Is mSpy Legit? The Company, the Breaches and the Law

It's late, the house is quiet, and you've had the mSpy pricing page open for twenty minutes. The plan names seem to read your mind: one is called "Just to check what's going on now". Your partner's phone is charging on the kitchen counter. Before you go any further, you want to know one thing: is this real, and is it allowed?

Short answer: mSpy is a real company selling a real monitoring app, so it isn't a scam in the sense of taking your money for nothing. But installing it on another adult's phone without their consent is illegal in most jurisdictions, including under US federal law, and mSpy's own FAQ says so. It has also had three known data breaches, the latest exposing millions of customer support tickets.

This page covers who runs mSpy and what it costs, the breaches, what the law says about secret monitoring of a partner (carefully, and without legal advice), what mSpy's own terms put on your shoulders, and the legal ways to get an answer about dating apps.

If what you really want to know is whether your partner is on a dating app: CheatEye, our own tool, checks that without going anywhere near their phone. You enter a first name, an age, a gender and a city, and it searches Tinder for a matching profile. Run a search on CheatEye, or read on first. This decision deserves the full picture.

Who is behind mSpy

A company that has existed for years. mSpy has been on the market since around 2010. Its end user license agreement names the publisher as Altercon Group s.r.o., with an address in Prague, Czech Republic. TechCrunch reported in 2024 that the operation is tied to a Ukraine-based company called Brainstack.

A real product. The app, once installed on a phone, reports activity to a dashboard: messages, calls, location, apps. Its home page advertises features such as "Tinder Monitoring" and a call recorder with "no notifications", and says the best tracking apps "work in hidden mode, so they won't even know you're using it."

Who it says it's for. The FAQ describes mSpy as "created to help parents and couples to keep an eye on their loved ones' online activity." Keep the word "couples" in mind, because the legal section below is where it gets complicated.

So on the narrow question "is mSpy fake?", no. You pay, you get software that does what it describes. Whether you can lawfully use it on the person you have in mind is a different question, and it's the one that matters.

What it costs on 9 November 2026

These are the prices on mSpy's own pricing page that day:

• 1 month: $48.99 a month, shown against a crossed-out $69.99.

• 3 months: $28.00 a month.

• 12 months: $11.67 a month.

Three details sit in the small print.

The discount ends at renewal. The footnote reads: "The price is discounted. We will be charging the full price starting from the next subscription renewal."

Forgetting to cancel isn't a refund reason. The terms say that if you forget to disable auto-renewal, "it will not be a reason for a refund."

No free trial. The FAQ states that a free trial "isn't currently available". Refund requests are possible within 14 days, through a form and under conditions.

Three known data breaches

This is the part that should give anyone pause, whatever their intentions.

In July 2024, TechCrunch reported that a breach in May of that year exposed "millions of customer support tickets, including personal information, emails to support, and attachments", going back to 2014. The breach notification service Have I Been Pwned counted about 2.4 million unique email addresses of mSpy customers. TechCrunch called it "the third known mSpy data breach", after earlier ones including a breach in 2018.

Two points stand out in that reporting.

Buyers were exposed. People who wrote to support to ask for help installing or using the app now have their names, emails and messages in a leaked dataset.

So were the people being watched. TechCrunch wrote that "some of the email addresses belong to unwitting victims who were targeted by an mSpy customer."

Think about what that means in a couple. Everything the app collected or every support request you sent could end up somewhere neither of you controls. A tool sold for peace of mind can create a new exposure for both people.

Is mSpy legal? What the law says about monitoring a partner

This section explains the general legal framework in the US. It isn't legal advice, laws differ by state and country, and if you're facing a real decision (especially around a divorce), a local lawyer is the person to ask.

The federal Wiretap Act. Under 18 U.S.C. section 2511, it's a federal offense when someone "intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept, or procures any other person to intercept" an electronic communication. Using the contents of a communication you know was unlawfully intercepted is also covered. The penalty can reach five years in prison, plus fines, and section 2520 lets the person whose communications were intercepted sue for damages.

The consent exception doesn't help here. Federal law allows an interception when "one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent." On your partner's phone, you are not a party to their conversations with other people. The consent that counts is theirs, and the people they're talking to.

Marriage isn't an exception. In Glazner v. Glazner (2003), the full Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the federal wiretap statute contains no exception for spouses. Being married to someone doesn't give you a right to intercept their communications.

Paying for the phone isn't consent either. As our page on whether spyware on a partner's phone is illegal puts it: "Consent comes from the user, not the bill payer." The same goes for knowing their passcode.

State law can be stricter. Many states have their own eavesdropping, computer intrusion and tracking laws, and some require every party's consent before a conversation can be recorded. A call recorder running silently on someone's phone sits squarely in that territory.

Outside the US. Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia all have laws against intercepting private communications or accessing someone's device without authorization. Our spyware page covers each country in more detail.

Regulators have acted against this kind of software. In September 2021, the Federal Trade Commission banned the maker of an app called SpyFone and its CEO from the surveillance business, saying its apps let "stalkers and domestic abusers to stealthily track the potential targets of their violence." It was the FTC's second case against stalkerware and the first ending in a ban. The order was finalized in December 2021. That case was not about mSpy, but it shows how US regulators view secret phone monitoring.

