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Welcome to Thailand Private Investigations (PI)

We are a friendly family owned and operated private investigations company which provides services including finding people such as lost family and friends, various kinds of research in Thailand, and discreet surveillance such as of Thai girlfriends and foreign husbands with the results being videos, photos, analysis, and reporting. We do other work, too, including video camera surveillance systems, corporate fraud investigations, and serving papers for foreign courts. We do only ethical good guys work.

Our main office is in Bangkok but we cover most of Thailand. For example, Pattaya, Phuket, and Isaan operations are common, but we have gone to most provinces since we became publicly visible with our private investigation website in 2002. (Work of the Director here goes back to the 1990s.) During the virus pandemic in 2020-2022, we travel by car, not airplane, and we are very safe. Our Managing Director is a physicist who takes this issue seriously, and our agents are smart and diligent.

We are a longtime registered, incorporated Thailand small company of private investigators and analysts in an economical and modest office, and low profile. We are mainly extended family and close friends who we trust, are well trained, retained a long time, experienced, work together well as a team, and reliable. The two Directors of our company are a husband and wife team -- American and Thai -- Mark and Kanta ("Na"). Agents have been recruited from Na's extended family, plus some long time work acquaintances and friends.

We accept a diversity of jobs of various sizes, from short and economical to considerably longer assignments. Most of us are Thais with diverse skills and experience at practically all levels of society, which is important to be effective in Thailand, discreet, and cost efficient. Alternatively, we offer a western expat private investigator working and living in Thailand since 1994 with extensive experience in mainstream Thai culture as well as tourist areas and business sectors, and good Thai language skills (and additional languages), who is Managing Director.

Our staff are mainly researchers and surveillance agents to watch and follow people discreetly. Mark and Na are not just desk directors, they are often in the field. (Mark originally came to Thailand from Washington, D.C., in 1994, due to an Asia Regional Office being located in Bangkok, and eventually decided to stay in self-employment.)

We are sensitive that our work in many cases will affect peoples lives quite significantly -- both the client's and the subject's -- so we are careful to do the right thing, and diligent to do our best. We carefully choose which cases are acceptable (no overly selfish or ill intent). We are sensitive to privacy as private investigators. Key traits of our private investigators are understanding, nonjudgemental, minimal bias, objectivity and positive attitude. We understand a wide variety of people (both Thai and foreign) and their origins, options in life, and outlooks, without arrogantly judging. We find out facts for you to base your own decisions. We often don't judge for a client, though are quite willing to offer extensive analysis and advice, based on the many years of experience in Thailand of our investigation operation. (Of course, scams and some other very bad things we do judge.)

Thus, we basically find out "The Truth" and more facts, and offer analysis based on an intimate understanding of Thailand and broad, in-depth experience, without pre-judging or prejudice, and can offer advice if you wish. However, we are not overbearing in judgment and advice in many cases and situations (depending on what we find out).

The kinds of private investigator assignments we accept include:

• Discreet investigation of a Thai girlfriend (note some case studies there)

• Discreet investigation of a cheating husband in Thailand

• Discreet investigation of a known Thai girlfriend of husband, son, or friend

• People Finder or Missing Person
  
  
  • Thai child adoption related - find out about biological parents, family origin, any genetic health issues

    BBC News article, January 2007, by one of our customers

  • Thai mother or Thai father - find and establish contact with
  • Vietnam veteran related
  • Western person, e.g., no contact from son or husband in Thailand for a long time
  • Thai girlfriend, lost contact, wish to find
  • Parental child abduction
  • Others
  
  
• DNA testing in Thailand for father / paternity

• Analysis (especially Thailand factors)
• Finding information in Thailand
• Verifying information (e.g., land deeds, business or personal info)
• Finding products and suppliers for export
• Verifying the legitimacy of a business in Thailand before a deal is made
• Corporate investigative due diligence
• For owners/employers to protect themselves from employee theft of information or goods
• Crisis management
• Alarm systems and security devices for protection
• Investigative support in conjunction with overseas investigators, litigation support
• Serve papers (Summons, Petition, court orders, etc.), official handling of documents, Affidavits
• Language translations, Thai to English and English to Thai
• Local representative or agent
• Thai Mystery Shopper - how do your salespeople or staff respond to customers when the boss isn't around?

The kinds of tasks we do not accept nor perform:

• Get someone's password, or data off their PC, or tap their phone -- NO, REFUSED!
  (If it is your company property and in your office or own residence, or your personal property, then exceptions may apply, of course.)
  
