, to your fingers, to your keyboard, and on to here?
Geezus man, do some research would ya? You’re embarassing.
P.S. One more thing Earl, and to anyone else who buys into the propaganda whines of wc insurers: When the injured workers pay is reduced every week upwards of FORTY PERCENT ( and forty percent of generally low-wage/blue collar jobs is…? right…even lower ), the injured workers BILLS ARE NOT REDUCED. The power company doesn’t reduced the bills 40%, the water company doesn’t reduce the bills 40%, their food bills aren’t reduced 40%, their childrens and pets medical needs are not reduced 40%, fuel aka ‘gas’ is not reduced 40%, their auto insurance is not reduced 40%…do you get it yet Earl? Come on now, you can handle a little TRUTH can’t you Earl?
Every citizen in this country enjoys the right to choose their own medical provider Earl EXCEPT the injured worker. To choose their own doctor to look after the injuries INCURRED AT WORK, means either a) paying the bills themselves which they cannot afford to do and often don’t have the medical insurance via their jobs anymore because their greedy employers FIRE them, or find a flimsy excuse to fire them, FOR BEING INJURED or b) means fighting for months in a back and forth with a resistant ‘defense’ to get their ONE-TIME option of choosing their own doctor, which does not happen for months, sometimes YEARS before they can. And that’s IF they can, because it’s no guarantee it will be approved.
See Earl, you and people like you really have NO idea just how caustic, cruel, and hostile the wc ‘system’ is to injured workers. And PI’s who work for the soulless insurers, mainly the nasty little adjustors assigned to the claim ( who, btw, have the sole job role of AVOIDING any kind of paying out – oh, you didn’t think about that, huh? ), are just part of a game of psychological warfare on the injured workers. PI’s are paid, primarily, as just another tool ( emphasis on TOOL ) to wear the injured workers down even further than their injuries or illness do. PI’s are not honorable people. If they were, THEY’D go get those jobs they think the injured workers should be hobbling and crawling to go get, no matter how much pain they’re in. The jobs that do NOT require snitching and sniveling and skulking around on their own fellow citizens for. Real patriotic work that pee eye stuff huh? Snitching on your own brothers and sisters under this great countrys flag. Well done. Bravo. Real big of ya’ zero-hero.
Injured workers are NOT claims. They’re human beings. Human beings who are used, broken, and tossed away. To say ‘go be productive’ is an enormous display of just how ignorant and souless and sick you have to be to support the conspiracy of suspicion and guilt before innocence syndrome that the insurance industry RELIES on people like you checking their brains out to lunch for. Here’s a challenge for you Earl, and I defy you to find the information. If you can, you’d be the first but there’s one little caveat to think about. A ‘pre-question’ to the question, if you will: If you cannot find the information, ask yourself WHO would want it hidden?
Here’s the question: Why can no one find the suicide rates/statistics/facts of injured workers? To make it easy on you Earl, let’s rule out suicide ‘attempts’. You can find them for morticians, ER docs, airline pilots, air traffic control, etc etc. Hmmmm…..but where are the ones for injured workers? Gee, who would have that buried?
Follow the money Earl, follow the money…
my $.02 – the insurance company is trying to mitigate their loss, in the same way that the injured & their representation is trying to maximize their compensation. I manage a litigation support firm, and can assure you that, when running a surveillance operation, we are only there to document the truth, not create situations that embarrass or discredit the injured party. If the most I see you doing is sitting on the porchswing or doing some light grocery shopping, I can assure you that carting a gallon of milk around isn’t going to hurt your case; If you claim you can’t squeeze or use your hands but I watch you hang from monkey bars for the 1/2 hour you’re with your kid at the fast food restaurant playland, well, I think there are bigger issues than whether a ‘snitch’ is watching you.
@David:
I’m very appreciative for your comment, as I am in the beginning stages of obtaining my license in Florida for private investigation. I’m also not surprised by the amount of hostility toward the investigation industry, as I have come into contact with some very “slimy” investigators who, although few, give everyone a bad name. Our role in the field is to document a subject in their natural environment, not to create a situation or exaggerate the findings. Those who are injured are not the issue, and should not be offended or defensive of the investigation into their claim. The unfortunate truth is that not everyone is as honest as some of the commentors here claim to be, and we all pay for the behavior of those fraudsters.