Hidden camera close up. Who installs hidden cameras in public toilets and why?

Late in the evening of June 12, a VKontakte user with an empty profile and a little-known Russian rapper in her avatar sent Polina Anisimova a photo with her face and asked if it was her. She read the message only in the middle of the night. It was definitely Polina in the photo: her sweatshirt, her birthmark, a mole on her face. But she did not understand when and how the picture was taken. Besides, she didn’t post anything like that on the Internet at all. Wary, Polina showed the message to her boyfriend.

At first they thought it was some kind of bad joke or the new kind network blackmail, and they began to google extortion methods on VKontakte.

After Polina confirmed that it was really her in the photo, the anonymous person sent her other photos with the words that he had “bad news” for her and she “suffered just like his loved ones.” In the pictures, a girl is peeing against a background of white and brown tiles. Anisimova became even more confused, refusing to believe that it was her.

The anonymous author did not blackmail or threaten Polina, but only warned that she, like many other girls, had become a victim of secret filming.

The footage had a watermark with the words Hidden Zone. By typing the phrase into a search engine, Polina and her boyfriend easily found hundreds of videos on one of the torrent trackers filmed with hidden cameras in toilets. In the preview of one of them, Anisimova recognized herself. There was no doubt: it was her bag, her blue jeans, her buttocks. True, in the screenshot she had long hair, which she cut two years ago.

This is how Polina found out that since at least 2014, there has been a porn video with her participation on the Internet, filmed without her knowledge.

The next day she herself told about everything in Facebook. “If I had kept quiet about this, this story could have become a reason to blackmail me in the future, although I am not guilty of anything here, like thousands of other victims,” she explains.

The story was picked up by the media. What shocked many most of all was that Polina, according to her assumption, was filmed in the toilet of one of the cafes of the popular Shokoladnitsa chain. At least, that’s what her “informant” thinks, who talked with other girls who were caught in similar videos. Some of them wondered when and how they could get into these shots.

According to the anonymous author, he began his investigation after his relative became the “heroine” of one of these videos. Now he is trying to identify those who are filming the videos and notifying victims using Findface technology (allows you to find a person’s VKontakte account using a photo).

So far he has been able to contact less than ten victims - in many videos the faces are either completely invisible or impossible to recognize. He hopes that the statements of these victims to law enforcement agencies will be sufficient for an investigation to begin.

Now Polina Anisimova and four other girls who were victims of hidden filming are negotiating with a lawyer who will represent their interests. “What happened is a violation of our rights. And now we are trying to figure out what to do about it, how to restore our rights,” she says.

The anonymous author also persuades his relative to go to court, but she, a low-ranking official in the administration of her city, according to him, is afraid of losing her job: “Their unspoken policy is that if you are involved in any scandal, even if it is in the role of a victim, you “ will help you “resign.”

The young man does not give his name, explaining that he “doesn’t want to shine, considering what connections those he’s targeting have.”

***

A quick search on the Internet is enough to convince you: hidden filming in public toilets of cafes and shopping centers, has been going on in gym locker rooms and on beaches for a long time, and similar videos are widely distributed. Consumers of such content are voyeurs - those who experience sexual arousal from spying on other people. Separate view voyeurism - spying on women in toilets; such people are turned on by everything related to urination.

One of the associates of the anonymous person who helps Polina and other girls identify the attackers, a hacker who infiltrated a closed forum, says that most voyeurs - men from 35 to 60 years old. They exist according to the laws of a secret society - on the sites where they communicate and exchange videos, there are different degrees of access to content, and registering there can be quite difficult. The desire for careful secrecy is evident. They have their legends and their heroes - suppliers best content and better angles.

Until the latest scandal with the “Chocolate Girl,” voyeurs were a rather invisible community - in Russia, victims of those who establish hidden cameras and sell recordings from them, hundreds of women join every year, but so far there have been no high-profile criminal cases or convictions.

The press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow could not recall a single statement from the “heroines” of such videos over the past few months. The police do not consider this a mass phenomenon, noting only isolated cases.

Videos like the one Anisimova discovered are sold on closed voyeur sites with complex access systems and on regular porn resources. Registration on specialized sites can cost hundreds of dollars.

