News

Trackers gets 2.1 millions viewers! – 2 September 2010

Following the transmission at the weekend of Trackers on BBC1 we are pleased to announce that the show received 2.1 million viewers!

We've had a great response from the show in which Cameron Gowlett, director of Cerberus, featured as one of the specialist 'Trackers' who helped reunite lost relatives and people with money they had forgotten.

The show is still available on the BBC Iplayer here until Sunday 5th September 2010 - so don't miss out on your chance to see it!

If you're interested in tracing a lost relative or friends you have lost touch with over the years get in touch with us today and one of our tracing experts will talk you through the options.

 

Director of Cerberus stars on BBC1 – 26 August 2010

We’ve got some news for you! Cameron Gowlett, Director of Cerberus is featuring in a new BBC programme called Trackers, where he has used his investigative experience to help track people down.

The programme follows a team of experts as they try to trace missing family members and reunite others with money they have forgotten. See below for the official blurb:

Every day across thousands of people try to contact long-lost relatives and friends. But it's not just our families we've lost touch with. Around the country there are billions of pounds of forgotten money. Investigative journalist Richard Bilton is joined by an elite team of experts as he attempts to reunite people with their families and with their forgotten money.

Trackers will be shown on BBC One on Sunday 29th August at 22:25pm and repeated again on Monday 30th August at 22:55pm. If you miss both of those, you will be able to catch it on the BBC iPlayer. 

Seemless Payments – Spyonyou.co.uk – 6 July 2010

We’ve been doing some tinkering under the bonnet of our new spy gadget shop Spyonyou.co.uk by adding the Secure Trading payment platform. This means that purchases can be made directly via the site using a credit or debit card. This will provide added security to all transactions and allow customers the fastest possible way of buying products. We want to make online shopping simple, so all you have to decide on is the gadget that suits you! 

Take a look below for our store front:

 

In other Spyonyou.co.uk news, we’ve lined up an exciting new mobile phone surveillance tool called the Cell Phone Recon.

The innovative mobile phone Spy Software allows you to record SMS text messages, keep track of a mobile phone’s location, record and listen to conversations, and monitor emails.

This software will bring you instant peace of mind on several fronts. No longer will you have to worry about the whereabouts of your children or loved ones of an evening, as you will be able to pinpoint their exact location. The software will encourage your employees to use the work mobile for business purposes only. If your phone is lost or stolen you will easily be able to track it. And you can install the software into your own phone as a back up device.

It is simple to set up, meaning that you can start monitoring the mobile in a matter of moments. All you have to do is provide your phone’s IMEI number, then the information will be displayed using easy browse categories via a dedicated website.

The Cell Phone Recon software does not rely on the mobile phone’s call or message logs to gather information, therefore even if all records of the calls made and received are deleted, the data will still be available to you. It also includes a Stealth Auto Answering Technology meaning you will be able to hear conversations occurring in the vicinity of the mobile phone.

 

Cell Phone Recon is designed to provide 100% confidentiality and peace of mind.

 >> Blackberry OS - Symbian OS - Windows Mobile OS - Android OS compatible

>> Record All SMS conversations

>> Record All Call Logs

>> Record voice conversations

>> Track Location (when in satellite range)

>> Use phone as a microphone

>> Auto Answer feature

Disclaimer: The Cell Phone Recon software must only be used to monitor mobile phones when the owner/user has given permission for you to do so. If the software is installed on a mobile phone whose owner/user has not given permission, then you could liable for legal action.

 Watch this space for the official launch where we'll bring you a tested product review. 

A busy month at Cerberus! – 16 June 2010

Hello again! We've been very busy at Cerberus in the last month. Take a look below for what we've been up to:

Firstly at the end of May 2010, we all travelled to Boston for the annual International Trademark Associations (INTA) conference where we met many of our client clients within the trademark industry. INTA is a great opportunity for Cerberus to meet with its international client base and thank you to all those who took the time to meet with us.

Secondly, for the past few months Cameron Gowlett has been involved with the production of a new TV pilot which will hopefully make it to TV screens later this year. More updates on this shortly as at the moment it is top secret!

Thirdly, following his filming, Cameron travelled to Istanbul in Turkey to work with Cerberus's office in Turkey which recently launched its website! Cameron is busy having meetings in Turkey with law firms to hopefully change the opinion of investigators in the country – Cerberus will offer fast, thorough and commercially-minded investigations for Intellectual Property related issues such as trademarks, counterfeits and domain names.

