# Has anyone used a professional forensics data recovery service?



## funnybunny29 (Apr 1, 2014)

My husband had a friendship with a female that made me uncomfortable. I thought I personally met and spent time with all of his female friends but I was wrong. I happened to catch him texting her back in March. He got defensive when I asked who she was which aroused my suspicion so I checked his phone after he fell asleep. Most of it was innocent except for her asking him to hang out one night with her and some mutual friends and another text asking him to meet her alone at a bar in a casino. I was pissed and woke him up demanding an explanation. Of course he said they were just friends and I was making a big deal out of nothing. I'm sure that sounds very familiar to a lot of you. I tried looking her up on various social media sites and nothing. My friend has access to background checks. offered to run for me and some very interesting information came to light. Her husband divorced her in 2006 citing 2 affairs. Yes, she's a serial cheater. For some reason he remarried her in 2008. I asked my husband to end the friendship because it made me uncomfortable. He refused saying I was being controlling. I'm sure you've all heard that one before as well. He did agree to not spend time alone with her and give me access to all of their text messages, those being the ones he didn't delete. He has met her husband and spent time with both of them on a few occasions but I was never invited. I asked my husband to set up a dinner to meet her and her husband and she flaked. What a shocker! We started counselling and our counselor agreed she didn't seem like a trustworthy person but didn't think it was right of me to ask him to end the friendship. I finally had enough when she texted him on Easter. It was just to wish him a Happy Easter but it set me off. We had huge fight and he texted her to saying that I was I uncomfortable with the friendship and they
shouldn't talk anymore. She said she understood and would always be his friend. We were doing great for about a month and a half. We had date night every Friday, tried to spend 15 hours a week together, our sex life improved tremendously, and we continued with counseling. However, I had a nagging feeling that he was still hiding something from me. I finally got the password to our phone bill and went digging. I found 7 texts from her and one from him the day after her told not to contact him anymore. They were deleted off of his phone. I confronted him and he told me he didn't want me to see them because he didn't want me to get upset. He told me she was going on about how unfair it was that they couldn't be friends anymore and he claims he told her that he had to respect my wishes. I suspect they met in person but of course he denies this. I did some more digging today and found 4 more texts messages between the 2 of them that he deleted and they had a 27 minute conversation the same day. The texts and phone conversation took place before I asked him to end the friendship. I looked up different text recovery programs and also forensic data recovery services. Has anyone successfully used a forensic data recovery service to recover deleted texts?

I've been reading these boards since March so I know most of you will tell me he's cheating, they probably took this underground, I need to install a key logger, and install a var.


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## Paladin (Oct 15, 2011)

Dont waste your time and money on data recovery. You ended your post with the correct line of thinking. Do not reveal you know, try to verify and gather new evidence to support or dismiss your concerns.

If its a smart phone, an app like MobileSpy (Mobile Spy | Cell Phone Monitoring Software | Smartphone Spy App) can retrieve deleted texts, but only from the recent (15-20 days) past and only if the total numbers of text messages he sends per day are reasonably low. When he deleted them off of his phone, the space allocated for those messages was marked as "free" so once a certain amount of time passes, or number of texts, the space gets over written and the old data is lost.

Mobile carriers are required to keep text, voice and data traffic archived for 5 years, but you can only subpena those records if a crime was committed and then discussed in text.

The main problem I see is the lack of transparency in your relationship. The fact that you had to "finally get" the password to the phone bill account, indicates that there are probably a few areas of the relationship you have no access to. Does he have separate bank accounts? Is all spending accounted for?

The software I mentioned is your best bet for future intelligence gathering. If you have indeed spent time here, you know what to do.


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## GusPolinski (Jan 21, 2014)

Assuming that he's using a smartphone... iPhone or Android?


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## Squeakr (May 1, 2013)

If it has been that long there is a very good chance that the old data has already been written over. Before I would recommend you go the route of a forensics specialist, first ask them what the capabilities are and the time frame for recovery, and I will bet for the price of the service a very low chance of recovery exists for something that long ago in the past. The closer to the time of deletion the better the recovery possibilities and it will be expensive generally.