Voyeur forums, depending on the complexity of registration, can be divided into closed and open. There, participants exchange experiences of filming and peeping, share their own videos and finds from the Internet, and give advice on choosing equipment.

Judging by what they write on forums, many video creators use miniature cameras disguised as other objects - the most common ones look like key fobs - car keys. In Russia, purchase, production and sale of special technical means for obtaining secret information (that is, without warning those people whom you are recording using covert video surveillance) are prohibited. For violation of the relevant article of the Criminal Code (138.1), the maximum penalty is up to four years in prison. The most high-profile case involving it in recent times wasexcitedagainst PARNAS member Natalya Pelevina - they found a pen with a video camera on her.

Keychain camera

The majority of voyeurs themselves believe that they are not doing anything wrong, although they fear for their safety when discussing what might threaten them.

The former deputy director of a defense plant, for example, was not frightened even by exposure - he was discovered after spying on his colleagues for 15 years, but he “could not stop it” and continued to “walk around and look.”

In another thread, he enthusiastically describes the state that overcomes him when he spies: “When I go into the toilet and spy, sometimes even my heart feels bad, such a thrill, emotions are so strong and bright! Toilet views... completely take over my nature.”

For a voyeur to be aroused, it is not necessary to see something intimate; the very fact of invading someone else’s space and the feeling of power over an unsuspecting person may be enough, says clinical psychologist and specialist in working with addictions Veronika Kashirina. To one degree or another, many people like to spy on others, but, according to Kashirina, it is the obsessive need for this that threatens the safety of other people that can be considered a deviation (in the International Classification of Diseases, voyeurism is listed in the column “disorders of sexual preference”).

This is due to the violation of psychological boundaries between people: “Often in our country people live in one-room apartments of five people - they change clothes in front of each other, wash without closing the door, parents have sex, and children sleep next to them - this greatly blurs psychological boundaries, the attitude towards one’s own and other people’s intimacy is distorted, which may underlie both the desire to peep and, conversely, not to protect oneself and the desire to be naked in public,” the psychologist argues.

Such people often have problems with self-esteem, superiority over the victim and support for each other in closed communities help to artificially raise it - and at the same time suppress feelings of guilt, a sense of their own “wrongness” and fear of exposure.

Most of them are not afraid of criminal prosecution. Its prospects are vague, the participant in the discussion encourages the interlocutors: victims are difficult to find, and from the point of view of the law, the content is ordinary pornography. In general, we just need to be careful and not “draw attention to our existence, otherwise the journalists might blow it up,” he writes.

***

A hacker who hacked a voyeur forum and studied its closed sections using stolen accounts said that the first such communities (one of which was called “Petrovka, 38”) appeared back in the nineties, in the era of VHS cameras. The largest one currently existing - voyeurs among themselves call it “House” (short for the original name - “House for Piglets”) - was created 12 years ago by a man known under the nickname Keks.

Screenshot of the page on "Domik"

Membership in the “House” is closed, and participants have different levels of access to sections. Status and access level increase for money or video publication.

“Many veteran voyeurs have long since retired; the forum provides them with an influx of fresh videos at the expense of newcomers seeking to move up in the community hierarchy and gain a higher status, which gives access to closed sections of the forum with more extreme content,” says the hacker.

Large open forums also have closed sections where participants post their “work.” Most of these people, judging by the content of the forums, do not pursue commercial goals, but there are several “operators” who shoot videos for sale to sites specializing in such videos. They advertise their products in the commercial sections of forums. While actively communicating in the community, they give almost no details about themselves, although other users sometimes share stories from their lives.

One of the anonymous associates talked to former member"Domika", which was a sponsor of the site and for this in 2008 received access to its closed sections. According to this person, there are several major producers of paid voyeur videos.

“Outdoors (nudist beaches, sex in the bushes, girls pissing in forest plantations) are rented for sale by Vadukha, and to a lesser extent by Jerki. Zooom specializes in women peeing at wedding venues (and especially brides). Films minors peeing. Fall has been filming for many years now, sitting right in a cesspool in a gas mask and covered with some kind of blanket or raincoat. “The particularly dangerous voyeur Surokspit, who used to be a non-profit author and moderator of Domik, has been operating in Moscow and filming upskirts on escalators for at least nine years,” the source said.

