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9[[quoteright:349:[[Series/{{Chuck}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chuckcastle_6.jpg]]]]
10[[caption-width-right:349:'''Outside:''' Unassuming electronics store.\
11'''Inside:''' Joint CIA / NSA base.]]
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16
17-> '''Det. Mishka:''' You're not FBI. Who are you?\
18'''Darien Fawkes:''' BWM.\
19'''Det. Mishka:''' Which stands for...\
20'''Bobby Hobbes:''' Bureau of Weights and Measures.
21-->-- ''Series/TheInvisibleMan''
22
23One problem with being a member of the GovernmentAgencyOfFiction or of a CovertGroup is that, at some point, you need to interact with the public or non-covert governmental agencies. This is where being a covert group with a mundane front comes in. A covert group has a highly mundane front and it will sometimes be commented that their funding is hidden from the public within the low funding the front group officially receives. Sometimes this will be played for laughs, as characters will either make fun of the official organ the spies are supposed to come from, or else see the front for the PaperThinDisguise that it is. As a general note, it is very common for a cultural attaché to be one of these ("travel to interesting places; [[BreadEggsMilkSquick kill interesting people]]").
24
25Compare with the low rank/high power of the AlmightyJanitor, as well as TotallyNotACriminalFront, which is when something similar is done by criminals [[PaperThinDisguise very poorly]]. See also MilkmanConspiracy and OvertOperative. When surrounded by even more secrecy, it becomes a case of NoSuchAgency. While not required, the Mundane Front may have an UnusuallyUninterestingName, or one with OminousMundanity.
26
27----
28!!Examples:
29[[foldercontrol]]
30
31[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
32* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'':
33** The Korogi Clan run their tool shop for exorcist ninja out of a toy shop, with all the supernaturally-related wares rendered InvisibleToNormals.
34** The Ninokuru Clan's front is a soba noodle restaurant, where they use their inhuman speed [[MartialArtsForMundanePurposes to make deliveries]].
35* The spy/assassin November 11 in ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' is officially supposed to be a minister of some sort.
36** In the second season, two Contractor assassins, Mina and Genma [[spoiler: and Kirihara]] are officially clerks for Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which is a front for a Black Ops group supposedly fighting against TheSyndicate. Given that the actual Ministry is involved in things like managing civil service and telecommunications, this is a perfect example of a "boring" department providing cover for nefarious schemes.
37* In ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'', Section 9 employee Togusa mentions his cover is that of working for a security firm. Maj. Kusanagi on the other hand, maintains that she works for the Military. Ishikawa actually owns a gambling hall for cover. Section 9 usually work in official capacity or undercover, so they rarely need consistent covers.
38** In each of these cases they're not so much 'fronts' as side-projects: Togusa tells his family he's in securities so they won't worry (as much), the Major, mentally, never left the service, and Ishikawa's pachinko parlour is one part of his personal data network, using the elderly players' head-computers to crunch his data (They are WELL compensated through their winnings).
39* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''[='=]s Social Welfare Agency is an Italian government-sponsored institution that helps orphans and aids the rehabilitation of the physically injured with state-of-the-art cybernetic prosthetics. Unknown to the public however they also have a surveillance and intelligence-gathering division to help deal with the Five Republics terrorists, and some of the orphaned and injured girls they "help" have been transformed by the aforementioned cybernetic prosthetics into brainwashed cyborg assassins to murder said terrorists.
40* ''Literature/JokerGame'' has the spies of the D-Agency study and live in an office building labelled the "Greater East Asia Cultural Society."
41* ''Anime/KnightHunters'' has the four assassins working a cover job as florists, first alongside a little old lady and her cat, and later in a pink mobile trailer. In the sequel series, they're investigating suspicious suicides at prep schools, and go under cover as teachers and students.
42* ''Manga/MajinTanteiNougamiNeuro'': Later in the manga, the Hayasaka brothers ran a firearm smuggling operation using a spice shop as a front.
43* In ''Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam'', the Crossbone Vanguard uses the cover of being a civilian freight company, Blackrow Shipping, when not flying under the banner of pirates, allowing them to move around the Earth Sphere without suspicion.
