4 tips for finding hidden Spy Cameras

Do you feel like you are being watched? Are you paranoid that someone is spying on you? If so, this article may give you piece of mind or help you find hidden cameras

With the recent advances in technology, tiny surveillance video cameras have become incredibly cheap to buy and the average covert spy camera measures just 30mm x 30mm x 30mm in size, or less! (see figure 1) Which means these spy cameras can be hidden pretty much anywhere – such as behind walls, mirrors, teddy bears, books, watches, vases, photo frames, alarm clocks, and lots of other every day objects.

Putting that in consideration, spy cameras can be hidden near you and you’d be aware of their existence. If you have reasons to believe that you’re being spied on by a covert spy camera then here are some tips that will help you to find them.

Figure 1

1) Use a RF bug detector

A Radio Frequency (RF) bug detector can quickly check for wireless spy cameras in nearby areas. There are lots of different types of bug detectors, so you need to make sure you purchased one that’s sensitive to common transmitting spy camera frequencies (900MHz, 1.2GHz, 2.4GHz, and 5.8GHz). To use the bug detector, you walk around a room waving the detector up and down the wall while moving very slowly.

When you discover a transmission source, you need to investigate if that transmitter is a bug or a benign transmission (e.g. a wireless thermostat or WiFi network). So an RF bug detector can give you clues if there’s a transmitting spy camera around.

RF bug detector

2) Use a spy camera detector gadget

Spy camera detectors are slower to use compared to RF bug detectors, but spy camera detectors are great for finding hidden spy cameras that don’t transmit. Basically the device is a long slim gadget with a little glass viewfinder. When you look through the glass window, you can see any camera lens sparkle due to the specially-designed red LEDs on the other side of the device. Using these clever optics, it becomes very easy to spot any spy camera that’s not hidden behind glass or plastic. So the spy camera detector helps you locate hidden cameras by making the camera lens sparkle.

Spy Camera Finder

3) Look for disturbances in furniture and dust

One massive tell-tail that a room has been interfered with is that furniture has been moved or disturbed. So look for any new objects in your rooms, changes in dust patterns (it’s nearly impossible to be completely free of dust!), disturbed ceiling tiles, check if there’s any fallen brick/wall dust on the floor. e.g. if a ceiling light has been tampered with, there would be dust on the ceiling fitting itself or on the floor when dust has fallen.

Since spy cameras need a straight line of sight to be able to record what you’re doing, you can start with any area that directly observes you for most of the time. Visually looking for a spy camera is very time-consuming, so starting within your line of sight will help you prioritise.

4) Look for holes and black dots

Pinhole spy cameras are the easiest to hide, as their camera lens is just 1mm to 3mm in diameter. Therefore you need to look for spy holes in walls and furniture which would allow a spy camera to be concealed. You can search for spy holes by sight or by touch (ideally both). Look for anything that appears to look slightly odd (e.g. a black spot on a pattern is very easy to see). If you find something suspicious, check it out using the gadgets from 1 and 2 above to help determine if you’ve found a hidden spy camera.

So there you go, 4 practical tips for finding a hidden spy camera. Just remember, just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!

This is a guest article by Dan Harrison who collects interesting security gizmos – check out the ultimate list of spy gadgets, particularly the spy camera hidden in a watch, as it’s just plain cool!

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