People with such nicknames are often mentioned on forums, and torrent trackers contain thousands of videos supposedly produced by them.

The source named Surokspit, indeed, posts videos on paid sites in which women have their skirts lifted on the escalators of the Moscow metro. The videos were filmed using video recorders or cameras hidden in a bag or attached to an umbrella.

For a long time, a “cameraman” under the nickname Uchebnik specialized in covert filming in public toilets. Until about 2009, he owned a website with paid videos filmed in public catering toilets and educational institutions. Uchebnik is a legend among voyeurs. “I’m not a Textbook, I’m just learning,” says, for example, the status of one of the users of the voyeur forum. Forum participants note his “trademark style,” which can be discerned in anonymous videos that appeared after 2009 on the largest specialized sites.

Another way to create content for voyeurs is to infect the victim’s computer with a virus that allows remote access to the webcam.

Such viruses are often developed by voyeurs themselves to attack a narrow circle of victims, so the antivirus does not immediately recognize the threat. In addition, as one of the sources said, there is a legal software For remote access, which is not blocked by the antivirus, it is installed by fraudulent programmers. Videos of an intimate nature received via a webcam are sold on Domik in the relevant commercial sections.

“Webcam surveillance has become a large-scale cyber fraud,” says Internet expert Anton Merkurov, “all you need to do is download a suspicious program that will introduce a virus to your computer.” According to him, The best way The only way to protect yourself from this is to cover up your webcam, as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg does, for example.

***
Before getting on the pornographic torrent tracker, the video with Polina was sold to the paid site Hidden Zone, as evidenced by the corresponding watermark.

Hidden Zone is one of the largest resources specializing in voyeur content. According to approximate data from SimilarWeb (the site’s statistics are closed), from April to May 2016, more than 90 thousand people visited it.

Many fans of non-standard porn dream of getting to Hidden Zone, but it is difficult due to multi-stage registration and blocking of accounts with stolen passwords. Entire discussion threads on forums are devoted to describing ways to get there. When you try to access Hidden Zone from a Russian IP address, a stub appears indicating that the site is blocked by Roskomnadzor, although it is not on the “black list” on the supervisory agency’s website.
The site is updated daily, with the latest videos allegedly filmed in Russian public toilets added on June 26.

So on one of the torrent trackers in the “Non-traditional porn” section, among thousands of other videos, a video with Polina Anisimova appeared. But it turned out to be just one episode of a “series” that was filmed in public toilets for several years (and may still be filmed).

One of the pages of the torrent tracker contains five “seasons” of videos filmed in women’s restrooms, from 2011 to 2015. In the “country of production” column Russia is indicated. Each season has an average of 150-200 videos of women relieving themselves different ages. The last folder, for 2015, was added in January 2016. Each video is assigned a serial number, and, judging by the number of the last video, there are more than two thousand of them in this “series” alone.

In the threads under the distributions, forum visitors comment on camera angles and complain about the irregular supply of new videos.

“Even through one such camera in a public place, hundreds of “models” pass through a day, and dozens of material a week,” laments one of the commentators (punctuation is the author’s).

The folder for 2011 contains videos filmed from the cesspool of a street stall, as well as in a toilet decorated with light tiles. In the following “seasons” these places no longer appear. In the same folder there are videos with an interior that is identical to what can be seen in the video frames with Polina Anisimova and at least one other girl found anonymously. According to the second girl, this is the Shokoladnitsa toilet near the Oktyabrskaya metro station.

This toilet appears in hundreds of videos from the rest of the "seasons". One of the cameras was apparently installed in a trash can next to the toilet: in some frames, the lens is partially blocked by a black garbage bag. In another toilet, according to the anonymous author, the camera was disguised as a metal napkin holder on the door, from which the coat hook had been removed. “I don’t understand how, during business hours, an establishment can make holes in the door for screws and replace one piece of furniture with another,” he wrote.

Women's toilet, in the Shokoladnitsa coffee shop near the Oktyabrskaya metro station. Photo: Rain

After Polina’s post was published, users of one of the thematic forums created a separate thread discussing the “leak.” Several comments also mention the coffee chain.

