About a year ago the Press reported that private detective agencies were blaming the seemingly ubiquitous social media for a 49% reduction in matrimonial business. This was attributed to suspicious partners simply monitoring their spouses’ social media activities instead of employing private detectives. Could there perhaps be other reasons for private investigators losing this type of business though?
Is infidelity going out of fashion? Unlikely, given its popularity over thousands of years! So, if adultery is here to stay, what else has changed? Some say marriage itself is becoming less popular. Is adultery a problem only when the participants are actually married: so fewer marriages = less adultery, = fewer investigations? But, are we really seeing fewer marriages, or is it just that many don’t last as long as they used to? Of course, the reality is that it’s not only married people get suspicious of their partners’ activities. It can happen just as easily in other kinds of long-term relationships.
The reduction in business may be temporary anyway. Working longer hours than in the past means people have less time to spend spying on each other. Using social media for the purpose usually requires more skill and know-how than they expected. Calling in someone like EJM Investigations is likely to yield far more reliable results. Let’s not forget too that detectives may also establish innocence as well as guilt. Using a professional agency can be much more discreet.
For private detectives, social media is not the enemy. It is a valuable tool which can save hours of legwork. Time spent at a computer in a warm dry office must be preferable to hanging around in the pouring rain! If the investigator has taken the trouble to acquire the necessary skills the time can be much more productive too.
A recent quote from a prominent private detective in India said that the explosion in social media usage in her country had led to an unprecedented boom in marital infidelity, especially by wives. Apparently many have been overjoyed to discover that connections made on Facebook or in chat rooms could very easily become clandestine physical connections. They don’t realise that that they are leaving an online trail. The result is that much of the work done by the private detective hired to catch them out is done online.
It can’t be any different in the UK. Think of the people who make claims for incapacitating injuries and then post on Facebook dated photos and videos of themselves, performing acrobatics or feats of phenomenal strength: Then wonder how they’ve been found out! Social media is surely the best free tool private detectives have acquired in years!