The Spy Who Shopped Me

We check in this week with one of the CIA’s top local spies, a woman who keeps her identity so well cloaked that we’re surprised she even talked to us. No names, please, and certainly no photos. This is vital work and secrecy is the name of the game. Business lives depend on it.

The CIA, in this instance, is Creative Image Associates, a Lunenburg, Mass.-based intelligence firm that specializes in what’s known as secret or mystery shopping. Our operative uses fake accounts at local banks, infiltrates hotels and car dealerships and has even served behind enemy lines, hired by one company to spy on a rival.