Counter-surveillance · TSCM · Nationwide
If you have reason to believe you are being monitored — a vehicle, a home, an office, a boardroom — a technical sweep establishes whether a device exists, where it is, and documents it in a signed report.
Call from a device you believe is secure, or from someone else's phone. If you suspect your own phone is compromised, do not use it to arrange the sweep.
It's --:-- in Spain — an investigator is available now.
Short answer TSCM stands for technical surveillance counter-measures: a systematic search for devices placed to monitor you without your knowledge. It combines radio-frequency detection with physical inspection, because the equipment finds what transmits and the inspection finds what does not.
The two halves matter equally. Detection equipment identifies devices actively transmitting, which catches most covert trackers and audio bugs. But a device that only transmits intermittently, or one that records to internal storage and is retrieved later, gives off nothing to detect — and only a physical search of the places such a thing can be concealed will find it.
A sweep that consists of someone walking around with a handheld detector is not a sweep. It is theatre, and it produces false confidence, which is worse than no answer at all.
The most common instruction by a distance. Magnetic trackers in wheel arches and under bumpers, units hardwired into the electrics, and devices plugged into the diagnostic port under the dashboard. How to check your own car first
Bedrooms, living areas and studies. Usually instructed by someone in a separation or a family dispute, where another party has had access to the property.
Commercial instructions, typically before a negotiation, a board meeting or a transaction where information leaking would be costly.
Property that stands empty for long periods and passes through the hands of managers, crew and contractors.
Short answer Sweeping your own property or vehicle is entirely lawful — you are the person whose privacy has been interfered with. Placing a device on someone else without consent is not: covert tracking and interception of communications are criminal offences in Spain, and being married to the person does not change that.
This second point catches people out in both directions. Someone who tracks a spouse to prove infidelity does not merely produce inadmissible material — they hand the other side a case about their own conduct. And someone who discovers a device on their car has a genuine complaint, not a suspicion to be embarrassed about.
Where the sweep is carried out by a detective holding a TIP licence, the resulting report can be produced in Spanish proceedings, and the detective can be called to speak to it. What an investigator can legally do in Spain
01
What has happened, who has had access, and what the other person appears to know that they should not. That last question narrows the search more than anything else.
02
What is being swept and how thoroughly, quoted in writing before anything begins. A vehicle is a different job from a house.
03
Radio-frequency detection plus systematic physical inspection, carried out discreetly and at a time that does not alert whoever may be monitoring.
04
What was searched, how, and what was found — or that nothing was. Photographed in position before anything is moved, if a device is located.
If a device is found, do not remove it before taking advice. A device documented in position is evidence; one pulled off and put in a drawer is much less. And whoever placed it will know the moment it stops moving, so the timing of removal is a decision worth making deliberately.
Roughly half of these instructions find nothing. That is not a wasted sweep and we say so before we start.
People who suspect they are being monitored are usually in a situation that is already difficult — a separation, a dispute, a workplace where something is leaking. The suspicion itself is corrosive, and being told on the record that a competent search found nothing is worth having. Several clients have described that as the point of the exercise.
What we will not do is manufacture a finding, or leave the question open with vague language so that a second sweep looks necessary. The report says what was searched and what was found, including when the answer is nothing.
Before you instruct
Can you tell me who placed the device?
Sometimes. Devices carry identifiers and are bought and registered somewhere, so they are not always anonymous — but we will not promise it in advance. What a sweep reliably establishes is whether something exists and where.
Can you check my phone?
Phone compromise is a different discipline from physical sweeping and we are clear about the boundary. What we can do is advise on the indicators and refer you appropriately. If you believe your phone is compromised, do not use it to arrange the sweep.
How long does it take?
A vehicle is a matter of hours. A house or an office depends on size and on how thorough you need it. We tell you at the quoting stage rather than discovering it on the day.
Will the person monitoring me know I've had a sweep?
Not from us, and this is worth planning. If a device is found and removed, they will know something changed — which is exactly why the decision about when to remove it should come after advice, not before.
What does it cost?
Cases start from €1,200 plus VAT, quoted per case rather than by the hour. How pricing works
Confidential · No obligation · No cost
Leave a number and we'll call you back within 24 hours from a discreet number. If you believe your own phone or home may be compromised, use a device you trust or someone else's.
If you believe you are being monitored by someone who has threatened or controlled you, 016 is the domestic violence helpline in Spain and 112 is the emergency number.