Maria Chiorando for Mailonline
9:25 a.m. June 16, 2024, updated 5:02 p.m. June 16, 2024
A former MI6 agent has revealed the best and worst spy gadgets available on Amazon – including a bag of crisps.
Former spy Harry Ferguson reviews a number of items in a video produced by Strong Watch Studios for his new YouTube channel DEEP.
Created by former LADbible bosses Thom Gulseven and Ben Powell-Jones, the channel publishes two videos a week, each providing a window into an extraordinary life.
In the clip, ex-spy Harry evaluates a number of items, including a “lie detector test”, a stash can disguised as a Heinz Spaghetti can, and a hidden camera detector among others.
According to the former intelligence officer, the aim was to tell viewers which of these readily available items “really come in handy if you want to be a spy”.
He first looked at the stash and said, “Clear the bottom and you can hide your secret documents there. Now I know what you’re thinking “that’s pretty crap” and you’d be right, but I actually came across another spy that actually used one of these.
“He was an Iranian spy and we were trying to catch him because he was trying to get parts for airplanes and we were looking for papers for his purchases and he hid them in one of them.”
However, Harry noticed that the spy’s hideout was slightly better than the Amazon’s. He explained: “He made them make them himself from an ordinary can. And the reason we found it is because…he was pretty smart.
“He actually kind of crushed it and put it in the bin and we almost missed it. I dumped his trash and almost missed it. It wasn’t until I checked that I found it.’
Another item he looked at was a hidden camera detector that you plug into your phone’s charging port. It emits a red light that reflects when you point it at the lens, so you can find hidden cameras.
“This really works,” Harry said. “The problem is you have to get close to it for it to really work. And if someone has a secret camera in your room, they’ll see you walking inch by inch looking at the wallpaper.”
His third item was a pair of sunglasses that have mirrors on the sides to help you see what’s going on behind you.
“And they work – when you put them on…[and] you stretch your head a little [you can] see what’s behind you. So, again, this seems like a terrible idea, but they are actually based on a device that was used by the CIA, and they make an important point about counter-surveillance.
‘That [is that] when trying to detect people following you, the idea is to act normal but then do something to catch them off guard. This may be a maneuver. It could be using a shop window to get a bounce, or even if you did it on a select basis, using a device like this just to peek where they don’t expect you to get it.’
Moving on to his fourth item, a lock, Harry said that it looked like a useful spy device and that people could imagine spies spending a lot of time picking locks.
But he added that they don’t, and the main reason is that if you’re found picking a lock in a foreign country, the authorities “are more likely to think you’re a robber than a spy, but they’re likely to arrest you or be more interested in you.”
Plus, Harry said, you actually spend a lot of time practicing with modern locks and that they aren’t as easy to pick as many YouTube instructional videos make them out to be.
“Also, most places you’ll need access to as a spy have electronic locks and other types of locks,” Harry said. “So the way spies do it is one of two ways.
“Either they’ll have a technical officer look at the lock and make you a key, or [you use] a skeleton key that will work on that lock so you don’t have to pick any of it, or find a way to actually get a real key from one of your agents and use it like this.’
Another device he evaluated was cloaking—something that spies can use to hide stolen information. The example he was looking at looked like a regular drawer, but had a secret compartment in the back that could fit into the wall so it would look like just a regular drawer to the casual observer.
But Harry commented: “Good search teams will test it to see if it works because they’ll wonder if it also has a camera or sound bug – you can also get sockets that do that. ‘
Next up were the hidden cameras, and the particular one he looked at was in a necklace, but as Harry pointed out, you can get hidden cameras in all kinds of devices, including hats and pens.
Discussing how useful they are, he said: “The problem with all these devices, and I think I’ve used most of them at some point, is that you usually use them not so much to record the person talking, because that’s enough use audio equipment.
“They do it to make good television, but that’s not what spies do. We are not interested in good television. We are interested in data.’
He added that the kinds of data spies are interested in — such as numbers on a keyboard that someone taps — are difficult to film with one of these devices because “it can be very difficult to get the right angle.”
That said, while these devices sound useful, they usually aren’t, he concluded.
Next on the list were polygraph tests. Harry said, “The proper name for them is polygraph tests because all these tests monitor certain outputs from the body like blood pressure, breathing rate and so on.”
He continued: “The truth is that spies know they don’t work. There is currently no machine that can tell if you are lying. None of them work reliably.”
Harry looked at another recording device, showing small spy cameras that could be built into objects to hide them – books, cans, or stuffed toys, he suggested.
But he said there’s always one big problem with these devices – power.
“Now the battery lasts about four hours in this,” he said. “So if you’re hoping to film activity in a location for any length of time, you’re not going to get this.
“One solution is to use something like this that is actually connected to the power grid. Now it doesn’t have video, it has sound.”
The problems are, he explained, that people will move the objects you’ve hidden the recording devices in, and since they’ll be on the floor if they’re plugged in, the sound will be terrible.
“You can’t just plug them into a room and expect to hear everything, as with all these devices it’s all about planning and imagination,” he concluded.
The last device Harry assessed was a laser trap. These can be used to detect “if someone has entered your room, your office, your hotel room, any space you want to protect”.
How do spies protect those rooms?
Harry said “Well one way…is with a laser trap like this one.” They are now so common that they are actually used by children to play with.
“The idea is… that it shines with an invisible laser light that is picked up by a receiver. If you break the beams it will trigger an alarm or a camera or whatever that specific trap is.’
Again, there are drawbacks to using these items.
“The problem is, if you show up in Tehran with this in your luggage, chances are you’ll be questioned,” Harry said.
So what do real spies do? The answer is surprisingly low tech – they use chips.
“Crisps are probably the best intruder detection system ever invented, I kid you not,” Harry said.
“Why are they good? Because you take a crisp, any crisp, and you put it under the carpet in the room or under the doormat or somewhere that someone is likely to step on.
“When they step on it, they break it. Now as you can see this crisp has a very distinctive shape, once they break it there is no way they can hide the fact that they are broken – even if they rush out and buy another pack of crisps, I can’t find a crisp like this.
“If I stop going to the ground, no one will question the fact that I have something like crisps – and the best part of all is that not only does it work to find out if someone came into your room while you’re out, but you can also eat crisps .”
You can watch the full video to find out more about Harry’s thoughts on these devices and his real-life experience using them at in full video on YouTube.