I know that you want the proof, but you have huge red flags already present, history of him deleting and hiding information, and your gut telling you something is not right. That should be enough. Also you need to discuss with your counselor why he/she feels that this friendship held in confidence with obvious others interactions taking place is considered appropriate in his/her eye (personally to me they sound like a flake), Ask if they have read "Not Just Friends" and what they take on the book is. If they haven't then I am sure that their main focus is not infidelity recovery, and they prescribe to the notion of let it go and move on, which is not a path for success in infidelity cases.

Good luck to you and sorry you are here. Your gut brings you here for a reason and it is rarely wrong.


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## funnybunny29 (Apr 1, 2014)

Paladin said:


> Dont waste your time and money on data recovery. You ended your post with the correct line of thinking. Do not reveal you know, try to verify and gather new evidence to support or dismiss your concerns.
> 
> If its a smart phone, an app like MobileSpy (Mobile Spy | Cell Phone Monitoring Software | Smartphone Spy App) can retrieve deleted texts, but only from the recent (15-20 days) past and only if the total numbers of text messages he sends per day are reasonably low. When he deleted them off of his phone, the space allocated for those messages was marked as "free" so once a certain amount of time passes, or number of texts, the space gets over written and the old data is lost.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your response. I spend too much time here. I just recently obtained the password for the phone records because of the current situation. I never thought I needed it before. I'm thinking it has gone underground and he is perhaps using a burner phone. Or possibly finding another way to contact her without leaving a trace such as Words with Friends which he has on his phone. It's ironic that you mentioned the bank account. He confessed to me earlier today that he hasn't been honest with me about his credit card spending. He claims he took a huge pay cut and was using his credit card to fill in the gaps. I wonder what else he's hiding from me. I should also mention he had a gambling habit back in 2006 & 2007. We went to counseling for it and he went to GA. Unfortunately he had a heart attack (at the ripe old age of 32) right after I discovered the gambling so it got swept under the rug. I'm not sweeping the current issues under the rug. I'm just not sure if I can ever trust him again.


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## funnybunny29 (Apr 1, 2014)

GusPolinski said:


> Assuming that he's using a smartphone... iPhone or Android?


An Android.


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## funnybunny29 (Apr 1, 2014)

I posted a response to Paladin but it said it needed to be approved by a moderator. However, my post to Gus went through right away. Any reason why?


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## funnybunny29 (Apr 1, 2014)

Squeakr said:


> If it has been that long there is a very good chance that the old data has already been written over. Before I would recommend you go the route of a forensics specialist, first ask them what the capabilities are and the time frame for recovery, and I will bet for the price of the service a very low chance of recovery exists for something that long ago in the past. The closer to the time of deletion the better the recovery possibilities and it will be expensive generally.
> 
> I know that you want the proof, but you have huge red flags already present, history of him deleting and hiding information, and your gut telling you something is not right. That should be enough. Also you need to discuss with your counselor why he/she feels that this friendship held in confidence with obvious others interactions taking place is considered appropriate in his/her eye (personally to me they sound like a flake), Ask if they have read "Not Just Friends" and what they take on the book is. If they haven't then I am sure that their main focus is not infidelity recovery, and they prescribe to the notion of let it go and move on, which is not a path for success in infidelity cases.
> 
> Good luck to you and sorry you are here. Your gut brings you here for a reason and it is rarely wrong.


I talked to a forensic specialist today and she said they diagnose the phone first to see if it has any type of damage. If it doesn't then they go through with the extraction. The diagnostic fee is $100 which would go towards the extraction fee. She quoted me between $200 and $500. The texts were deleted in April so who knows if they can be extracted. 

I will ask my counselor if she has read Not Just friends and if she has any infidelity recovery experience. I know I should have done that in the first place, not sure why I didn't.


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## Squeakr (May 1, 2013)

funnybunny29 said:


> I talked to a forensic specialist today and she said they diagnose the phone first to see if it has any type of damage. If it doesn't then they go through with the extraction. The diagnostic fee is $100 which would go towards the extraction fee. She quoted me between $200 and $500. The texts were deleted in April so who knows if they can be extracted.
> 
> I will ask my counselor if she has read Not Just friends and if she has any infidelity recovery experience. I know I should have done that in the first place, not sure why I didn't.