  
• Surveillance cameras inside a person's residence or anywhere reasonably objectionable -- NO, REFUSED!
  (We take surveillance photos & videos outdoors and in public places only.)
  
  
• Getting telephone call records or bank account information -- NO, REFUSED!
  
  
• In some very exceptional cases, we might not reveal a competing lover's identity if they are very famous or in a very sensitive position, which is our decision whether or not to reveal identity -- We usually do reveal identities of competing lovers if we find out their identity, as we have countless times, including research of the competing lover, which we tell our client all about!, but we might reserve the option to refuse this if the person is a famous politician or other very exceptional person whereby the gravity of the situation could be quite heavy. For ordinary cases, we often find out who the competing lover is, find out about them, and report this to the customer, if the customer wants to know.
  
  However, for example, we've had some extraordinary cases where the competing lover turned out to be somebody very famous or in a very sensitive position, so we have blurred their face, though we may still discuss the situation of the competing lover, and show you video without a face blurred in our office so you can see yourself exactly who this person is. In such cases, of course we can confirm that your lover is cheating, and provide video/photos, but we might blur the liason's face, car license plate, or other things in videos/photos we let go of. We reserve the option to make this decision ourselves, on a case by case, or discovered person by person, basis. Of course, original videos/photos can be backed up for use in court and/or released later if there is a good reason to change our minds or if we just choose to change our minds.
  
  
• Finding out a business competitor's secret strategies -- NO, REFUSED!
• Researching business competitors -- NO, REFUSED!

  We usually don't do work on major organized crime rings or major criminal cases, though we can often refer people to entities which do. We would prefer to avoid dealing with Big Evil, and the complications of doing so. Small criminal cases we might take on ourselves, but anything major normally means we involve people beyond our company. We do take on some subcontracts along these lines, from larger entities who we know and trust. For small entities, we do things like preventative work researching potential business associates, and surveillance observations.

• Get money back from scammers -- NO, REFUSED! We can help you find out whether or not you have been scammed, and help you prevent getting scammed by researching somebody in advice. However, we don't try to help people get their money back from scammers. We've had a lot of these requests over the many years ...
• Anything on established politicians -- NO, REFUSED!
• Intellectual Property (IP) investigations (discontinued long ago, though can give a referral)
• Digging up dirt on anyone (for blackmail or public humiliation) -- NO, REFUSED!
• Anything for crazy, paranoid, or mean-spirited people -- NO, REFUSED!

We steer away from the big and very bad stuff that goes on in this world. Others can deal with it; not us. Of course, as regards possibly causing trouble and making trouble for yourself it's better to not take risks unless it is something very important in life, no matter what side you're on or which viewpoint you take. Choose your battles carefully. Our refusals are not an overreaction on our part. The reason we refuse those realms is simple and basic: The evil in this world is overwhelming and endless. It's a part of human nature. Some of us have dealt with too much of it already. Often, it's just bad karma to get involved with in any way, and leaks (both advertant and inadvertant) and double agents are shockingly too common. What goes around comes around. It doesn't matter who you know or what you know, bad karma is bad karma, and good karma is good karma. We might be able to tell you where to go, but we wouldn't touch most of this stuff.

We are not shady sleuths, and this is not Hollywood nor fantasy spy novel stuff. We're not drawn to action and excitement, or playing win-lose ego games. We are longtime professionals operating systematically, usually for ordinary private citizens, business people, and some large entities, seeking to find out information for only their own purposes, in ethical ways.

We want to emphasize that we are usually not "out to get" anybody. Counseling is often part of this business. We're human, and like the ancient saying of a great person standing up against a second wrong, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (after which nobody cast a stone).

For example, for wayward husbands who we catch cheating, we often try to keep families together, especially if young children are involved. A cheating husband will deny everything until shown proof. You cannot start to solve a problem if it's in denial. Better to resolve it sooner than later, before it gets too far along, even if it means putting photo or video evidence in front of them and asking "then what about this?". People make mistakes. (See our Mating 101 viewpoint.)

Clearly scamming girlfriends are another matter altogether. Those we often judge, and may even recommend legal action for prosecution based on fraud.

However, there are also many cases in which the results of field work aren't so black and white, and need considerable analysis, too, such as understanding situations more openly based on information collected.

Some of our investigators have been thru similar experiences in our years of youthful folly. "Be still my foolish heart." Live and learn. Just like we don't want to repeat our stupid mistakes, we can also help other people from making mistakes. Thailand's permissive and freewheeling environment can carry people away at times.