“One thing I can tell you with complete confidence: we won’t be seeing fresh videos from the “Chocolate Girl” push anytime soon,” writes one of the discussion participants. “They didn’t burn the other “Chocolate Girl,” another one answers him.

Another user discusses whether the coffee shop itself may be related to the hidden filming: “...the sluggish misconception that the employees or administration of the establishment are somehow involved in this will sooner or later be dispelled, but now, in addition to the chicks themselves, “ Security Council, concerned about reputational risks, will also begin to look under the rim of the toilet,” he writes (author’s punctuation).

Screenshot from one of the voyeur forums

In addition to the “Shokoladnitsa” on “Oktyabrskaya”, the victims of the hidden shooting, warned by an anonymous person, were able to recognize the chain’s coffee shops on Tverskaya, Lomonosovsky Prospekt and near the Paveletskaya metro station from the video. A geolocation search on Instagram makes it possible to see that two years ago the interior of the Shokoladnitsa toilet on Tverskaya, 19a was the same as in the footage taken by voyeurs in 2012, 2013 and early 2014. Now there is a different interior. The cafe declined to comment.

Toilet in the Shokoladnitsa on Tverskaya 19a, 2016 / Rain

Hidden camera video preview

Screenshot of Instagram page

A user of the website woman.ru wrote about the allegedly discovered hidden camera in the toilet of the Shokoladnitsa on Lomonosovsky Prospekt in 2014. According to her, “the cafe staff behaved rudely, they didn’t even try to apologize” (author’s spelling - Rain). One of the two “Chocolate Girls” located on Lomonosovsky Prospekt said that they had not heard anything about such an incident, the other said that it happened, but in another cafe (it was not possible to clarify which one).

The series was filmed in at least seven different interiors, but all of them were made in the same beige and brown tones. It was not possible to find out from the video where these toilets are located.

In the “Shokoladnitsa” itself similar cases They are extremely reluctant to comment. Immediately after the scandal with Anisimova CEO network Tamara Shesterina, in an interview with the National News Service, promised that the coffee shop security service would check information about hidden cameras. According to her, video recording is carried out only in the corridors and work area, and she has no information about installing hidden cameras in toilets.

Security officer at Shokoladnitsa

When visiting a sauna or bathhouse, many visitors fear that hidden video cameras will be installed in the rooms, which can record an intimate video and then post it on the Internet or blackmail the client. In this topic we will consider the issue of hidden cameras installed in bathhouses and their use. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with

WHY ARE HIDDEN CAMERAS INSTALLED IN SAUNAS?

SECURITY: Almost every bathhouse or sauna has both open and hidden video cameras that perform a security function, and they are located in a zone of lack of intimate visibility, i.e. entrances, exits, passages and reception. The installation of such video cameras is indicated by a sign with the inscription: “Video surveillance is in progress,” located in a place visible to visitors.

COMPROMAT: Some saunas may have hidden video cameras located directly in the intimate area, i.e. locker room, swimming pool, relaxation rooms, steam room, etc. Hidden cameras are installed, as you may have guessed, to obtain incriminating evidence on a certain circle of people visiting the bathhouse. Such hidden video cameras are used, as a rule, in certain cases and on certain visitors; they will not film everyone.

CURIOSITY OR HOBBY: Yes, yes, and yes again, there are owners who install hidden cameras in the bathhouse out of amateur interest in watching visitors. Such bathhouse owners record and collect a collection of the best recordings of their visitors; as a rule, the recordings do not go beyond the eyes of the owner and are not sold, but sometimes information can leak and the recording ends up on the Internet. Bathhouse owners do not sell such recordings and do not show them to anyone, so as not to lose the reputation of their bathhouse and not lose income. Moreover, installing hidden video cameras in a bathhouse without warning visitors about it is a criminal offense, and not everyone wants to get involved with it. We recommend that you read

EARNINGS: Hidden video cameras in the bathhouse are also installed to earn money by selling the recorded video. This, as a rule, is not the fault of sauna owners, but rather random sauna visitors install hidden cameras for such purposes. After receiving the video they are interested in, hidden camera videos are taken and the resulting video is sold. It is quite difficult to find such violators, but it is possible to find their cameras, since it is very difficult to install a hidden video camera without a mini repair, which reduces their secrecy; moreover, such video cameras are wireless, i.e. transmitting video via a radio signal, which allows them to be detected using special devices. By the way, to combat such violators, owners can install hidden cameras in the intimate area of ​​the bathhouse, identifying and suppressing the activities of violators, so as not to lose the reputation of the bathhouse and not cause problems.