44* ''Anime/NajicaBlitzTactics'': The CRI Corporation, the spy agency that employs Najica, is to the public a perfume company, and apparently a very successful one.
45* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'':
46** The Marduk Institute is a front for SEELE. It's also mentioned that Marduk itself has 108 fronts.
47** Ryoji Kaji, who basically everybody knows is a spy, is officially cited as a "UN attaché" who had guardianship of Asuka.
48* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
49** According to Creator/EiichiroOda,[[note]]SBS Chapter 884[[/note]] the real-life job of the character Capone "Gang" Bege, a walking homage to mafia movies, would be shoe store manager.
50** Donquixote Doflamingo ran one for the [[AristocratsAreEvil World Nobles]] for a time. It was a huge slave ring centered around selling slaves to the Nobles, so they would ignore almost everything else he did. Such as sell weapons to pirates on the side.
51[[/folder]]
52
53[[folder:Comic Books]]
54* ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius'': The agency that tracks down Barry Ween is the Foliage Census. Their security clearance goes to eleven.
55* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': While Honor Guard isn't a covert group, their call center is, to protect them from being targeted by supervillains. The employees are hired through shell companies that serve as their cover, with names like '''H'''umano'''G'''lobal, '''H'''ampton '''G'''enetics, '''H'''alston-'''G'''odney, '''H'''anawa '''G'''iken...
56* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': every retelling of his origin story consistently portrays FBI housing Project Rebirth in the back of an antiquity store tended by an old lady who is actually an undercover FBI agent.
57* ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'': The chaplains' assistants stationed at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island in the mid-1980s were always rather wary of those ruffians from the motor pool, blissfully unaware of the Joes' ElaborateUndergroundBase until Cobra came by to invade it. Issue 3 even dealt with Hawk and Scarlett trying to maintain their cover with the chaplains' assistants, while several Joes in the Pit were trying to stop a captured Cobra robot from escaping to the surface to broadcast their location.
58* ''ComicBook/ScoobyApocalypse'': The Athena facility, the [[TheConspiracy Complex's]] data backup facility, which is hidden within a paper mill. Lampshaded by Shaggy commenting on the oddity of it, with Velma pointing out that they couldn't exactly advertise it as a secret facility.
59* ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'': It is mentioned in ComicBook/MoonKnight that a toy store is owned and operated by S.H.I.E.L.D. as a cover. The classic ''ComicBook/NickFury'' stories had a barber's shop.
60* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': The Red Horse Garage, Suicide Slum in some stories was a front for Project Cadmus.
61* ''[[ComicBook/WildCATsWildStorm Wild C.A.T.S.]]'': The American agency devoted to looking into super-human crimes in the WildStorm universe was the National Park Service, which is actually a real organization.
62* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
63** Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters was this for decades. However, it's been blown up so many times, it probably doesn't qualify any more.
64** The [[ComicBook/WeaponX2002 Weapon X Program]]? You know, the BigBad behind ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s transformation from relatively innocuous soldier to [[WolverineClaws blade–handed]] [[HealingFactor immortal]] [[OneManArmy killing machine]]? Who've made life a merry hell for various B–list ComicBook/XMen for the last thirty years? On paper, they're the Department of Agriculture, [[DeadlyEuphemism Pest Control Division]].
65[[/folder]]
66
67[[folder: Fan Works]]
68* ''Fanfic/ConversationsWithACryptid'': A group of people working for a supervillain dedicated to finding out the dirty secrets that pro-heroes and the government don't want found out. A spy ring? No. A gossip magazine! In the magazine the Heroes Mirror's defense they don't realize they're working for a supervillain.
69** Zach Smith is the head of the Heroes Mirror's Australian branch. [[spoiler:His true job is working for All for One running the dark web criminal forum the Conspiracy.]]
70* In ''Fanfic/FearNoEvil'', a ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfic, on the surface Humarise is a charity and support group for Quirkless people. In actuality, Humarise is a cult with politicians and police deep in their pockets and imprison and brainwash their members.