What mSpy's own terms say

Here's the part most reviews skip: mSpy's documents agree with the law, and put the whole risk on you.

On adults. From its FAQ: "if you want to monitor an adult person, you have to get their consent. Otherwise, monitoring will be considered illegal."

On ownership. From its disclaimer: "It is the violation of the applicable laws to install mSpy on a device you do not own. The law generally requires you to notify owners of the devices, on which you intend to install mSpy. The violation of this requirement could result in severe monetary and criminal penalties."

On stalking. Its license agreement forbids using the software to "harass, abuse, stalk, threaten" anyone, and grants a license only for devices "owned by you, are under your lawful control".

On responsibility. The terms say mSpy "is not responsible for using the software and/or site by users unlawfully", and its liability is capped at $50 or what you paid in the past six months, whichever is greater.

Put the marketing next to the terms. The pricing page offers a plan "to check what's going on now" with "invisible mode", and the home page promises Tinder monitoring. The terms say that doing this to another adult without consent is illegal and that you alone answer for it. If something goes wrong, the company has written that it isn't on the hook. You would be.

When monitoring is lawful, and when it isn't

A minor child in your care. This is the use mSpy's license centers on, and parents generally have broad authority over their young children's devices. State rules and the child's age still matter.

An adult who knowingly agrees. Monitoring with the informed consent of the adult using the phone is a different situation from secret monitoring. A couple who both choose to share locations, openly, on their own phones, is an ordinary arrangement.

Your partner's phone, without their knowledge. That's the scenario the law and mSpy's own FAQ treat as illegal. It also tends to backfire. Evidence gathered this way can be thrown out, used against you, or become the main story in a divorce. Our guide on whether cheating affects divorce explains why proof of infidelity often matters less in court than people expect.

And if you're reading this because you fear someone installed monitoring software on your phone, our guide to hidden apps and how to spot them is the better starting point.

Legal ways to get the answer you're after

Most people looking at mSpy late at night don't want a full feed of someone's phone. They want an answer to one question: is my partner talking to other people, maybe on a dating app?

That question can often be approached without touching their device at all.

Check what's in your own records. A shared card statement can show a dating app subscription. Our guide on what Tinder shows up as on a bank statement lists the exact labels.

Look at the dating app from the outside. A dating profile is something its owner made visible to strangers on purpose. Searching for it isn't interception. Our guides on how to know if someone is on Tinder and whether your spouse is on dating apps walk through the free methods first.

Use a search built for that question. CheatEye searches Tinder from a first name, an age, a gender and a city, with a photo as an option, and covers Bumble, Hinge, Happn and OkCupid with an add-on at $12.90. A search costs $17.90, paid once. If a profile is found, the report shows the bio, photos, last activity, Tinder subscription and last used location. Nothing is installed on anyone's phone, and the person isn't notified. CheatEye doesn't read messages, doesn't track a live location and doesn't search by phone number or email. A profile found doesn't prove cheating, but it does give you something concrete to talk about.

Talk, or get support. If trust has broken down, a counselor or a lawyer will help you more than any app. That's especially true if you're thinking about separation.

The verdict

mSpy is legit as a business: a real company, a real app, a real subscription. It is not a legal shortcut into a partner's life. Its own FAQ calls monitoring an adult without consent illegal, US federal law makes interception a crime with no spousal exception, and three known breaches show that what the app collects doesn't always stay private.

If the question is whether someone is on a dating app, there's a lawful way to look. Search with CheatEye, no phone required.

Last verified: November 2026.

FAQ

Is mSpy a legitimate company?

Yes. mSpy has operated since around 2010, its license names Altercon Group s.r.o. in Prague, and it delivers working software. Legitimate as a company doesn't mean lawful for every use.

Is mSpy legal?

It's generally legal to buy, and to use on your own device or your minor child's device. Using it on another adult's phone without their consent is illegal in most jurisdictions, and mSpy's FAQ says that monitoring an adult without consent "will be considered illegal." This isn't legal advice.

Is mSpy a scam or fake?

No. It's a real product that does what it advertises. The common complaints are about renewals at full price and refunds, and the bigger concern is its history of data breaches.

Is it legal to put mSpy on my spouse's phone?

In the US, secretly intercepting a spouse's communications can violate the federal Wiretap Act, and courts have held there's no spousal exception. State laws add their own rules. Speak to a local lawyer before doing anything.

Has mSpy been hacked?

Yes. TechCrunch reported in July 2024 that millions of support tickets were leaked, its third known breach. Have I Been Pwned counted about 2.4 million customer email addresses.

Does mSpy work on Tinder?

mSpy advertises "Tinder Monitoring", but only through software installed on the other person's phone, with the legal limits above. To check whether someone has a Tinder profile without touching their phone, a dating-profile search looks at the app from the outside.

Is mSpy legal in Canada?

Canada's Criminal Code prohibits wilfully intercepting private communications, so secretly monitoring another adult's phone carries the same kind of risk as in the US. Check with a Canadian lawyer for your situation.