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Stuck with rogue gumshoes
By Shukan Taishu
May 3, 2004
Mrs. A., a Tokyo housewife, had her suspicions. It seemed her husband had been
involved in some hanky-panky, and now she was maneuvering for a divorce. First,
though, she needed concrete evidence of her husband's infidelity. So she did
the obvious thing -- she enlisted a private investigation agency.
"When I met them, they were very cordial and explained that their fee was
really 'compensation for success' in the investigation. If they failed to get
any information I would get my money back, and if successful I would eventually
get settlement money from my husband," she says.
In the end, though, the investigation failed to yield any evidence. Yet even
so, the agency refused to pay back nearly all of the 1 million yen that Mrs. A
had paid in fees, citing some microscopic fine print. She complained loudly to
the agency, but to no avail.
"They said if I brought any more complaints, they would report me -- to my
husband!" she says.
The case is in no way rare, says Shukan Taishu. The magazine points out that
the number of complaints filed by clients against such agencies has skyrocketed
during the last few years, numbering 1,301 during fiscal 2002, according to the
National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan. Throughout the 1990s, by contrast,
the annual figure averaged around 300.
As in the case of Mrs. A, the majority of complaints are over fees.
Yuichi Fukuda, director of the Tokyo Investigation Cooperative Society, says:
"There are basically three types of money-related complaints: investigative
fees have been paid but no investigation appears to have been done; the
investigation reports for which money has been paid are filled with nonsense;
and fees have been added without consultation."
The root of the problem, the magazine says, is that the private-investigation
industry is almost wholly unregulated. And if any industry requires strict
supervision, it is this one, given the shady nature of investigative work.
Many private eyes obtained their qualifications through nothing more than
educational courses that span three or four months of study. Though their
education may be quick and easy, the real working world for newly minted
investigators is anything but. It's a highly competitive business, and the
investigators are always expected to come up with the goods. If they can't,
some are not above burning their clients -- the very people they are supposed
to serve.
As with Mrs. A, they may threaten to tell the targets of their investigations
who has been spying on them. Or, if the client refuses to pay outstanding
charges, an unscrupulous investigator may show up at the client's home or work
place to loudly demand payment. The embarrassment of having neighbors or
coworkers know that one is involved in a private investigation is usually
enough to assure payment, regardless of how exorbitant.
"Many of the detective agencies do their jobs properly," Fukuda sighs. "But
some of them get involved in these kind of corrupt investigations, and that has
cast a pall over the entire investigation industry."
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