We tested five ways to find hidden cameras in hotels and house rentals

Summary

As spy cameras become smaller and more affordable, hidden cameras in hotels, rental homes and other spaces are a growing concern. Tests showed an untrained person missed most hidden cameras by just looking around. Apps and basic detectors found some cameras, but advanced devices were needed to uncover many cleverly hidden ones. Extortion and voyeur sites profiting off private videos are rising globally too. While detectors are improving, hidden cameras are getting harder to find, leaving travelers unable to find quick, foolproof solutions.

Takeaways

• 😲 Hidden cameras are increasingly being used to spy on unsuspecting people in hotels, rentals, planes etc.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Spycams were once used mainly by spies but are now easily available to anyone.
• 🔍 Finding hidden cameras is very difficult even when actively looking for them.
• 📷 Cameras today are much smaller and harder to spot than older models.
• 💰 Voyeurs can profit by selling or livestreaming videos, or through extortion.
• 🛏 Hotels and rentals are common locations for hidden cameras.
• 📱 Apps and devices designed to find spycams have limitations.
• 👁️ You need to be very close to a spycam for basic lens detectors to work.
• 📈 Social media posts about hidden cameras have increased 400% in 2 years.
• 🚫 There is no quick and easy solution yet to find all hidden cameras.

Q & A

How many cameras were hidden in the house for the test?

OMG Solutions hid 27 cameras in 3 rooms of the test house.

What tipped Victor off to the clock radio camera?

The time displayed on the clock radio was wrong, which made Victor suspicious that it might contain a hidden camera.

How many cameras did Victor initially find just by visual inspection?

Victor only found 1 out of the 27 hidden cameras just by looking around the rooms.

What smartphone app did Victor use to try to detect cameras?

Victor used a Wi-Fi scanning app called Fing to try to detect hidden cameras connected to the wireless network.

Why didn't the radio frequency detector locate any cameras?

The radio frequency detector only finds cameras that are turned on and connected to Wi-Fi. Many of the hidden cameras were using SD cards to store data locally.

How are some criminals exploiting spycam videos?

Some criminals record private videos using spycams and then extort money from the people in the videos by threatening to post them online.

What type of lens detector helped Victor find the most cameras?

An advanced lens detector that displays a red dot when pointed at a camera lens helped Victor find 11 additional hidden cameras.

How many cameras did Victor ultimately find?

In total, Victor found 17 out of the 27 hidden cameras.

Why is finding hidden cameras difficult?

Cameras are being made smaller and can be easily hidden in everyday objects. Thoroughly checking an entire room is exhausting and time-consuming.

Are there any foolproof solutions for finding spycams?

No, there is no quick and easy way to reliably detect all hidden cameras as the technology continues to advance.

Outlines

00:00

🕵️ Hidden Cameras Are Increasingly Common in Travel Spots

Paragraph 1 discusses how hidden cameras are becoming more prevalent in places like hotels, rentals, ships, and bathrooms. These used to be limited to espionage but now cheap spycams are easy to buy. To test their prevalence, cameras were hidden in a house and a colleague tried finding them.

05:04

😟 Most Hidden Cameras Go Undetected Despite Trying Many Discovery Methods

Paragraph 2 continues the hidden camera test narrative. Despite a long visual search, only 4 out of 27 cameras were found. Apps and RF detectors also performed poorly. More advanced lens detectors located more cameras but still missed many concealed ones.

Keywords

💡Spycam

A spycam is a hidden camera used to secretly record video or take photos of people without their consent. They are a major theme in the video, which discusses the proliferation of spycams being hidden in hotel rooms, rentals, and public spaces and used to violate privacy or extort money.

💡Voyeur

A voyeur is someone who derives sexual pleasure from secretly watching others undress, engage in sexual activity, or do other private activities. The video explains how voyeurs are now using spycams for profit by selling or livestreaming illegal videos.

💡Extortion

Extortion refers to illegally obtaining money from someone by threatening to expose embarrassing or damaging information. The video discusses extortion plots where criminals send spycam videos to victims and threaten to release them publicly unless the victim pays money.

💡Detector

A detector is a device used to locate hidden spycams. The video tests different types of detectors, from apps to handheld lens detectors, to see how well they can uncover hidden cameras.

💡Lens

A camera lens is a key component that gathers light to form an image. Lens detectors work by identifying the lens of a hidden camera. As the video shows, finding the tiny camera lens is a major challenge.

💡Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi allows devices like spycams to connect to the internet and transmit data. Apps and detectors that scan Wi-Fi signals can sometimes detect hidden cameras that are on and connected.

💡Livestreaming

Livestreaming refers to broadcasting video in real-time over the internet. The video discusses cases of criminals livestreaming illegal spycam footage to paying customers.

