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ARE YOU BEING ELECTRONICALLY TRACKED?
Electronic vehicular tracking devices (often called bumper beepers) have been around for decades, but they have seldom been used except in legitimate law enforcement situations. In the past year, however, vendors of these high-tech devices have aggressively increased their sales and marketing efforts in the United States with an unparalleled measure of success. There are no qualifications necessary to purchase such devices. Ex-spouses, unethical employers, stalkers, sexual predators, and any individuals--no matter how weird--can pick up one if they are willing to pay the price. And apparently many are.
In many areas of the U. S., the use of these devices is not as clearly illegal as might be thought, but rather falls into a gray area of law. However, we believe people who use such devices without the consent of the vehicle owners are not particularly concerned with legalities.
Here's how these trackers work. The perpetrator sneaks up to the victim's auto and magnetically mounts the transmitting device on the undercarriage. Many of these devices will operate for several days without battery replacements. Unlike James Bond on the Goldfinger surveillance, there is no need for the perpetrators to remain in the area once the device is installed. They can simply return home to remotely monitor the movements of the victim's car at their leisure. In fact there is no need to actually monitor many of these receivers, the perpetrator can just check the receiving unit periodically and get a history of where the vehicle has traveled.
It would certainly appear that these devices would make a stalker's work easier and likely excite and arouse those perverse individuals who fanaticize they are "super spooks."
While the perception is that these devices are mainly used by private investigators, this is not the case. Contrary to popular belief, most private investigators are exceptionally ethical and would never consider the use of any intrusive electronic tracking devices in a non consent situation.
Certainly these devices are not that common, but they are available to anyone with cash--and sales have been skyrocketing. The use of these intrusive devices has escalated significantly in recent months. In some cases, vendors will even rent these devices for those interested in short term privacy invasion.
Persons who might want to be on the lookout for these offensive devices include people in the midst of an unfriendly divorce, people who recently broke up with an unstable sexual partner, persons involved with litigation or a feud of any type with unethical persons, and people who have reason to believe they are being stalked.
Obviously transmitting devices like these can be detected electronically by investigative agencies which offer electronic countermeasures services. In fact vehicular checks have recently become a routine part of all our electronic countermeasures surveys. However, if someone you are concerned about seems to know too much about your actions, and you suspect one of these electronic trackers could be the culprit, there is no need to consider such an expensive debugging operation.
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