Finally, we have also been making a great number of sales through our new Spy Shop – Spyonyou.co.uk! We've found that the SpyCobra is the most popular product – a keylogger which records keystrokes, website addresses and even takes screenshots of what is being shown on the screen during its monitoring.

We've also reduced the price of our KeeLog USB keyloggers to £39.99. The KeeLog is an amazing piece of computer surveillance technology, undetectable from the computer operation – it plugs in between the keyboard and the computer and can record up to 2 million keystrokes. Grab one now or miss a bargain.

Watch this space for some road testing videos of the spy equipment we have on sale... 

Erasing David available to watch on 4oD – 7 May 2010

For those who missed the TV screening of Erasing David on Tuesday, we are pleased to announce that Erasing David is now available to watch on 4 On Demand (4oD).

Click here to watch the film and see Cameron Gowlett and Duncan Mee from Cerberus in action as they track David Bond in the documentary where he tries to live 'off the grid' for thirty day. 

 Be warned there are only 27 days left to watch the film! 

Erasing David showing on TV!! – 30 April 2010

On Tuesday 4th May, Erasing David will make its UK small screen debut being shown, in its entirety, on More4 at 10pm.

For its UK cinematic release yesterday, Erasing was shown at Picturehouse cinemas across the UK with the Brixton Ritzy’s 350 seat cinema being sold out!

After the screening there was a lively debate featuring Henry Porter, David Davis, Shami Chakrabarti, Phil Booth (of No2ID) and Will Self which was beamed to the other cinemas taking part in the screening. The debate will be shown on More4 after the film on the 4th May.

The film has featured in the national press in the last week. Click on the article titles to read them in full and check out the Cerberus related entries below:

 

> 22nd April 2010 – The Sun ‘Can you ever stay private in Surveillance UK?’ by Bella Battle. See below for where Cerberus featured:

Detectives at private agency Cerberus had just 30 days to catch up with him.

Using the internet and a bit of imagination, they quickly found out his family's names, dates of birth, addresses and even which junior school he had attended.

Their methods and the ease with which they employed them will shock every viewer who takes their privacy for granted.

 

> 28th April 2010 – The Daily Express ‘My Quest to Disappear’ by Adrian Lee. See below for where Cerberus featured in the article:

Even the private detectives who tracked Bond want tighter controls. Duncan Mee, co-owner of Cerberus Investigations, says: “The amount of information that is held about individuals has gone too far. In every day life enormous data trails are left. We were able to build a comprehensive picture of David’s life.” But he warns we all share some of the blame: “People are careless and put too much information out there, such as birthdays on social networking sites. It’s all available for public scrutiny.”

 

> 28th April 2010 – The Independent ‘How to disappear completely’ by David Bond. See below for Cerberus’s mention:

My producer hired Cerberus, a top firm of private investigators, to track me down. All they had to go on was my name and a recent photograph. I was to try to avoid being physically caught by them for 30 days.

…I will not say whether Cerberus caught me within the month. Watch the film. But after the month was up, they led me into their control room. One large wall was covered with information about me. They had a detailed personality profile that allowed them to predict what I might do. And all this was publicly available information. All of this is out there about you, too. Our personal data is a profound possession of ours. We should keep it safe.

 

> 29th April 2010 – Evening Standard ‘Every move I make, every step I take, they'll be watching me’ by David Bond. Below is a snippet of the article which features Cerberus:

I had hired the investigators, from top London firm Cerberus, to find me. I wanted to find out whether it is possible to live a private life in surveillance London. I was making a feature-length documentary called Erasing David for the Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation. A film crew was following Cerberus as they tracked me down. I was filming myself as I ran away. I wanted to know what other people can know about me. What is out there in the public domain? Can it be used to profile me to the extent that a determined investigator, identity thief or stalker, could know what I am likely to do in the future — and catch me?

Within an hour of searching for me (all they had to start with was my name and a recent photo) the private investigators had ordered my wife's, my own and my daughter's birth certificates, and my parents' and my marriage certificates.

They ran my name through a number of profiling systems to give them my credit rating, details of property I owned and my employment history. They also ran a quick profile of me on social networking sites. I had tried to remove myself from Facebook (you can never really remove yourself from Facebook) but they were able to find a good crop of my friends. I am not particularly vulnerable, by the way, anyone could do the same to you.