HOW TO DETECT A HIDDEN CAMERA IN A BATH?

VISUAL INSPECTION: To detect hidden video cameras in the bathhouse, carefully inspect all places where they can be installed. These places include places with best review premises. Hidden video cameras can be installed in fire safety sensors, alarms, TV buttons, light bulbs, electrical appliances, etc. There are a lot of places to install hidden cameras; finding a professionally camouflaged hidden camera is visually very difficult. We recommend that you read

SEARCH USING THE DEVICE: If a hidden remote video camera is installed in the bathhouse, transmitting video via a radio signal, then such a camera can be detected using special devices for detecting hidden cameras. How to detect a hidden video camera using the device, you will read in the instructions included with such a device, since the settings of each device are individual. DEEP INSPECTION: It is almost impossible to detect wired, well-hidden hidden video cameras without a total inspection, which includes dismantling some of the decorative parts of the sauna. No one will allow you to do this, since such actions can only be carried out by special bodies by court decision.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR INSTALLING A HIDDEN CAMERA IN THE BATH

Installing a hidden video camera in a bathhouse or sauna, and in other places, is subject to criminal liability. Even if these cameras are not turned on and do not film anyone, this is already a punishable act, but if these cameras recorded a video, or even worse, distributed this video, then the person who installed and used the hidden cameras becomes additionally liable.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU WERE CAUGHT ON A HIDDEN VIDEO CAMERA IN A BATH?

We will not give you a definite answer, since in each case the action is individual, but if you have nothing to hide, in mandatory contact the police.

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A spy kit would be incomplete without a toothbrush, a can of Coca-Cola or other household items equipped with a micro lens and not arousing suspicion. This review presents a dozen small hidden cameras with great capabilities.

Hidden camera is the number one device. Manufacturers consider the best camouflage for “peeping” gadgets to be designed to look like everyday small things – from a pack of cigarettes to a can of air freshener.

An electric toothbrush Oral-B Pinhole Spy Helps take care of more than just your teeth. A cleverly hidden camera shoots video in AVI format, 640*480. Built-in flash memory allows you to store Oral-B Pinhole Spy up to 8 GB of incriminating evidence. The average cost of a “dental” gadget is $243.

Coca-Cola with 4 GB memory it looks even more harmless from the outside. However, written with an “o” glossy reveals the Chinese origin of the pseudo-drink and probably alarms potential “victims”.

Hidden in a pack Marlboro camera SDHCC pinhole provides high quality video material. The footage can be recorded on a video or DVD player, and also viewed remotely from any TV and computer.

Law enforcement officers were the first to “hide” the spying device. Now similar gadgets are available to civilians starting at $300. Spy Shoes consists of two parts - the camera itself, built into the nose of the shoe or sneaker, and cell phone for 1 GB. To receive a clear signal, the distance between them should not exceed 50 meters.

Hidden camera from Omejo disguised as a lighter. According to the manufacturer, you can shoot up to 2 hours of video with excellent sound and a resolution of 640*480.

Hidden lighter camera from Omejo

gadget Motion Detector Telephone is positioned by the creators as a full-fledged alarm system. The “secret” phone not only conducts video surveillance, but also reacts to movements within a radius of 25 meters. Having detected unauthorized activity, Motion Detector Telephone sends a signal to the owner - calls a pre-programmed number.

Company BrickHouse produces spy devices that operate in extreme conditions. Sudden movements and lack of lighting are no obstacle to a hidden napkin packaging camera Tissue Box. Frame rate – up to 30 per second, resolution – 720*480.

Belt Minox- a real dream for Bond fans. It comes with an SD memory card and a USB adapter with a built-in hidden camera. The approximate cost of the image “toy” is $300.