"My wife cheated on me. Help": what do private detectives do in Kazakhstan?
Private detectives helped find a brother and sister who were separated in 1984, as well as an offender who had been in hiding for 18 years. De jure, their activities in the country are not regulated, but they have been successfully operating in the market for many years. Moreover, more and more often detectives are called scammers who pull money from citizens.
Question price
The scheme of work of false detectives is primitive: the client tells his story, transmits data to the person who needs to be "punched", finds out the price for services – and it is usually deliberately reduced, for example, 20 thousand tenge. That's where they disagree. Soon the customer is informed that the cost of the work has increased to 2 million tenge. And if he does not give this amount, the " object of research” will be informed who and why is interested in his person.
– This is just one of the ways of scammers who have been divorced in various applications such as OLX. There are especially many of them in Almaty. So be vigilant, " says Damir, the owner of a detective agency in the southern capital.
Damir arrived in the capital on business-collects information about a person that is not available in closed databases.
– And we have extensive databases – we can find out the whole background of a person: whether there were police records, fines, criminal records, what he breathes, with whom he meets, where and for what reason. We conduct Internet surfing, social engineering, search in Kazakhstan and the CIS. The price is 70 thousand tenge. If you need a foreign country, we make requests to Interpol – - the detective, a former law enforcement officer, or BS for short, tells me about the details of the work.
It is the BS that make up the main part of the Kazakhstan pinkertons. Someone does not want to cook a young pensioner, others, having gained experience in law enforcement agencies, go to free bread, where they use connections for their own detective work.
– We are 2 years on the market, the period is short, but with the experience in the police and other agencies, we can do a lot. In the list of our services – face biometrics, recognition, surveillance, the cost of 100 thousand tenge and above-depending on the amount of work. But we work quickly, we usually manage in a day, " says Damir.
Scammers and company
The detective agency works on prepayment, contracts are not concluded. On the question of how to maneuver on the fine line between legal methods and invasion of privacy, the interlocutor of the "CARAVAN" again retorts with the experience of BS.
- Yes, it is impossible to conduct secret investigative actions not for law enforcement officers outside the framework of a criminal case and without an official resolution, but at the request of clients, we only conduct surveillance, which is not prohibited by law.
In general, today, thanks to social networks, e-government and other open sources, it has become easier to search for the necessary information. Moreover, many users themselves tell the world personal information. And even if they hide them, we use special programs to find them. These are not hacking tools, you do not think, this is licensed software (software). According to the photo, we identify the person, and it turns out that Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich is actually Serikov Serik Serikovich, " says Damir.
So, detectives helped the police find a man who had been hiding in Russia for 18 years! I changed my documents and data, but I couldn't resist the temptation to expose myself in social networks.
– We also "punch" marriage scammers. The other day, the girl turned: after communicating with a handsome major in an expensive car and continuing the date, the macho man sent her a video of their sex – there were hidden cameras in the apartment. I did not immediately demand money for the non-proliferation of home porn, but the girl, wanting to be safe, sent us a photo of a man. We all learned from it – the marriage swindler turned out to be.
As in the other case-the woman lent the fan a large sum, after which he disappeared, stopped answering calls. The deceived lady came to us. I advised her to read the book "Loneliness on the Net" - instead of suffering for lost love and money, - says Damir.
But services for the establishment of adultery in this detective agency try not to provide.
- I have religious guys working for me and they refuse to take vague cases related to digging in someone else's dirty laundry. But, of course, customers with such requests continue to go, and here 50-50-both husbands and wives come to us. The husband, for example, goes on a business trip and wants to know what the faithful is doing in his absence. There are such husbands-I call them "geese". Calls, tells: “My wife cheated on me, I caught her. Now I think she's back to her old ways. Help...”. We refuse to take such cases.
And yesterday the grandmother called-asked the groom of the granddaughter to check for the presence of loans, criminal records, defamatory relationships and the like, - says the detective.
In search of lost tracks
Another client was helped by Kazakh Sherlock Holmes to find his own sister, from whom he was separated in 1984 – the baby was sent to the baby's house, and he was sent to an orphanage.
– Wherever a man turned in search of a loved one: he wrote in “Wait for Me”, even went to psychics. And you can't go to the authorities with such an appeal – there was no crime, after all.
He came to us. We immediately explain in such cases: we will be able to help, if there are at least some clues. Otherwise, it is hopeless. But we are still asked to find any information, to establish whether the person is alive or where his grave is. There are different circumstances in such stories: parents were deprived of their rights or they died, children were sent to orphanages, a woman got married and changed her last name, or the last name was incorrectly recorded. This is a human factor, as a result, due to incorrect data on the databases, a person does not “beat”, a trace is lost. But in the story of the separated brother and sister, we managed to connect them, " says Damir.
By the way, the search for people is the most popular and most expensive service in the agency. According to the detective, the cost is from 1 thousand euros plus travel expenses.
– The second most popular service is to "punch" counterparties. My friend decided to buy masks during the pandemic, found a supplier, and transferred several million tenge. In the end-no masks, no money. We found the person who said that he was also deceived. The trial is coming soon. But this would-be businessman has nothing to take, we "punched".
But if a friend had turned to me right away, I would have avoided all these troubles. Do not spare money and time to get a complete dossier on potential partners-contact the professionals or create your own security service, - says the detective.
Welcome!
The main clientele of the agency is in megacities. In small towns, as another detective from Petropavlovsk told us, everyone is his own detective: about secret relationships – love, business – knows a good half of the inhabitants. Therefore, the demand for Pinkerton services in the regions is not as high as in the capital or Almaty. Although once Damir, for example, was approached from the countryside-asked to establish paternity.
"And we had to do it without the supposed father noticing. How do you imagine this, we asked the customer. – Well, you go up to a man in the village, pull a hair out of his head... When asked how much we are willing to pay for this work, they said "twenty thousand tenge", - the interlocutor recalls. – People have such problems that at the end of the day I have a headache – you pass everything through yourself to understand how to act better. Someone will tell their story, get advice from us, and at the end ask how to thank you. Well, throw it on the balance, I answer. And the quarantine did not affect the number of requests to us – as they went, so they go, in search of information on spouses, business partners, missing relatives.
Threats, according to Damir, happen, but rarely. For example, when a spouse who has convicted her husband of infidelity, merges the contacts of a detective, and an angry man calls and calls for a conversation.
– And so we are already scared, we observe the security conditions, - says Damir – - By the way, I was invited to a TV show with the characters. They asked me to tell them about the subtleties of the work, and the clients-their stories. Your colleagues from TV were stunned, of course. Who will voluntarily, even for high fees, go to the whole country to talk about confidential, intimate things? Of course, I refused to participate in the show.
Before he ran off to do his detective work, Damir suggested that I become his colleague:
– We don't have female detectives. And you, judging by our 45-minute conversation, have excellent analytical skills. Women will turn to you, believe me, more often than to us, because it is easier to trust a lady detective. So welcome to our ranks!
NUR-SULTAN