Erasing David and Cerberus featured on the BBC! – 21 April 2010

Yesterday was a great day for Erasing David with TWO appearances on the BBC.

The first was on BBC Breakfast with Sian Williams describing Cerberus as 'the world's top private investigators'. Unfortunately, as news coverage, the interview with David Bond, the director behind Erasing David does not appear on the BBC Iplayer. In the coming days it may appear on the BBC Breakfast website. However, the trailer of the film which was shown on air can be found on our website here.

 

The second was a BBC Radio 5 Live interview with Cameron Gowlett (Director of Cerberus) and David Bond discussing the film and the issues of data privacy and the loss of it in the UK. It was another great opportunity to hear more about the background of the film and the ways in which Cerberus worked during the making of Erasing David. To listen to the interview (on the BBC Iplayer) with Victoria Derbyshire click here and scan to 1 hour and 13 mins into the show.

 

Another great interview with David Bond talking about Erasing David on the BBC's World Service can be found here. The interview features extracts from the film including Cameron and Duncan of Cerberus talking about what they found on David. 

 

Stay tuned for more updates on Erasing David and Cerberus! We're all looking forward to the cinema release next week and hope to see you there. 

New Erasing David Artwork and Article! – 19 April 2010

Last weekend, Erasing David, David Bond and Cerberus were featured in an article for the Saturday Times and Times Online. 

The article was called "Can you disappear in surveillance Britain?" by Jean-Paul Flintoff and can be viewed in full here.

It gives a deeper insight into the film Erasing David which gets it's cinema release next week on the 29th April. You can find out where to buy tickets and view the trailer on the Cerberus website here.

Just to whet your Erasing David appetites take a look below:

 

"Bond spent a long time finding the right detectives for his project, talking to countless retired coppers before he found Duncan Mee and Cameron Gowlett of Cerberus. Ordinarily, they work as investigators for major companies and law firms, scrupulously following the letter of the law as they trail organised gangs, often in unstable parts of the world. (If they broke the law, courts would throw out their findings.) The work requires them to penetrate layer upon layer of shell companies and false identities. How hard could it be to find Bond? After all, they’re often asked to find people who might be beneficiaries of a will, and that rarely takes more than a few hours.

After Bond phoned them, the arrangements were finalised by his friend and business partner, Ashley Jones – producer of the film. All the detectives were given was a photo, and the name, David Bond."

We're also pleased to reveal some new Erasing David artwork which coincides with the UK cinematic release of the film next week. Take a look below: 

 

For more information on where to buy tickets visit the PictureHouse website here or click on the Erasing David box to the right. 
 
Erasing David and Cerberus featured on TIME.COM – 6 April 2010

After a great reception at the South X South-West Festival in Austin, Texas, David Bond – film maker behind Erasing David – has been interviewed by TIME (magazine). 

The interview gives a rare insight into David’s motives behind making the film and his struggle to stay ‘off the grid’ during its filming. Cerberus also feature in the interview which explains why we were chosen to find David in his month on the run: 

“We went looking for private investigators, and found these amazing guys called Cerberus, who are known as a group who always find their man. They took on the challenge. From that point, we had to plan the date the disappearance would be and give them very limited information about me — just my name and photo.”

The interview also explains more about the (cunning!) methods we used to try and find David, including data-mining his Facebook profile which was not featured in the final cut of the film. 

To read the interview in full on Time.com, click here. 

Erasing David gets UK cinema release! – 15 March 2010

After getting a great reception at the South X South West festival in Austin, Texas we can officially announce that ERASING DAVID has secured a UK cinema release. From Thursday 29th April the film will be on general release nationwide.

The film will play in London (Kensal Rise, Greenwich, Brixton, Stratford, Islington), Prestatyn, Winchester, York, Newcastle, Exeter, Stratford-upon-Avon, Southampton, Lancaster, Norwich, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Brighton, Bath, Henley-on-Thames, Oxford and Aberdeen, with other cinemas to be announced soon.

The London premiere on the 29th April is at the Brixton Ritzy and will be followed by a live Q&A discussion with Will Self, David Davis, Shami Chakrabarti and Michael Nyman. The debate will be filmed and beamed live to all the other cinemas around the country, so you can join in wherever you are.

If you want to check out the trailer click here. 

Tickets go on sale very soon, more details to follow.