Those sound like solid plans to follow. I still think that the experts do this all the time and they know basically how much they can recover from a given time period. If your H is a heavy texter like was stated earlier the memory may have already been overwritten. I think that all the expert wants is your money, as otherwise they should be able to tell you what the recovery success rates and possibilities are given a normal daily use device (i know every case varies), but they generally know if it is a daily use item whether they can recover anything past a certain time period, say 2 week, a month, etc? When they recover they see the data so they generally know the possibilities but it sounds like they want the $100 first to then tell you it is not very likely to recover much. Quick profit for them, just like the initial consult with a D lawyer.


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## Paladin (Oct 15, 2011)

funnybunny29 said:


> I posted a response to Paladin but it said it needed to be approved by a moderator. However, my post to Gus went through right away. Any reason why?


if it was a short reply, the age of your account, number of posts, and frequency of posting may have triggered whatever anti spam software they use here.

If you have questions, feel free to PM or post them here


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## GusPolinski (Jan 21, 2014)

funnybunny29 said:


> An Android.


I'm much more adept w/ iPhones but, as I understand it, if there is an SD card in the phone, it may be possible to retrieve quite a bit of information from it. There are several PC/Mac applications that can assist you in recovering deleted pictures, texts, etc from the phone. There are also a few apps that can be loaded directly onto the phone itself to assist w/ information gathering. Give me a bit and I'll compile a list for you.

As for tracking the phone itself (sort of like a "poor man's" GPS), there is also Android Device Manager.


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## The Middleman (Apr 30, 2012)

I think it's time you had the "It's either her or me" conversation with him .... and you need to mean it.


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## PhillyGuy13 (Nov 29, 2013)

The good rule of thumb is that if one spouse is uncomfortable with a spouse's friendship. - any friendship but especially oppposite sex friendships, then the friendship should end. The fact that your counselor doesn't think this is reasonable especially with all the red flags means you need a new counselor.

Keep your cool. Outwardly pretend it's not on your mind. Hopefully you've seen our poster weightlifter's exhaustive post on surveillance if not look for it.

Have you tried reaching out to her husband? Get his perspective. You are sure the three of them have socialized? Or are you just being told that? If I was him with her history she would be on a very short leash.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Jellybeans (Mar 8, 2011)

You asked him to stop talking to her and he has, right? 

The messages you are talking where at the time you told him to stop talking to her, right? And he hasn't been in touch with her since?

If that is the case, my advice is to work on communicatin with your husband. As long as he is respecting you and not talking to her, then that is good. 

Whether you use forensics or not, if he wants to talk to her, he will. It's as simple as that.

So far it seems like he has listened to what you said and told her they can't have a friendship anymore.

You are going to drive yourself crazy.


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## thatbpguy (Dec 24, 2012)

The Middleman said:


> I think it's time you had the "It's either her or me" conversation with him .... and you need to mean it.


At this time it's clear he has chosen her over you. They refuse to stop seeing each other despite your spoken requests. 

Perhaps filing for divorce and moving out and informing the OW's husband of their "friendship" will help him make up his mind.


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## Jellybeans (Mar 8, 2011)

thatbpguy said:


> Perhaps filing for divorce and moving out and informing the OW's husband of their "friendship" will help him make up his mind.


But did he? She said this:

_the texts and phone conversation took place before I asked him to end the friendship. _


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## GusPolinski (Jan 21, 2014)

If there was anything inappropriate about the texts, e-mails, whatever, it really doesn't matter if they were sent before she asked him to stop. Maybe it's just me, but I'd have to know.


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## Squeakr (May 1, 2013)

GusPolinski said:


> If there was anything inappropriate about the texts, e-mails, whatever, it really doesn't matter if they were sent before she asked him to stop. Maybe it's just me, but I'd have to know.


Agreed, but I think the point here is that she is wondering if they have stopped since the request to stop and some are thinking they haven't. This would make a difference in whether to seek R or D (as would the contexts as well).


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