Interviews

2015-08-26

Three little cute detectives guessed what is Miss Man’s job. Guess who is the winner?

2015-08-25

As she sat across from the private investigator (PI), Mrs. Leung wondered if it was her daughter’s story that he was telling.

“Mrs. Leung, your daughter has been visiting a hotel in Causeway Bay every other night in the past two weeks,” the PI says, the fraying patch of hair on his head conveying a priestly presence. “Here look, this guy just bought her a drink at the bar,” he continues slowly but firmly, pointing at a photo of a 50-year-old-or-so bald guy laughing and whispering into her daughter’s ear. The next photo was of her slim frame exiting the hotel premises, a new Roger Vivier handbag dangling from her shoulders.

“Why I never thought…” Mrs. Leung trails off, clutching the cup of tepid tea she’d been sipping on intermittently throughout the conversation.

After all, she just thought that her 16-year-old daughter was simply exhibiting signs of a rebellious streak when she began to miss her curfews. When cut off from her monthly allowance, the door slamming had soon stopped. Little did she know that her daughter had devised a far more elaborate plan – trading sex for luxury goods, better known as transactional sex.

Once upon a time, PIs usually conjured the image of digging up dirt on a cheating spouse. Yet, that is no longer just the case, as Philic Man, director of Global Investigation and Security Consultancy, tells us in the comfortable surrounds of her Tsim Sha Tsui office, where a plush massage chair evokes a therapist’s room, and shiny trophies are bursting out of the glass cabinet behind us. “We still get a lot of cases relating to cheating spouses,” Man says as she leans back in her chair.

There was for example, Mrs. Chow. She and her husband had met at university. The two were living a rather blissful existence until five years ago, when Mrs. Chow started noticing the signs: Mr. Chow’s erratic mood swings, his tendency to keep his phone nearby and the frequent business trips. “The last straw was seeing his mistress’ text to him, “Bao bei, I love you,” recounts Man, who was hired to confirm Mrs. Chow’s suspicions soon after. There was also the case of Celine, an attractive 20-something who had inadvertently found herself in the mistress role.  She’d met Benson, a 40-year-old charismatic banker through speed dating. The two hit it off immediately. A year later, when she noticed that Benson was deliberately keeping her from meeting his parents and friends, Man was brought in. As it turns out, Benson, who was married with two kids, was not quite as available as he claimed to be.

While cases like the above still make up a bulk of Man’s work, the 29-year-old PI seems more enthusiastic when asked to talk about the newer cases. Such as teenage drug use.

“Increasingly, parents are hiring us to check up on a child who might be using drugs. Kids these days are very vigilant when it comes to using drugs. Most are using drugs in what we call private drug dens, as opposed to a public club.”

An A student, Marcus, while not the most complacent kid growing up as an only child, had always been regarded as a trophy son of sorts. His parents didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow when they were asked to dish out money for music gigs and school day trips.

Until halfway into first term that is, when Marcus started asking for HK$2,000 at a time. When his parents confronted him, he put it down to price hikes. The alarm bells rang when they bumped into a friend who Marcus had supposedly gone to the movies with on the streets one day. A PI was brought in and it turned out that the friend in question was called Nick not Michael, and rather than being a studying buddy, was the co-organiser of a series of drug-fuelled rave parties.

The preponderance of overseas stag parties also means that fiancees are increasingly hiring PIs to check up on each other. “Taiwan, Thailand and mainland China are some of the more popular locations,” notes Man.

Today’s shrewd PIs diverge from their 19th century counterparts in their willingness to branch out into post-investigative services, which Man calls mediation services.

“We aren’t going to be like: okay your husband is cheating, here is the evidence, pay us and bye! We are here to save marriages too,” the PI grins. After many hours of indignant tears, Mrs. Chow heeds Man’s advice and decides to take the lead in rekindling the relationship with her husband. “However unfair that might sound, you can consider that a happy ending,” Man smiles. While that can hardly be called relationship counselling as the burden seems to fall – solely and unfairly – on the client who has been wronged, it’s proof of how much the PI business has evolved since its Pinkerton days.

“When people think of PIs, they usually expect cramped and dingy quarters, a Guan Yu [the Chinese deity which represents brotherhood] statue sitting in a corner and dog-eared sheets of information lying on a desk. But that,” as Man concludes brightly, “is from a past generation.”

2015-07-29

Our company founder Miss Man Hin Nam was invited by “U秀幫" in RTHK (Pu Tong Hua Channel). She shared how she joined the Detective Industry. At the same time, she shared the interview sample to attract a new generation of talent for detective industry.

2015-07-22

Our company founder Miss Philic Man Hin Nam though interviewed by “RTHK" and she shared her personal experiences with listener. At the same time, she shared daily work and innovation services of Female-oriented Detective.

2015-07-22

Our company founder Miss Man Hin Nam was invited by “U秀幫" in RTHK (Pu Tong Hua Channel). She shared how she started and operated her own business. Also, she encouraged graduates to keep dashing. Work for learning instead of just money.