💡Encryption

Encryption encodes data so only authorized parties can access it. Some spycams use encryption to prevent others from viewing footage stored on SD cards.

💡Peeping Tom

A Peeping Tom is someone who spies on others in inappropriate ways, often for sexual gratification. The video contrasts past Peeping Toms with today's voyeurs who use technology.

💡Pinhole camera

A pinhole camera has a tiny lens and is easy to conceal. The video shows how modern spycams are often pinhole cameras embedded into everyday objects.

Highlights

Stories of hidden cameras in hotel rooms, rentals, ships, and bathrooms make headlines

Secret agents once hid cameras in watches, matchbooks, and lipstick tubes

Cameras are now smaller, often hidden in everyday objects like water bottles

Victor found only 1 out of 27 hidden cameras by eye in 20 minutes

A Wi-Fi scanning app found devices but no hidden cameras

A radio frequency detector distracted more than helped locate cameras

Voyeurs sell secretly filmed hotel videos for profit up to $85,000

Extortion plots uncover hotel hidden camera schemes globally

A basic lens detector found only 2 out of 27 cameras

An advanced lens detector located 11 more hidden cameras

In total, 17 out of 27 hidden cameras were found

Finding hidden cameras takes exhaustive, close inspection

As detectors advance, so do well-disguised hidden cameras

Online posts about spycams increased 400% in 2 years

There's no quick, failsafe way to find hidden cameras yet

Transcripts

Have you ever wondered if you’re being watched?

Nothing looks out of place.

It’s a feeling that’s creeping in for more travelers, as stories

of hidden cameras, in hotel rooms, house rentals, cruise ships,

even airplane bathrooms, continue to make headlines.

Spycams were once the stuff  of international espionage, 

with secret agents given cameras  resembling pocket watches,

matchbooks, even tubes of lipstick.

In the movie “Meet the Parents,” Robert DeNiro’s character Jack Byrnes hides cameras

in a stuffed animal and picture frame

What’s this look like to you?

Um, this looks like a teddy bear.

Smile, you’re on nanny camera.

Which seems feasible because  he’s a retired CIA agent. 

Now, anyone can buy these items,  either in stores or online.

But how hard is it to find these cameras?

And do devices designed to locate  hidden cameras really work?

We’re going to find out.

That got me suspicious.

We asked a Singapore tech company, OMG Solutions,  to hide cameras in three rooms in this house.

Then we sent in my colleague,  Victor, to see how many he could find

Wow, this looks like any other room.

First with the naked eye, and then with the help  of four different types of camera detectors.

Here’s what we uncovered.

First, Victor went room-to-room,  

closely examining the master bedroom,  inspecting bunkbeds in a child’s room.

What clues should I look for?

And scrutinizing household  items in the home office.

He spent a lot of time at the  book case, and walked away.

I know that there are hidden cameras, but I can’t  seem to locate them. It is really disconcerting.

So far, he said he’s found nothing suspicious.

Yeah.

After 20 minutes of searching, he found  one camera located inside a working clock.

Wait, alarm clock? Is the time correct? So this alarm clock, the time is wrong.

Where is the lens? Oh! Oh! I found one! Oh my god, I saw it!

The time was wrong, which tipped him off.

He found one!

At the six o’clock, you can see it! Oh my god, it’s... not bad.

But what gave it away was the time. I found one, yes! But it’s so well camouflaged.

But Victor wasn’t pleased with this result,  feeling he probably missed a spycam or two.

But what he doesn’t know is that he missed  26 out of 27 hidden cameras in the house.

This didn’t surprise Pieter Tjia, founder of OMG Solutions.

He’s touching the camera, but he might  not be able to tell that it’s a camera.

He said in the past three years, cameras  have become smaller and harder to see,  

often hidden in everyday objects, such as  calculators, diffusers, and water bottles.

Like a pinhole camera, it’s  embedded into the object.

But it wasn’t always this way.

When video cameras hit the  mass market in the 1980s,  

they were designed to rest  on the operator’s shoulder.

Later models could be operated with just one hand.

Today, most people carry video  cameras with them most of the time.

But while spycams are much smaller,  they’re just as easy to buy and operate.

Back at the house, we asked Victor to  download a popular app called Fing,  

which scans Wi-Fi networks for cameras.

Searching hidden cameras, I can see...

The app, what it does is,  it details whether or not 

something is connected to the wireless network.

It says that there are 22 active  devices but found no cameras.

None of the cameras are connected.

And the app doesn’t like tell me  exactly where and what to look out for.

I don’t know where are they,  it’s not solving my problem.

He also used his phone’s flashlight to  search, a common tip suggested online.

Anything here? Oh wait!

Wait... Is this a hidden camera? Now I’m paranoid.

