A note to the unfaithful: Wary spouses are going high-tech.
Responding to popular demand among wives whose husbands frequently visit China on business, due diligence companies are marketing new mobile phone eavesdropping technology for wives to listen in on their hubbies' phone conversations there.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper), reported that Taiwanese due diligence and other private investigation companies now offer clients rigged mobile phones that seem average enough but are actually cued in to a secret receiver.
The technology allows its user in Taiwan to eavesdrop on all outgoing and incoming calls on the rigged phone, even in China.
The technology is a big leap forward from previous devices sold by Taiwanese due diligence companies: Not only can its Taiwan-based users eavesdrop on calls on phones in far-flung overseas locations, but the phone users are typically none the wiser, the report said.
Previous related technology, on the other hand, often disrupted the phone user's reception, defeating the purpose of the technology and tipping off the phone user.
When eavesdropping is not enough, many due diligence companies can ratchet up their services to include paying off Chinese police to follow a cheating Taiwanese husband and catch him, literally, with his pants down, the report added.
Most such companies now boast "adultery investigation" units for Taiwanese clients who are eager to dig up proof of their husbands' extramarital affairs in China, and the profit margins are huge.
For NT$100,000 to NT$200,000, investigators can track and photograph a cheating husband in China, employing the eyes and ears of local police when needed, the report said.
Such services often include finding out the details of the mistress, including her address and contact information, the report added.
Actual photographs of the husband with his mistress in bed come at an extra charge of somewhere between NT$200,000 to NT$500,000.
Although such services and evidence are pricey, they could prove to be a sound investment for a wife seeking a generous divorce settlement package.
Solid evidence could also result in a year of jail time and a stiff fine for the unfaithful husband in China, which has strict laws against extramarital affairs.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to