71* In ''Fanfic/NarutoTheGameOfLife'', the ANBU had their former headquarters in a building disguised as an apartment building, Naruto seemed more surprised that it was supposed to be a secret considering how bad he thought the cover story was as it simultaneously had sign for 'apartments for rent' but guards that would not let any perspective renters on the the property. It seems the only ones who thought it was a secret at all was Hiruzen Sarutobi and the ANBU commander as Naruto put it: "Most people in Konoha can tell where ANBU HQ is by the large amount of suspiciously polite, but firm guards saying, 'private residence only' to anybody who goes close to the building despite the 'apartments for rent' sign outside the door."
72* ''Fanfic/TheSecretReturnOfAlexMack'': The Superpower Research Initiative starts out officially as the Hazardous Waste Abatement and Amelioration Agency. Which isn't entirely false, either, because on several occasions they do deal with toxic waste... but only after they deal with whatever bugaboo said waste created.
73* ''Fanfic/AYoungGirlsGuerrillaWar'': The Rising Sun Benevolent Organization advertises itself as a charitable association aimed at improving Japanese public health and fostering better relations between the Britannians and the local "Elevens". While the first is technically true (the RSBS provides education and medicine to Shinjuku residents), it also provides a front for the Kozuki Organization to gain funds and gather members for resisting Britannian occupation.
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
77* ''WesternAnimation/SecretMagicControlAgency'':
78** The SMCA's ElaborateUndergroundBase is accessed through a hair salon. To get to the actual base, agents sit in front of a mirror and ask for a style that will "open their inner world", which is the cue for the stylist to activate a spell allowing a security guard to see through the mirror. If he recognises the agent, he allows them to enter via an elevator.
79** Ilvira's potion warehouse is disguised as a pastry shop. The entrance to the warehouse itself is through the shop's large fireplace, which uses cold fire so it can be walked through harmlessly.
80[[/folder]]
81
82[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
83* Barry's aviation company "Independant Airline Consultants" from ''Film/AmericanMade''.
84* The Wildfire biological research laboratory in ''Film/TheAndromedaStrain'' is an underground Defense Department secret facility buried underneath a Department of Agriculture research station.
85* PlayedWith in ''Film/AustinPowers'' -- the front organisation Virtucom [[CutLexLuthorACheck makes more money legitimately than Dr Evil's criminal plans would bring in]]. This becomes a running gag, where each new movie would have NumberTwo suggest they focus on a front organization, which is by far more profitable (Starbucks in the second and a talent agency in the third), only to be dismissed.
86-->'''Dr. Evil:''' Why make trillions, when we can make ''billions''?
87* In ''Film/BugsyMalone'', Pop Becker's bookstore is the front for Fat Sam's Grand Slam Speakeasy.
88* Both ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' and [[Film/CaptainAmerica1990 that other one]] we don't talk about have the facility where Cap is given his powers hidden beneath an innocent looking store. An antique shop in the former and a diner in the latter, and both guarded by an innocent-looking lady with a Tommy Gun beneath the counter.
89* In ''Film/CharlieWilsonsWar'', Gust claims to work for Department of Agriculture's Fruit and Plant Division, specializing in apple imports, though it's mostly played as a joke because Joanne is well-aware he's with the CIA.
90* In ''Film/GentlemenExplorers'', the mysterious agency that recruits Riley and the Magician gives them cover identities as agents of the US Postal Service. It is later shown that this is the standard cover for its agents.
91* In ''Film/GetSmart'', CONTROL has its headquarters in the Smithsonian.... in a display ''about'' [=CONTROL=]. The display pretends CONTROL was disbanded at the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. In fact, many of CONTROL's political rivals claim that it ''should'' have been disbanded after its chief rival went defunct.
92* In ''Film/TheGodfather'' films, Vito Corleone poses as an "olive oil importer", and occasional references are made to "the olive oil business" when characters do not want to refer to what ''actually'' goes on. (Subverted in that he actually ''does'' have a legitimate business that imports olive oil; it just isn't where most of his money comes from.) In the original novel, he starts out as a completely legitimate olive oil importer. [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain Then he cuts corners by intimidating his rivals into selling their business to him]]. Then Prohibition comes along and he realizes there are some bottled goods he can import that would be more profitable than olive oil....
