By: Xiao Xu, bit of news
December 17, 2015
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If you’re thinking about having an affair, you better hope that Efrat or one of her co-workers isn’t on your tail. Efrat Cohen is a private investigator who works for Global Intelligence Consultants, a special investigation and research firm based in Florida. One of her specialties is catching people having affairs.
Clients want photo evidence for different reasons. Some want a stronger legal backbone in divorce cases, where evidence of spousal affair can persuade the judge to rule in your favor. Others want closure or concrete evidence of cheating before they confront their spouses.
Efrat gets over 100 affair cases per year. She says that now a days, it’s not just men who cheat anymore. “Ten years ago, it was the women who needed the tissue box in the office. Now, it’s the men,” Efrat says, “women have become more aggressive in searching for and getting sexually what they cannot get from their steady partners.”
It’s a pretty interesting job to expose affairs, and we wanted to learn more. How do you find your targets? What are the signs? This is what she told me about what her job is like:
Bit of News: How did you get into private investigations?
Efrat: I started working as an investigator for abused and neglected children. I then moved on to a private investigation company who services national and international client base. Matrimonial cases are just one aspect of the services we provide.
BON: How many affair cases do you get per year? Who are your clients?
Over 100 per annum. We have definitely have seen a shift in how women and men have affairs. Ten years ago, it was the women who needed the tissue box in the office. Now, it’s the men – women have become more aggressive in searching for and getting sexually what they cannot get from their steady partners.
BON: What’s your usual method of “catching” the person in the act?
Surveillance is the best and most effective method, based on the quality of information available or able to be acquired. Some people want the ‘photo’ to satisfy their need to know and/or for closure even though they already know the event is taking place. Others need the photo to be able to have a better leverage in court to provide an element of mitigation.
BON: What do you mean by surveillance? Will you follow the suspect and take photographs of him or her meeting up with someone?
Yes. Surveillance is like “shadowing” the target we are after. A good investigator will never be noticed and will shadow the individual we are following. Whether they are entering a hotel, restaurant or a home, we will be there to catch them in action. At the end the client will get photographs and a video of what took place.
BON: What else?
Social media is an ever-effective tool. With the whole Ashely Madison scandal we are now able to retrieve the million users of that service.
Reverse Targeting is also effective – whereas the adulterer may be cautious, the other party may not! Facebook is the domain of fools – thankfully!
Reverse Targeting is when we know who the “other person is”. So for example if a CEO is having an affair with his secretary, we will also look into the secretary’s social media. Often they will post a photo or a post without thinking that it will expose the other person.
BON: What is the strangest situation you have encountered while doing an investigation?
Husband who kept insisting we let him know which of 13 hotels his wife and her your personal trainer entered before they found a room, and then pleaded to know which one they settled on. He was denied.
Also a wife who had met up with multiple partners throughout the night before returning to her husband and 2 young children.
BON: What are the biggest signs that a spouse / SO is having an affair?
Change of routine is the first clue – lies and Intuition. Secretive out-of-character activities and denying access to email, phone, texts, and any social media communications. The list is endless, but when the suspect is a male – the female’s intuition, not matter how hard they fight against it is the measure of the suspicion and seldom wrong!