What does a private detective actually do, who enters this profession, and how can you tell a real detective from a fraudster? We answer from the experience of our own practice.
Who Becomes a Detective
A detective’s work is investigation: surveillance, searching, gathering information. Those who did it in the service know it best, which is why the profession most often attracts former police detectives and investigators. It takes wits, a strong will, physical endurance and the ability to work with people.
Under Russian law, a private detective may be a person with a legal education, special training or experience in police operational or investigative units. A criminal record or medical contraindications close the door to the profession. The license is issued by the Licensing and Permits Center of Rosgvardia, and the detective registers with the tax authorities as an entrepreneur.
Investigation Is Organization
The result depends on how the work is organized: a flexible plan, a fresh look at the situation, endurance. Sometimes a client wants to take part in the surveillance or search himself. The interest is understandable, but professional ethics do not allow us to reveal our methods: this is not a game.
Unexpected Outcomes
A client often comes with what seems like a familiar situation, but the investigation reveals something completely different. From our practice:
- a wife suspected her husband of an affair with a woman — it turned out to be a man;
- a businessman blamed his bankruptcy on competitors — it turned out his best friend and partner had betrayed him;
- information was leaking from a firm not through employees — the cleaner had planted bugs throughout the office;
- children did not believe their elderly mother that someone kept ringing her doorbell — it turned out to be a drunk neighbor amusing himself.
An investigation often reveals something quite different from what the client expected to see.
Not Just Surveillance
People think a detective mostly follows unfaithful spouses. We do that too. According to our statistics, 70% of requests come from women and the remaining 30% from men and the parents of grown-up children. But we also search for missing people, cars and property, and gather information on criminal cases — from thefts to murders. Complex cases are handled together with specialized experts.
How Not to Fall for a Fraudster
A real detective always states his license number — on the website and on his business card — and shows the original license and his detective ID at a meeting. Fraudsters avoid meetings, conduct conversations by phone and create copies of the websites of well-known agencies. Our agency’s genuine website is право18.рф, and our detectives always present the original license.