93* ''Franchise/{{Hellboy}}'':
94** The headquarters of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense in ''Film/Hellboy2004'' is located below a Sanitation Department building. Which also happens to neatly explain the garbage truck they drive around in where Hellboy can easily hide in. The location is even introduced via GilliganCut. Director Manning is on television telling the audience that there's no such thing as the B.P.R.D., immediately before the next scene shows the sanitation station with the helpful TitleIn explaining that it's the organization's headquarters.
95** In ''Film/Hellboy2019'', the BPRD team up with [=MI11=], which apparently has a secret base in a London chip shop.
96* Film/JamesBond occasionally claims to be working for Universal Exports in a few movies. It rarely lasts long.
97** In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', SPECTRE is introduced using the cover of a refugee aid agency — "International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons". Which, when you think of it, would be very useful for a criminal organisation that works internationally and that would need to arrange false papers for its members, who could be hidden among the many legitimate refugees.
98** ''Film/LicenceToKill'': The televangelist Professor Joe Butcher actually makes a profit from his preaching, even though it's only meant to be a cover for Franz Sanchez's drug operation. And a henchman working at a marine supply business gives himself away when he doesn't know what the Latin name for a Great White shark is.
99** Finally lampshaded in ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'': James Bond mocks Felix Leiter for the CIA's evident inability to do this competently.
100--->''"You know, you should just answer, 'CIA,' Felix. [[PaperThinDisguise A taxi driver told me where the office was]]."''
101** In ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', 007, M & Moneypenny enter a safe house with the frontage of "Hildebrand Rarities", a shout-out to a novella by Ian Fleming.
102* ''Film/JumpinJackFlash'': At a funeral for a dead spy, it's mentioned that he was in the greeting card business, presumably a ShoutOut to ''Series/GetSmart''.
103* [[MouseWorld Szuflandia]] in ''Film/{{Kingsajz}}'' is cunningly hidden in the disused basement of the Institute for Quaternary Research. The sheer thickness of CobwebOfDisuse proves nobody ever goes there.
104* ''Film/{{Kingsman}}'':
105** {{Exploited|Trope}} in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService''. The Kingsmen's classic tailor front is justified by having started out as one, catering to the rich and powerful and becoming quite wealthy and influential themselves in the process. After its owners and clients lost most of their heirs to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, they decided to use the un-inherited wealth to forge a new knightly order to ensure peace around the world. It may be the first case where the Covert Group grew out of the Mundane Front practically ''as a sideline.''
106** ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' gives us Statesman, a (''[[{{Beergasm}} really good]]'') brand of liquor that's the mundane front for the Kingsman's American counterparts. The front is revealed to be a multi-billion-dollar company, as one would expect of capitalism; Kingsman sells a few thousand $5000+ suits a year, Statesman sells ''millions'' of $100+ bottles of liquor in the same timeframe.
107* ''Film/MenInBlack'':
108** MIB headquarters is hidden in the ventilator building of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.
109** Field agents also claimed to be Division 6 of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This became a RunningGag in the cartoon where they'd claim they were from Division 6 of whatever organization vaguely applied to the jurisdiction. Which would often result in competent civil servants knowing such a division did not exist.[[note]] Important to note, the INS itself no longer exists; it was dissolved post-9/11 and its former duties are now handled by the Dept. of Homeland Security, primarily its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division.[[/note]]
110* In ''Film/MissionImpossibleIII'', Tom Cruise's character claims to work for the Virginia Department of Transportation. (Later, when he escapes from IMF headquarters, it's implied that their base actually ''is'' hidden behind VDOT.) Alternatively, that's what '''every''' agent says, so they keep a stash of VDOT stuff to give out.
111* ''Film/MuppetsFromSpace'': The top-secret C.O.V.N.E.T. facility is "cleverly disguised as a cement factory". (This leads to a funny bit later when Bobo suggests taking his company car, which turns out to be a cement truck.)
112* ''Film/NightWatch'': The titular organization's field operatives drive around in a City Light truck and dressed as electricians. The novels written after the film's release mention that City Light used to be a front for the Night Watch.