On the other hand, many times there are innocent partners whereby there are misunderstandings, lack of information, and other considerations. Peace of mind can be worth a good night's sleep and more productive days.

We can see the good side of people. (Money scammers aside.) Even when there are conflicts of interest which require hard decisions, we try to do what is right overall and advise likewise, for the greater good. We try to reason with all people, for everybody to keep their cool and maintain reason over emotion.

Our policy is safety first for everyone, whether it be situations of potentially violent emotions, undercover work, or in traffic following during surveillance.

We are not officials of any government. We are private investigators, performing this service commercially. In P.I., the P = Private, not Public. "Private eye" is OK, but "detective" technically means detecting crime which is usually not our purview.

Indeed, compared to expecting much for free from government employees in any country (including embassies, consulates, and local indigenous officials), it is often more appropriate to contact a private sector entity, which in many kinds of cases will be more responsive, can focus on your particular case, can be directed more flexibly, and can provide superior quality of service. (Private agents are successful because they seek challenges, diversity, and adventure, not security and repetition in a government bureaucracy. We are also independent, not needing to take orders from any government bosses -- we often don't agree with our governments! We are flexible and free to choose which cases to accept vs. deny in our case load. We earn our keep and our reputation on the cases we choose.)

If you need dynamic, talented, and resourceful entities on the ground in Thailand, intimately familiar with the Thai language (especially written), the Thai culture and the various systems here, then it would be difficult to find anyone better than us. Our core people are highly educated Thais, some of us well travelled, and maintain close relationships with good expat associates on call.

We accept both small and fairly large investigations.

In cases requiring an opinion: Objectivity and broad experience are important. Individuals' viewpoints can be biased by attitude, limited realm experience, conformity with one's peer group, analytic deficiency, groupthink, and other factors. We may be able to give you an alternative viewpoint. A team of talented and experienced investigators can be essential for accurate overall perceptions, insights, and analysis.

You will usually deal with one of two managers (surnames withheld from Google as regards PI work!):

Mr. Mark [surname withheld here], from Washington, D.C., is the expat communications consultant who helps with day-to-day native English communications. Mark is a well known entity in Thailand via his website www.ThailandGuru.com , a guide to working and living in Thailand (and includes a popular subsection on Thai girlfriends). (Surname on that website.) Living in Thailand continuously since 1994, Mark makes no secret that he has usually "been there, done that" and experienced the same feelings and events as many customers. Mark also has a personal website at mark[surname].com

Ms. Kanta [surname withheld here], originally from Ayuthaya, Thailand, Mark's wife, who previously held a senior management position in the Central / Robinson store chain for well over a decade, with extensive experience in interviewing, hiring, and dealing with countless employees nationwide, and who understands people very well from experience. (She had longtime employees follow her to our company when she first made the big jump; hence the "pride" in our company's lion name, long story...)

The rest of our in-house people are all Thai, for performing research, analysis, surveillance & undercover field work, and overt people finders, from a variety of backgrounds. Agents and their immediate families have government, corporate, and private experience, and know how to execute an effective approach to many challenges.

We also have longterm relationships with Thai and expat associates located in popular areas and/or who are in useful positions or specially skilled and experienced.

However, we do not outsource unless it is beyond our capabilities. It's easy to simply outsource and take a cut, but that cuts quality assurance, too. Our staff are trained and improved, we have standard operating procedures (SOP), and things are double checked. We don't make excuses to avoid work or justify shortfalls in results. We know who is reliable, and SOP includes double checking things. We know people we can trust.

Being a good detective or private investigator is not a job many people can do well. Effectiveness starts with having the right kinds of people -- who can analyze, see hints and opportunities, come up with creative solutions, have the self-confidence and social smoothness to implement those solutions, and perseverance. Quality also comes from proper training, standard operating procedures, and of course experience! Teamwork is essential.

We work from the same office building as a well known Thai-English translation company (see also www.ThaiEnglish.com ) co-located, though the private investigation agents are entirely separate and most of them are deployed in the field most of the time.

We employ Thai agents fulltime, plus we have many parttime agents in particular places and with special experiences and skills, including the Bangkok tourist areas, Pattaya, Phuket, and several other places around Thailand.

"Agents" (as opposed to "assets") are trained and undergo an "apprenticeship" before performing on their own. Above, we are talking only about "agents". If you want to count "assets" and "contacts", we have vast resources.

