What is on that computer? Ask Scout

If you’re looking for evidence about what your spouse is really doing on his or her computer—evidence that you can use in court—look into the Scout.

The Scout is a device and service offered by Catch-A-Cheater.net. It was invented by Rob Moody, a forensic data specialist with 15 years of experience finding information on hard drives for corporate, government and law firm clients.

What kind of information can a computer forensic examination find? Here are some examples from Moody’s case files:

• Trip with the mistress: A guy used a travel agent to book and pay for a trip for himself and another person, who was not his wife. The trip was confirmed via text. He thought the text was deleted. Moody recovered it.

• Double books: A husband created two sets of financial records—one real, one fake. Moody was able to recover the original set of books, containing entries that the husband did not include on financial disclosure forms for his divorce.

• Cheating wife:  In preparation for leaving her husband, a woman was slowly draining their joint accounts. Moody recovered emails received via her Hotmail account, which had been deleted, confirming her new bank accounts, with the account numbers.

• Camera phone photos: Moody recovered incriminating photos that had been transferred to computers when the phone owners hooked up their Blackberries and iPhones.

How it works

The Scout is actually a device, like a little black box about the size of a cell phone, invented by Moody and manufactured by his company, Secure the Proof LLC. If you purchase the service, here’s what happens:

1. The company sends you the Scout device.

2. You plug the device into a Windows-based computer using a USB cable.

3. The Scout captures an image of everything on the computer hard drive.

4. You send the Scout back to the company.

5. The company transfers the computer contents to CDs or DVDs.

6. If you requested it, the company examines the files for five specific search terms.

7. The company sends the CDs or DVDs back to you.

Legal evidence

Many people have sought to capture information about a spouse’s computer activity by using a keylogging device or software. Keyloggers work fine, Moody says, but they have two problems. First, they only capture current data, not old information. Second, they can violate wiretapping laws.

In many court cases, evidence obtained through keyloggers is thrown out. In fact, some people who used keyloggers have been sued by the people whose activities were recorded without their permission.

Scout, however, is legal. Because it captures static information after the fact—not while a communication or computer use is in progress—the evidence it produces has a much better chance of standing up in court.

Affordable service

Forensic computer analysis typically costs thousands of dollars. “In a corporate or government setting, just getting the image of the hard drive can cost as high as $2,000,” Moody says. A full data analysis can cost $5,000 to $6,000.

The Scout collects all e-mail, all documents, all spreadsheets and all pictures for $395. The data extraction for five specific search terms costs another $395, unless you buy both at once, then the total cost is $595.

“We’re really listening to the need of a lot of people who have found themselves in bad situations, but don’t have the assets necessary to do a corporate-sized investigation,” Moody says. “There’s nobody out there that does this.”

For more information on the Scout, visit Catch-A-Cheater.net.