113* In ''Film/OnceUponASpy'', the unnamed intelligence agency has its headquarters located under an amusement park. The entrance is through the TunnelOfLove. It does maintain other fronts, such as the computing company that Jack works for.
114* In ''Film/SmallTimeCrooks'', the protagonists start a cookie shop as a front for a bank robbery attempt. The bank robbery fails, but the cookie shop becomes wildly successful.
115* In ''Film/{{Sneakers}}'', Cosmo runs the entire financial operations of the mafia (and his DragonWithAnAgenda plan to crash the entire world economy) out of a server farm and supercomputer complex that has a completely mundane-seeming front of a toy company called [=PlayTronics=] on the outskirts of San Francisco. Robert Redford's character notes that a trained observer can tell the toy company is a front because the building clearly has security far beyond what any toy company would have.
116* The Ace Tomato company from ''Film/SpiesLikeUs''. In addition, MissionControl for the military's SDI weapon is hidden under a deserted DriveInTheater.
117* ''Film/UndercoverBrother'': The headquarters of the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. are located beneath a barber shop.
118* The bad guys in ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'' blow up a Chinese "fertiliser plant".
119-->'''Penn:''' A fertiliser plant?\
120'''Travis Dane:''' Yeah, I'm gonna shock the world by spreading ca-ca all over the place. Guangzhou is a chemical weapons plant masquerading as a fertiliser plant. We know this. The Chinese know that we know. But we make-believe that we don't know and the Chinese make-believe that they believe that we don't know, but know that we know. Everybody knows.
121* In ''Film/{{Volunteers}}'', John Reynolds, the Peace Corps supervisor, is actually a member of the CIA working towards getting the bridge built so that American troops can have access to the communists. This is notably artistic license with history, as noted below, the Peace Corps would NEVER be used as a front by any country.
122* The Fraternity in ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' operates out of a working textile plant. Wesley initially thinks this is merely a front, but it turns out that one of their machines is the Loom of Fate, which gives encoded instructions directing their assassinations.
123* At the start of ''Film/WarGames'', two Air Force people walk into a small cabin, in the midst of a snowstorm. They walk up to a normal-looking mirror and show their badges. They are then buzzed into the missile silo entrance and go down to the silo in an elevator.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Literature]]
127* ''Literature/AgentG'' starts out with the protagonist working for the International Refugee Society, which is a nod to Spectre in ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}''. The organization is actually a covert front for a MurderInc group that provides the ultra-wealthy with high-tech HollywoodCyborg-performed assassinations.
128* [=MI6=] fronts as a bank office in the ''Literature/AlexRider'' series.
129* In the ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' series, Stephen Maturin is one of Britain's most effective spies, but uses his status as a respected natural philosopher and physician to travel in wartime.
130* ''Literature/BillTheGalacticHero'': A frozen-food [[PaperThinDisguise kosher ham store]] is literally a 'front' -- just a cardboard wall attached to the front of a tank used to ambush the revolutionaries, as Bill finds out when he tries to open the door. The unconvincing cover of a Jewish ham store makes no difference, as it turns out [[FlockOfWolves all the 'revolutionaries' are government spies]] anyway.
131* The headquarters of TeenSuperspy Christopher Cool's agency, the [[FunWithAcronyms Teen-age Educational Espionage Network]], is in a supercar dealership called, originally enough, Luxury Motors.
132* The Cursors of ''Literature/CodexAlera'' are notionally simply the First Lord's personal messengers, modeled loosely after the Imperial Roman ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agentes_in_rebus agentes in rebus]]''. Actually, they're his personal spies, assassins, and covert operatives, although this second function is sufficiently well-known that people are sometimes surprised to be reminded that they're ''also'' messengers.
133* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'' has Inigo Skimmer, an assassin posing as a clerk, and a later book, ''Literature/GoingPostal'' references a whole group of "dark clerks", nondescript gentlemen who appear to be ordinary clerks until you meet their eyes. Despite being mostly prize-scholarship graduates of the Guild of Assassins, the majority of their workload ''is'' apparently desk-based (TruthInTelevision for real intelligence agencies), but they're all fully trained for field operations should the need arise.
