Spy Tips on Torture, Fighting, Intelligence Gathering, and more

Jobs in agriculture are a convenient cover. Makes it easy to explain your presence in the field and the boardroom. The only downside is you might have to become an expert on chickpeas.

You can tell a lot about who’s following you by the maneuvers they use. Quick, evasive driving, Casual bailout, feigning car trouble. these are signs you’re dealing with a professional.

Cultivating intelligence assets usually requires some wining and dining. The more connected someone is, the more they know, the more they feel entitled to a little special treatment.

Smart operatives know how to steer the conversation towards the information they need. Clever assets, on the other hand, know how to make the wine-and-dine phase last as long as possible.

Stun guns are a great way to bring down a larger opponent. The only problem is, if you use one on someone who’s touching you, You’ll zap yourself, too.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on the Negotiations, Exploiting Assets, and more

There aren’t many rules in the spy trade. There are a few agreements that most intelligence agencies honor, though. Low-level agents get traded, not prosecuted. You don’t shoot foreign operatives if you can avoid it, and you stay away from embassies and consulates.

Consulates are a great place to renew your visa, pay your taxes back home, or find foreign spies working under diplomatic cover.

Like all bureaucrats, consulate employees live in fear of a pissed-off journalist.

Most of the people who work in a consulate are just municipal drones enjoying an overseas post. But the head of security, that guy’s almost always a spy.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Check Fraud, Nitrogen Gas, and more

In the world of intelligence, if an operative hands you a crossword puzzle, chances are you’ve just received a coded message. It’s the art of steganography – sending coded messages that don’t look like messages unless you have the key.

In covert ops, you always wanna be the one setting the meeting. When you’re following someone else’s instructions, they set the agenda, they control the security, and they get to make you jump through hoops to remind you they are in charge.

Check fraud is more about technique than high-tech equipment. Some old checks, a roll of scotch tape, some nail-polish remover, and you’re in business. Nail-polish remover is mostly acetone, which dissolves ink. Get your hands on a check that’s been filled out by the account holder, dissolve everything but the signature, and you’ve got yourself a blank check. Counterfeiters call it “check washing”.

If you want to make a friend, solve a problem for them. No problem to solve? Create one.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Working as a Team, Beating Motion Sensors, and more

As a spy, you get to spend a lot of time alone. Whether you’re in an Indonesian prison, a cave in the Afghan mountains, or the back of a cargo truck, it comes with the job. You’re trained to make the most of it, plan your next move, go over your intel, review your training. But when you’ve cleaned your gun thirty times and reviewed the past tense of every verb in five languages, you start itching to make a move.

Air bags are great for surviving crashes, but they make some evasive maneuvers tough. Gone are the days when you could run through a stand of trees without a face full of nylon. Of course, anything you used to do head-on, you can still do.

When you’re claiming to be someone you’re not, the key is commitment. You’ve got to sell it like your life depends on it. Because sometimes it does.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Liquid Nitrogen, Parking Lots, Teaming Up, and more

Spies are in the law-breaking business. Call it espionage, covert ops, whatever you like. When you get right down to it, you’re a criminal working for a good cause. When your job involves daily law-breaking, Chances are you’re going to find yourself on the wrong end of a manhunt at some point.

It’s hard to get used to the idea that doing the right thing can mean being public enemy number one. The good news is you’re usually too busy trying to survive to get upset. Usually, the best thing is to get away, deal with the situation, and hope people are in a forgiving mood.

Commuter parking lots are great for fugitives. You can get some sleep while your pursuers lose momentum to exhaustion and shift changes. It’s also one-stop shopping for dry clothes or a new phone.

Spies love places people tend to avoid Sewage plants, toxic dumps, condemned motels, all places you can put emergency supplies and not worry about whether they’ll be there when you need them.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Fighting Two on One, Modifying Passport, and more

If someone calls a meeting in a deserted location, they want control. They can tell if you’re alone, and if you try anything, it’s easy to take you out with a sniper. So, if someone wants a chat in the middle of nowhere, it never hurts to bring a sniper of your own.

Fighting two against one is never ideal, but there are ways to even the odds. Jam your opponents into a corner, and they won’t have room to use both arms. It’s like fighting one person with two angry heads. It makes them easier to engage and easier to disengage.

It’s never fun being used as a diversion, but it is an effective way to get the drop on an enemy with superior numbers and firepower. Then it’s all about making a clean getaway. If you can’t do that, it never hurts to be in an armored car.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Sabotage Dealing with Liars, Easy Targets, and more

When you need to locate a foreign spy office, it’s all about the food. Spies like home cooking just like everyone else. Find out who serves their regional delicacies. Tip the bartenders and delivery boys well, and they’ll usually tell you who placed the big orders on the last national holiday. If some of these orders head to an office with tight security and scowling workers with short haircuts, you’re in business.

Easy Target- Low on the totem pole at work, short on cash, bad divorce.

Playing on people’s loyalties is an art, especially when those loyalties can be murky and malleable. Poke around too much and you’ll look suspicious. Sometimes your best move is just to commit. Of course, commit too hard to the wrong side, and there’s not much wiggle room. Instead of an instant ally, you’ve just made an instant enemy.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Saying No, Security Cameras, Criminal Fear, and more

It’s dangerous to say no to a spy. In a business where motives are questionable and loyalty is skin-deep, declining the wrong request can earn you a trip to the morgue.

Preserving a corpse is not a frequent job requirement for a spy. But if you must, stashing a body is a lot like storing high explosives. Air, water, and heat are the enemy.

Sometimes, the least-Secure parts of a security system are the security cameras themselves. If leaves obstruct the lens because the landscaping hasn’t been maintained, you can approach from a blind spot. And if you get close enough, borrowing the video feed is as easy as stealing pay-per-view.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Free Climbing, Remotes, Microwave Bombs, and more

It’s never fun to be the guy who clears a location for a meet. In the best case, you waste your time looking for dangers that aren’t there. In the worst case, of course, you miss something.

Even routine meetings can be risky if you’re sitting down with someone you don’t trust. You have to be alert to any subtle clue that tells you what you’re walking into.

In covert ops, you get used to seeing old enemies. Sometimes they’re looking for intelligence. Sometimes they’re looking for revenge. And sometimes they’re looking for a friend.

Whether it’s a drug compound in the mountains of Colombia or a tropical estate in Miami, nothing says success like a lot of land. Of course, the more land someone has, the easier it is to hide out and do surveillance. Lush landscaping may be beautiful, but it’s hardly secure.   Click here to read more…

Spy Tips on Hotel Pools, Warehouses, Dominance, and more

In the intelligence community, an invitation to meet at a hotel pool is an olive branch. The person you’re meeting is offering you multiple escape routes, a crowd to mix in with, and the virtual certainty that nobody is concealing a weapon in their bathing suit.

Neighborhood watch is just a nice idea in most suburbs. But where you really see it in action is the inner city. Only there, it doesn’t protect against crime. It protects against cops. Just like cops have drug detecting dogs, some neighborhoods have cop-detecting kids. Once the alarm goes out, criminal activity shuts down like a picnic when it rains. And any fugitives run like jackrabbits.

In an army, a chain of command gets activated by unusual events Tanks amassing on a border, a hacking attack on a central computer, Assassinations of key personnel. A street gang’s chain of command is no different. Showing up in a stolen car and making a splashy entrance, will get a message sent up the ladder.   Click here to read more…