I mean, the fact of the matter is,  

to find these cameras you would have to  pick up every single object in the room.

I don’t see anything here...

Inspect it

Yep, correct, correct.

Every angle, and then even still, you may miss it.

This search, aided by the flashlight, located  another three cameras, in a Wi-Fi repeater

Sound bar... nothing. Wi-fi repeater, nothing...

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There’s a camera over here.

I thought this was a Wi-fi repeater, but it’s not. I see a camera over here. Found it.

A button on a shirt.

Oh wait, I found one. I was looking  at this hanger next to the mirror,  

as I made my way down to the buttons, it  suddenly occurred to me that I’ve seen a  

movie where a hidden camera  was embedded in the button.

So I was looking at the first  button, second button, third button!

Then that’s where it gave it away, the button  is different from the rest of the buttons.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a 4K camera,  which has a livestreaming function.

If you’re not observant, you  would not have noticed it.

And a teddy bear, the last  one Victor noticed because  

of the unusual grammar on the bear’s shirt.

Wait, there’s something in the bear.

The bear has this badge that says, “With happiness, every time and pleasure”.

So it’s not grammatically correct.

There’s a hole in the eye?! Oh, there’s the camera!

So I found 3 cameras so far... 1, 2, 3. Cool.

With Victor’s frustration rising,  

it was time to turn to hand-held devices  designed to locate hidden cameras.

This is a radio frequency detector. It beeps when it’s close to a camera.

But it only works if a camera is  turned on and connected to Wi-Fi,  

which means it won’t find cameras  that use SD cards to store data.

It’s also prone to false alarms.

It’s almost like you’re  distracted with that sound.

Yes.

Yeah, he’s gonna be annoyed with this one.

There’s a lot of false alarms, which is  actually making my job harder than it should be.

This device also has a built-in lens detector,  

but the beeping proved so distracting, Victor  didn’t locate a single camera with this device.

Victor: You need to constantly tune it  to the right frequency to pick it up.

The area which has no camera at all,  you can hear this [device] beeping.

You see?!

The technology in these cameras has  become increasingly user-friendly,  

but this is not the only reason for  the growing number of spycam cases.

But unlike the peeping Toms of the past,  these voyeurs stand to make a profit.

A man in China, who secretly  recorded women in hotel rooms,  

sold the videos to a porn site for $28 each.

In total, he pocketed $85,000  before he was arrested in 2018,  

and later sentenced to 11 years in prison.

In 2019, 300 spycams recorded more than 100,000 videos of hotel guests

in Jining, China, which voyeurs paid between 100 to 300 Chinese yuan to access.

That same year, police in Seoul,  South Korea arrested two men for  

livestreaming videos of 1,600 people  hidden in 30 hotels across 10 cities.

The pair streamed the videos to a website  that charged monthly subscriptions.

But there’s another way criminals  extract money from these videos,  

by extorting the people they record.

In 2018, a woman sued a Hampton Inn  in Albany, New York when videos of  

her showering were posted on porn sites  and sent to her friends and colleagues.

The perpetrator, thought to be a hotel employee,  

published the videos online after she failed  to send him money and additional videos.

Similar extortion plots have been uncovered in  India, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

With just two more tests to go, we give Victor a basic lens detector.

These are cheap, portable and easy to use. When the device finds a lens, a red dot lights up.

Oh wait, I found. Wait... There you go, the  3-hour mark. It’s quite obvious actually.

The problem? You must be close to the camera to find it.

Oh yes, so you need to be very close.

You said to him he needs to get up close,  but now he’s realizing just how close.

How close, yes you’re right.

When you’re traveling, you’re already exhausted.

The last thing you want to do is spend one hour

scrutinizing every nook and cranny just to locate a camera.

Despite its popularity on social media, Victor  only found two cameras with this device.

In our final search, we gave Victor another  lens detector, this one much more advanced.

If you see the red dot [and] when you move  down, you don’t see the red dot anymore,  

when you put [the device] back up and  see the red dot, then that’s the lens.

Oh wow!

With this detector, Victor found 11 more  cameras, in this tissue box, this bag,  

and a tiny pinhole camera buried  between these files on the floor.

12?! And I only found 1 camera, 2 cameras. And I was so proud of myself.

In total, Victor found 17 out of 27 cameras.

There’s a camera in this storage box.

Not a bad result, but not a great one either.

Okay, it blended in very well and you  never suspected this one, the speaker.

Yes, the speaker is the camera.

Okay.

Social media posts about hidden cameras have  increased nearly 400% in the past two years,  

according to the data company Sprout Social,  

with countless articles dedicated to finding a  quick and easy solution to this growing problem.

But there isn’t one, at least not yet.

And while devices to detect cameras are advancing, 

so are the cameras that are being  hidden, sometimes in plain sight.