134* ''Literature/TheFeastOfTheGoat'' by Mario Vargas Llosa: the guns used to assassinate Trujillo are bought from a CIA agent who's cover is the owner of a supermarket specialized in selling American goods.
135* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' has the Imperial Biological Welfare Division in the Mah Dala Infirmary. Their stated purpose was, well, medicinal and they did serve that purpose to some extent, but really this was a cover for the Imperial Biological '''Warfare''' Division, tailoring {{Synthetic Plague}}s to test on the population stranded around the infirmary.
136* Locke Lamora of the ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' sequence claims to be one of these in the second book... as in, he tells another character that he used to work in the weights and measures department until he was recruited as a spy by the Archon, a position he's now supposedly on the run from. (The part about weights and measures is a complete fiction, and he's actually working for the Archon, under threat of blackmail, at the time he says this.)
137* In ''Literature/GeographyClub'', the characters start a Gay-Straight Alliance at their high school. They call it [[TitleDrop Geography Club]], so that people not in the know will think it seems boring and not want to join.
138* Wizarding buildings in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' tend to hide behind fronts such as a closed department store (St Mungo's Hospital), a non-working phone (the public entrance to the Ministry of Magic) and a dingy pub (Diagon Alley).
139* In Daniel Suarez's ''Influx'', the secretive [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction Bureau of Technology Control]] has been tasked with suppressing and controlling [[ScaleOfScientificSins disruptive technology]] to make sure rapid change brought about by certain technologies doesn't disrupt world order. Over time they've grown into a hypertechnological society unto itself complete with paramilitary forces, hereditary citizenship/employment, and at least one superweapon. They're stationed under their old government office building, which is practically abandoned, turning dilapidated, and is filled with technology that hasn't been updated since the 70s.
140* ''Literature/JackRyan'' usually has super-paramilitary spy John Clark covering himself as a specialist in a mundane job category. ''Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger'' implies that he's also knowledgeable enough to cover himself other ways as well. ''Literature/DebtOfHonor'' actually has him and his partner pretending to be ''[[{{Irony}} Russians]]'' to infiltrate Japan. When the paramilitary anti-terrorist organization Rainbow is established in ''Literature/RainbowSix'', they're listed as belonging to the Special Air Service in a case of HidingInPlainSight. "The Campus", the secret anti-terrorist investigation and assassination squad at the center of his novels starting with ''The Teeth of the Tiger'', operates completely off the government books under the cover of being a financial trading firm.
141* ''Literature/JamesBond'':
142** The British Secret Service is based in a large office building with several cover companies, including a radio company to explain all the antennae on the roof. Field agents like 007 are supposed to work for "Universal Export". This was sometimes mentioned in the movies as well. In ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', it is mentioned that the field agents' cover organisation has changed its name to the nebulous-sounding "Transworld Consortium".
143** In ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}'', SPECTRE uses the cover of a refugee aid agency -- "Firco" in the novels; "International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons" in [[Film/{{Thunderball}} the film]].
144* In ''Literature/{{Kim}}'', Colonel Creighton, the head of the Ethnological Survey of British India, also directs the secret service. There is an overlap between the two organisations; for instance, both Creighton and one of his top agents, Hurree Chunder Mookerjee, write and publish legitimate ethnological papers and share the ambition of being admitted to the Royal Society. Apparently, this was TruthInTelevision.
145* In ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'', the supernatural math-magician enforcement/spy agency is fronted as, and always referred to as, "The Laundry", as it was at one time situated above (or behind) a Chinese laundry.
146* ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'': Mara's spy network is an exaggeration. Her spies usually run small businesses as their cover, and enough of them turn a profit for the network to be largely self-financing.
147* ''Literature/SearchByTheFoundation''. The Second Foundation is disguised as [[spoiler:a bunch of [[SpaceAmish rustic farmers]]. Preem Palver is [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter Prime Speaker]], their leader]].
148* The spy Mrs. Singh from ''Literature/TheSecretLifeOfKittyGranger'' works for the fashion magazine ''La Mode''. Her cover lets her rub shoulders with the rich and powerful. It helps that ''La Mode'' is a real magazine staffed mostly by people who have no idea it's a front organization -- the only people who know the truth are Mrs. Singh and her "secretaries", Kitty and Verity.
149* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' {{Fanon}} has turned "The Literature/DiogenesClub", founded by Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes, into one of these while turning Mycroft Holmes from being a fat and lazy (but [[BrilliantButLazy undeniably brilliant]]) civil servant into a 19th century [[Film/JamesBond M]]. The ur-example comes from ''Film/ThePrivateLifeOfSherlockHolmes'':
150-->'''Mycroft:''' It's come to my attention that you are interested in the whereabouts of a certain engineer.\
151'''Sherlock:''' Yes, I am.\
152'''Mycroft:''' Well, I can save you a lot of trouble. My suggestion is that you pursue it no further. It involves the national security. We are handling the matter.\
153'''Watson:''' We? Who are we?\
154'''Sherlock:''' The Diogenes Club.\
155'''Mycroft:''' I didn't say that.\
156'''Sherlock:''' I've long suspected some underground connection between this stodgy and seemingly calcified establishment and the foreign offices in Whitehall.\
157'''Mycroft:''' That is neither here nor there.\
158'''Sherlock:''' Your club is here, there and everywhere! When there are rumblings of revolt in the Sudan an expedition funded by your club conveniently shows up to study the source of the Nile. If there's trouble along the Indian frontier, members pop up in the Himalayas, allegedly looking for the abominable snowman.\
159'''Mycroft:''' ''(chuckles)'' What a vivid imagination my brother has.
160* In ''Literature/ThereWasNoSecretEvilFightingOrganization'', the esper organization Amaterasu is hidden behind quirky urban bar Ama-no-Iwato. More than once [[DramaticIrony police searching for the former have had coffee at the latter]]. It also gives the younger espers a place to hang out after school.
161-->'''Detective Kumano:''' Any reason why you have a CLOSED sign hanging on the door?\
162'''Sago:''' ...The more curious customers like it that way.
163* ''Literature/TrantorFalls''. The library is actually [[spoiler:the Second Foundation, hiding under the nose of the First Galactic Empire]]. Their knowledge of esoteric lore comes in handy when trying to convince people to leave them alone.
164* Creator/MichaelKurland uses the Bureau of Weights and Measures as a cover for his two agents in ''The Whenabouts of Burr''.
165* ''Literature/TheWindupGirl''. The calorie {{Megacorp}} that Anderson works for funds Yates unprofitable kink-spring factory just so they can have a window into Thailand, a country where any "Calorie Man" is liable to be lynched. Unfortunately Yates thinks of himself as an inventor rather than a spy, and misses the fact that new fruit and vegetables are mysteriously appearing in Bangkok markets. Anderson fires Yates for this and takes over the factory himself, and it's implied he killed Yates when the latter took violent objection to losing control of his life's work.
166[[/folder]]
167
168[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
169* A villainous example occurs in ''Series/{{Alias}}'' with the terrorist group SD-6 masquerading behind the name of a bank, Credit Dauphine.
170* Delphi in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'' is an esteemed asset management firm that acts as a front for an ancient line of witchhunters.
171* In ''Series/TheAmericans'', the [[DeepCoverAgent Jennings]] run a travel agency. This provides them with sufficient excuse to travel and to meet different types of people.
172* ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'': Emma and Steed frequently infiltrate innocent sounding organisations that are a front for (admittedly goofy) dark covert operations.
173* ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'':
174** [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]] is a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive fast-food tycoon / drug lord]] who uses his chain of fried chicken restaurants (Los Pollos Hermanos) as a legitimate front for his underground meth-trafficking cartel. Gus Fring's drug ring also hides their meth-producing lab underneath a mundane laundromat building called the Lavandería Brillante; it's a perfect front for shipping in industrial quantities of chemicals and having tons of trucks coming and going without anyone batting an eye. Most of the employees (with the exception of the manager) are legitimate, primarily because the laundromat only employs poor Latino immigrants that can be threatened with deportation if they peek too closely on what's really going on. Surprisingly, there's no jokes about "money laundering".