Regarding highly serious business cases: When we should, we work closely with contacts -- experts in a particular field. This is especially true in the case of attorneys, as the field of law has many specializations and lawyers have different circles of contacts. If investigation of a case could significantly benefit from bringing in directly experienced associates of any kind, then we do so. Greedily trying to do everything oneself can result in poor, inaccurate and irresponsible reporting, especially by non-Thais in Thailand.

Thus, some jobs require carefully putting together a team.

However, many of our jobs are small assignments on a budget (e.g., info and people finders), whereby one Thai agent can perform all the research electronically, on the phone and/or in the field.

For example, people finder missions are usually given to our female investigators, because they are better welcomed than a man (especially if searching for a lady! -- imagine the different reactions), and the female investigator is also more understanding and gets far more trust and information in the community.

Only under certain circumstances do we send out an expat, because expats stand out in Thai society (i.e., not discreet), cannot read/write the language they are surrounded in (though Mark can read Thai to some extent), and usually can speak the language only as far as ordinary street talk goes. Imagine sending a Thai into foreign society to perform a private investigation...

It is worth noting that many foreign entities fly in an expat private investigator (someone they know closely) for assignments in Thailand to perform solo. This is often a mistake. (However, it's a fun Thailand assignment for them!) The cost is much higher and the results are usually mediocre at best ... and can be counterproductive. It's usually best to engage a skilled and experienced local team which is accustomed to working together. An effective investigator should:

• be intimately familiar with the territory
• be fluent in the language -- written and spoken at all levels
• have all the cultural nonverbal mannerisms, ingrained, with mainstream Thai society (not just dodgy subcultures in tourist hotspots)
• be discreet
• have the necessary contacts in their trusted inner community

Often, when a person needing help in Thailand chooses to use a friend, associate, crony or other sources to do the work, the results are not nearly as good as using a skilled private investigator. Professional agents are skilled, reliable and can be directed systematically in ways that other assets cannot.

Just any ordinary Thais won't do, either. Thailand is a class oriented society (whereby most people from Western cultures don't "get" many of the subtle cues in the social and professional dynamics), and the effectiveness of an investigator depends upon their class and walk of life. Our investigators include the entire range of classes, and are of diverse walks of life. Some are effective at getting information; others are best at blending in or befriending a particular subject's associates.

In any case, it is important to employ the right person for the job, not necessarily someone who just happens to be available, such as your friend or someone who just needs work and money. For good results and discretion, hire a professional.

Please see our SiteMap to navigate our Table of Contents for this website.

To get the right person for the job, please send a message to our "inbox" (not "info") at

Alternatively, you can just use our contact form

Either way, we will usually respond within 1 to 24 hours.

This website is entirely self-made, not outsourced to any public relations or web design company. We wrote all the content, and did all the programming and artwork, too, ourselves. It's still 2002 style and many people have commented on this almost 20 years later, but we prefer to do everything ourselves.

All text content on our site is proudly original and copyright © 1997-2024, All Rights Reserved.
We do not tolerate copycats, and we are honorable people with class. Please remember thaiLANDpi.com

Our company is located in central Bangkok on Sukhumvit soi 2, within walking distance of the skytrain, between the Ploenchit and Nana stations. Thailand Private Investigations, a division of: Lucky Lion Pride Co., Ltd. Ploymitr Office Building, Floor 7 81 Sukhumvit soi 2 Klongtoey, Klongtoey Bangkok 10110 Thailand

By appointment only, please. Sometimes, an agent can meet you at your location (depends on location). Email: inbox at our domain name. Office Tel.: +66-2255-0620 Mobile Tel.: +66-8-0062-4243 (native English speaker) Old customers please note: We moved our office from Pakkred, Nonthaburi (next to the government post office) to the city center. Please do not go out to our old office in Pakkred, on Bond Street. We are no longer there.

Our office is co-located with Export Quality Services Co., Ltd., aka EQ, which is the same company we previously operated under, but we split off the private investigations business to a daughter company, Lucky Lion Pride Co., Ltd., whereby EQ now focuses on language translation and some other things.

Mobile Tel.: +66-80-062-4243 or 080-062-4243 (native English speaker) -- call ANYTIME, 24/7 (I turn off my phone volume when asleep and leave the phone in an unoccupied home office room, so no worries about 24/7 activities.)
If you want to chat via LINE / WhatsApp, please add the phone number above to your phone's contacts, and it should automatically add me to your LINE and WhatsApp shortly after that.
For expediting in LINE, my LINE ID is alphalion (alpha lion with no space between the words).

2003 - 2024 public website, expat in Thailand since 1994.

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