The Warning Signs of Covert Eavesdropping or Bugging

Are you a target of eavesdropping?

If someone secretly monitors anything you discuss, write, or do could increase someone else's wealth, knowledge or position of power, then the answer is yes.
We have put together a list of potential signs of someone eavesdropping your activities. If you feel that any of them apply to your situation, we suggest you contact us to discuss how we can help. Contact us at Bug Sweeping UK for a free no obligation consultation or quote to see how much our bug sweep service costs.

***Please do not contact us from an area or location you suspect of being monitored, or use either a computer or phone that maybe subject to an illicit attack by a snooper***
 

Do others know about confidential business or professional trade secrets you are involved in.

This is the one of the most obvious signs of someone covertly eavesdropping on your activities. Theft of confidential information is a multi-billion pound enterprise in the UK. Often the loss of company information and data will appear elsewhere to alert you of someone engaged in corporate espionage. When business competitors appear to have inside information concerning issues that were meant to be private, then it would be reasonable to believe that your company or business has been subjected to a technical attack of some kind.

Secret meetings and undisclosed opportunites seem to be open source information

Confidential meetings are considered suitable targets for corporate espionage spies. The thought of being able to obtain what information a company may hold that could significantly benefit others is a tactic worth considering, particularly when there appears to be little risk in getting caught. And for the acquirer of the compromised data the investment in employing a third party to obtain the information on their behalf minimises the risk even greater. 

 People you know seem to be in possession of what you considered private information

Often it is estranged partners such as an ex-wife or husband who are the ones who can’t seem to let go and need to retain an element of control over their ex-partners life. They do this by planting equipment in the home of their ex with a view to be able find out what they are up to and with whom.

 There appears to be strange sounds or volume changes on your land line phone line

Attacking the land line of a person is less frequent these days than monitoring someone’s mobile phone but is still used by an eavesdropper.
The noises emanate from the snooper using amateur equipment when they attach a phone tap, or similar listening device. The monitoring of an individual’s land line can often cause slight abnormalities on the telephone line such as an irregular shift in volume, crackling or sudden drop out. Another indication is the phone continues to make a noise even when no phone call is engaged. Random calls where there is no person at the end of the line and no number is recorded as having dialled, is another warning of a remote device activating the phone. The same goes for personal radios in the home that utilise the am/fm radio frequency.

Television broadcasts are another indication of interception using the interfering with the UHF frequency to collect information from the vicinity of the TV.
 
Signs of listening bugs hidden in the car manifest themselves in the car radio, with unusual interference with the signal picking up strange noises and losing the signal in areas where previously it has been fine.

Has Someone Been In Your House, But Nothing Is Taken?

We also advise to give consideration to when your home has been vulnerable and open to compromise. Have you been away from your home and all of a sudden you notice things have been interfered with, yet nothing appears to have been stolen.
Person’s and organisations that are considered expert in the deployment of listening devices and hidden cameras will do everything they can to leave no trace of them being in a target environment. Even to the point of bypassing alarms and entering using specially adapted keys to avoid detection can be carried out.

Elecrical parts...the snoopers best friend

Electrical appliances, switches and outlets have been interfered with. These are a tell-tale sign of a bugging device being used. Microphones and cameras can be fitted in most environments and are most effective when they are connected to an instant and constant power source.
New furniture and removable items recently brought into the environment such as clocks, radios, CD players, smoke alarms and PIR’s are ideal everyday objects that can be used as cover for the deployment of a covert listening bug or micro hidden camera.

Remember - Walls have ears, and cameras and recorders...

As well as removable goods attention should also be paid to fixed elements of the domain or office. We have seen cameras and recording equipment buried deep into the fabric of a building, including secreting bugs in skirting boards, behind plastered walls, and false ceilings.
If you work in an office environment and have noticed that areas of the building infrastructure are damaged, faulty or irregular we advise that a TCSM specialist is called in immediately. False ceilings are a great place to deploy a hidden camera or microphone as its out of the way and can provide great coverage of the environment below, be it someone’s desk in a private office, a boardroom or room subject to fire wall policy.

Who is that?

Be aware of new employees and sub contracted staff. It is a common feature to recruit an individual to plant covert recording equipment in a target area when access to the area is limited or subject to heavy security measures. Is the cleaner always left alone to carry out their duties? Does the maintenance man need unsupervised access to a sensitive part of the business?

Where does the information they stole end up?

As strange as it may sounds, some victims of eavesdropping and unwarranted intrusion have been made aware that their privacy has been invaded and compromised by seeing themselves involved in an act on the internet, or listened to themselves in a recording having had the material sent directly to them.
This happens and even though it may appear the damage has been done. We strongly recommend having your home, office, vehicle, computer or phone checked for hidden spyware.

Although this list does not include all indications that you are subject to a technical attack by hidden electronic bugs, we hope it provides something to think about and helps to make you think that your private life is not as private as you may think.

If you require the services of a TCSM specialist, expert in the detection of covert electronic devices, then call us now on 084 5441947, or email us here.

***Please do not contact us from an area or location you suspect of being monitored, or use either a computer or phone that maybe subject to an illicit attack by a snooper***