Customer Reviews

The Spy's Guide: Office Espionage

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I picked up a copy of this title from a local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Oddly enough, the title was shelved in the humor section, which didn't make much sense to me as the book isn't particularly entertaining but takes a rather serious, right-to-the-point approach to the business of using questionable means to further your career.

The Spy's Guide: Office Espionage will tech you how to: take an impression of a key for duplication, secure a hotel room, check your conference room for bugs, bug a conference room, reassemble shredded documents, copy documents without leaving a trace as to what copier was used, conceal objects in a bottle of water, sneak into a tradeshow without being noticed, use your cell phone to your advantage, make untraceable phone calls and faxes, keep your private conversations private and much more.

As slim as this volume is, it is surprisingly through and complete. For your average working stiff, this will be more than adequate for taking your game to the next level.

This book contains espionage techniques that has shocked a former KGB major general with its accuracy, as he'd spent twenty years trying to figure out this stuff during the Cold War. Each tactic and method--some amusing, others possibly illegal--such as how to determine leaks in your company, how to determine mail tampering, how to use cellphones as eavesdropping tools, and how to infiltrate your competitors' meetings all come with little true-life examples of similar tactics being used in the field. As with similar books like the WORST-CASE SCENARIO series, DO NO TRY THIS AT HOME, and THE ACTION HERO(INE)'S HANDBOOKs, it's all for entertainment purposes only, but it does make for excellent research material.

If you are shopping for a conspiracy theorist, than this is not the book for you.

This is a light, fun book that is a quick and easy read. I bought as a gift for someone who loved James Bond-type stuff. He loved the book, and it was passed around the party and we all had a good giggle.

There are a few creepy things in the book (like learning about how you can figure out someone's computer password), and it will likely make you a little more paranoid than you were before.

Just don't buy this expecting to come away with super-spy type powers. It is more of a good stocking-stuffer/birthday type gift.

Anybody who works in business or in an office should get this book. Even if you don't use everything in it, other people may be using the methods it contains. If you know what's goin on, you have the upper hand. There's at least 1 thing in here that everyone can use, and that 1 thing I'm sure would be worth your $10 investment.

Here's a gem from page 13 on Discovering Computer Passwords: "Secretly observe the person entering his password." Yeah, thanks for that top-notch advice. The whole book's like that. In the chapter on Redconstructing Shredded Documents, they recommend "Reconfigure the strips." There is no bigger waste of money than this book.

Espionage is a lot wider term when used in corporate world and this book does not cover any part of it. I am a great fan of H. Keith Melton and that was another reason for buying this book. I must say that I was very disappointed to read this book as it fails to deliver the expectations I had from it.

This book can be interesting and fun if you are traveling on a long journey but if you are expecting to learn new tactics and know some real experiences about espionage in office... this book is not for you!

I will say that this book delivers about 20% of what people will expect from the title on the cover page. This book is really too far from reality.

I grabbed this book on Amazon with my expectations very high. When this book arrived I read it in one night! A must-read this book talks about how to become a real office spy and experiences of other spies. I wish there was one about home espionage.

Melton had tongue firmly in cheek with this charming little book that reads like a how-to of tradecraft from the last 50 years. Some of the tips are clearly inappropriate in any ethical sense, others are impractical, but for the most part, they are legitimate information-gathering techniques. Armed with information, however, the book begs the question with which intelligence officers have wrestled for decades: Is all that information of any use? A delightful read.

I firmly believe that not all books are meant to be taken seriously. This is a horrible thing for a book critic to admit, no? I mean, how can I be unbiased in my reviews if I think some books should be regarded in more esteem than others?

There are some books that are created for little more than pleasure. I don't think these books serve a lesser purpose. I think that grocery store romance novels provide entertainment and possible delight to their readers. Someone I know once purchased a connect-the-dots book of pornography to give as a birthday gift. That book possibly offered hours of entertainment. Every time I graduate, someone gives me an inspirational book of quotes. Sure, some of them are good, but after a quick read through, what am I supposed to do with it? Tape the quotes to my bathroom mirror? Um, no.

The Spy's Guide to Office Espionage by H. Keith Melton and Craig Piligian with Duane Sweirczynski offers little more than brief entertainment. (I suppose for people who are truly set on bugging their co-workers, it also acts as a convenient How To guide.) In The Spy's Guide, readers learn how to booby-trap their briefcase (because so many of us use those anymore...), monitor co-worker's hours, read a competitor's laptop and communicate with invisible inks. Good stuff, right?

My main issue with The Spy's Guide is that I got better advice watching reruns of Get Smart on Nick at Nite. Most of the tips given by the authors, retired CIA and KGB spies, are good only if you are seriously neurotic about the behavior of your co-workers or professional competitors, or have the extra time to spend following them around, sending anonymous emails and protecting your trash.

What makes The Spy's Guide an entertaining read though are the real life stories by the retired spies where they account instances of using the tips they impart in this book. Fortunately, these "Spies at Work" segments occur with regular frequency. (By the end of the book, these were the only sections I read, because frankly, I ain't looking through anyone's trash. And for people who want to look through mine? Have fun.)

One funny tip I enjoyed was going to a meeting where some negotiating will take place. Before entering, call yourself on one cell phone and when you answer, leave both phones on. Mid-way through negotiations, go to the bathroom, accidentally leaving one phone on the table with your notebook. While in the bathroom, listen on the other phone to what is occurring in the meeting in your absence. This could help you throw out the right salary, offer, etc.

Another fun tip was to conceal things in water bottles. The hidden object would be surrounded by water and a the bottled water's label. What makes this funny is that housewives have been doing this for years - hiding mad money in jars of beans with a cavity in the middle. Heck, in seventh and eighth grade my friends and I used to pass notes to each other concealed in pens, instead of having in k in the pen. What teacher could fault you for borrowing a pen when you ink ran out?

Is The Spy's Guide to Office Espionage worth your time to read? Probably not. Is it a funny gift to give to someone else? Definitely. It's best use though is to have it lying around the office. I told my boss what I was reviewing and you should have seen the look on his face!

I think the title says it all. I expected it to be so/so but it was actually a really good book. It discusses how to encode your documents, how to get leverage in a negotiation, and alot of other tips and tricks that would be useful in a real-world office environment.