TIME EUROPE
June 12, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 23
Tangled Webs for Sale
Planning a tryst or a day at the races away from the boss? A Scottish firm can cover your tracks — for a fee
By JONATHAN MARGOLIS
The Scottish Highlands, source of Scotch, tartan and shortbread, has a new, if slightly less wholesome, export product — lies. A phone and Internet service set up last summer from the city of Inverness is providing alibis for men and women involved in illicit affairs, or who just want to go on that fishing trip without their spouse or boss knowing.
And dishonesty has turned out to be an unexpected growth business, with requests to construct elaborate deceits pouring in daily from all over the world. Ace Alibi, as the company calls itself, has enrolled more than 1,100 regular, paying clients, 40% of them said by the company to be women.
If clients want to pretend that they are at some boring but fictitious conference as a cover for a romantic assignation, a plausible-looking fake invitation will be specially printed and mailed from anywhere in the world. Ace Alibi agents will also provide 24-hour phone backup from anywhere in the U.K., with a real number — and agents using any local British accent. They will pose as anyone from a supposed colleague on a trade fair stand to a hotel receptionist. If the latter is phoned by a disbelieving partner at 3 a.m., Ace Alibi's "front desk" will put the caller on hold, quickly contact the client wherever he or she is, and connect the call.
One such virtual hotel set up by Ace Alibi theoretically contained 23 different clients on a recent weekend. All were really staying at different hotels throughout Britain. But things can get expensive for Ace Alibi's client if a wife or husband is suspicious. After a $35 joining fee, fielding phone calls is $20 a time — to your credit card, although, naturally, under the name of some imaginary company.
Because Ace Alibi can only set up British phone numbers, most of their clients are either in the U.K., or pretending to be there. To help in the tricky business of constructing locally adapted cover stories and smokescreens with appropriate phone numbers elsewhere in the world, the company has just licensed its first franchise in the U.S., in New Hampshire. Similar fib factories in Florida and California are planned to start soon. Entrepreneurs in France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Spain are also showing interest in offering elaborate fabrications. And, naturally, a Hollywood studio is negotiating with the Scottish company for an option on a proposed Ace Alibi movie.
It's not only love affairs that Ace Alibi is asked to lie for. According to the company's founders, former hardware store owner John Watson and Scott Hall, who was in retail management, plenty of clients — although they don't know how many because they never ask — simply want an excuse to get away from family or work commitments so they can play golf or go fishing. "It all started because a friend of ours wanted to go and watch a football match in Glasgow and the day coincided with his mother-in-law's 60th birthday," Watson says. "He really didn't want to go to the party, so we wrote him a letter saying he had to be in Arbroath [150 km away] for the day for an oil rig survival course.
"The women tend to want a couple of days away, or just a few hours. I don't know why, but they are more secretive and persnickety as to exactly how they want the letter laid out, the phone answered and so on." To ensure Ace Alibi staff — there are now 10 of them — don't gossip about their work, Watson and Hall only employ their friends. They also promise to keep a minimum of client details on their database. "We have to keep some records in case someone tries to use our service in an illegal manner," says Watson. "We turned down one guy who wanted an alibi backdated. We wouldn't do, because it allows people who have been involved in illegal activities to cover their tracks."
Does Watson feel at all guilty about his new boom industry? "In a perfect world no one would cheat, but it's not a perfect world. Short-term affairs, if they become public knowledge, can be catastrophic and lead to the breakdown of family life. If someone uses this service, they obviously want to preserve their family."
The service has inevitably stirred up strong opposition in Scotland. The Catholic Church is particularly outraged, saying in a statement, "Anyone with a sense of morals would be appalled by this materialistic venture."
Reggie Bristol, a computer analyst who bought the first U.S. Ace Alibi franchise and runs it from Bradford, New Hampshire, says he is keen for customers to use it both for affairs and more innocent purposes. "For me, this is not only a way to give people the privacy I think we lack these days, but also just a way to have some fun. I'd like to do things like send people an invitation to a conference, which turns out to be a party," says the married 42-year-old. He has attracted close to 20 clients in a few weeks without advertising.
So is a lie as bad if the person creating it works so hard to cover it up and "protect" his or her partner? Not according to Oxford University ethicist, David Cook. "It's still a lie because it eats away at the heart of a relationship," judges Cook. It's back to Scotland and Sir Walter Scott, I'm afraid, and "O, what a tangled web we weave,/ When first we practice to deceive!"
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June 12, 2000
SPECIAL REPORT
French Connected
Despite a legacy of state control, and an archaic political leadership, France is thriving — and modernizing — in the face of global competition
EUROPE
The Victory Lap?
Europe toasts Clinton one more time, but the Atlantic relationship is showing strain
Soft Power Politics
Europe and the U.S. must seek a world beyond winners and losers
Battle of the Basques
Political inertia combines with disunity and distrust among Spain's national and regional security forces to play into the hands of the terrorist group ETA
Expensive Exposure
Hanover hopes Expo 2000 will put it on the map. It surely will, but the price of publicity will be high
Lights, Camera, Shoot!
Police disguised as a TV crew trick a man to free children and teachers held hostage in Luxembourg
AFRICA
Reliving Apartheid Horrors
The trial of a South African cardiologist accused of murder reopens old wounds
BUSINESS
Ad Land Goes Cyber
Virtual agencies are using the Web to create campaigns in record time, and without the bureaucracy
The Game of the Name
The struggle for Web dominance shows that brands matter just as much in the new economy as in the old
The Wide Blue Yonder
Giant airships could become commercially viable again six decades after the Hindenburg disaster
Battle Below the Belt
Designer Calvin Klein goes to court claiming a business partner is destroying his brand's image
SOCIETY
Tangled Webs for Sale
Planning a tryst or a day at the races away from the boss? A Scottish firm can cover your tracks — for a fee
THE ARTS
Recreating a Jewel
Egypt has built an updated version of the fabled Bibliotheca Alexandrina, but its commitment to intellectual freedom remains an open question
Thandie Makes It Possible
Her mission: to help make M:I-2 the hottest movie of the season. But first she tells you about Hollywood stupidity (and Tom's unusual sense of humor)
The Daily Courage
Journalist Benjamin Pogrund let the facts speak for themselves, no easy task in apartheid South Africa
DEPARTMENTS
Essay
To Our Readers
World Watch
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