175** When [[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]] earns his massive bucketloads of cash from meth-cooking, [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]] recommends that Walt and Skyler should purchase a legitimate front in order to launder all this money. Saul tries to convince them to buy a laser tag arena (because it's managed by someone in on the take), but Skyler decides the old car wash where Walter used to work is more in-character, including working as the wash's manager to launder the money by reporting additional nonexistent customers. Unfortunately, Walt [[GoneHorriblyRight ends up earning so much money]], there's no way for Skyler to convincingly launder it all, leaving them with a small mountain of greenbacks they can't even use without arousing suspicion.
176** Saul also tries convincing [[Characters/BreakingBadJessePinkman Jesse Pinkman]] to purchase a nail salon to launder his own money; but Jesse hates the idea of running a business, paying taxes despite being a criminal, as well as having to give Saul a 17% cut, and so [[DefiedTrope he rejects doing this]].
177** Saul has an associate named Ed Galbraith who will give anyone a new, untraceable identity somewhere else in the country within a day for a flat fee of $125,000 per person (and he can raise the fee for more difficult clients). The location he runs this business from is a regular vacuum cleaner repair shop, and the secret code for requesting a disappearance from Ed is to ask for "a new dust filter for a Hoover Max Extract® Pressure Pro™ Model 60".
178** Before he ended up in a wheelchair, Hector Salamanca laundered his drug money through a number of Mexican restaurants in the Albuquerque area (one an ice cream parlour called El Griego Guiñador, another named El Michoacáno). It's noted that the money they bring in is far less than Gus' enterprises, and their fate is left unclear after Hector is paralyzed and unable to manage them (and the people left to care for them in his stead end up being killed shortly afterwards).
179** Dr. Caldera is a BackAlleyDoctor who works as a vet, providing medical services and contact information for the Albuquerque's criminal underworld. However, he takes his job as a vet quite seriously and only sees his criminal activities as a side business, eventually wiping his hands of illegal activities to focus on being a legitimate vet full-time, passing on his criminal contact info to Saul before leaving town for good.
180* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': The covert government demon research/fighting organisation known as The Initiative operates beneath a UC Sunnydale fraternity house, with the soldiers posing as lecturers and senior students. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E13TheKillerInMe The Killer in Me]]", a couple of years after this base is shut down, Buffy tries to get in contact with them by phone, only to get a flower shop on the other end. She then runs into Initiative soldiers in the ruins of their ElaborateUndergroundBase, who make it clear they got her message.
181* ''Series/BurnNotice'':
182** Carla uses one of these as a cover. Michael uses these occasionally, but he prefers private organizations. According to the narration, being in geological fieldwork is a good cover, getting used by multiple people in various episodes.
183** When Michael gets on a semi-friendly relationship with the CIA again, the base of operations is a subsection shared with a more mundane government agency. It's more than just a front or a handy cover ID, as the real reason is simply practical business sense by sharing location costs and having a similar level of security.
184* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': Chuck and Casey's jobs at the Buy More are more or less genuine, but Casey has all sorts of weapons and gadgets hidden around the store, and the ice cream parlor where Sarah works is a front for a secret CIA base. It's not clear if the owners know this; presumably the place is run by the CIA, since Sarah is always away on missions and would probably be fired if it were a real job. Chuck's excuse is that he has to leave the store to answer tech support calls. As of Season 4, the Buy More has been entirely taken over by the CIA and is a full-fledged secret base. However, Morgan convinces General Beckman that people are getting suspicious about how effective the new Buy More staff is, getting her to hire the old, lazy employees back. The store more or less goes back to being a regular one after that, albeit with a secret underground base.
185* ''Series/CovertAffairs'': As far as anyone outside the CIA knows, Annie works for the Smithsonian, and she often uses this as a cover while traveling abroad. In one episode, her niece's class is supposed to take a field trip to the Smithsonian while Annie is on an overseas mission, and Auggie has to smooth things over by giving them a tour.
186* ''Series/DoctorWho''. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace Spearhead from Space]]", it's mentioned that UNIT HQ is pretending to be a branch of the Pensions Dept.
187* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' Barry and Professor Stein approach Jefferson Jackson about being a candidate for Stein to merge with to become Firestorm. They aren't public officials in any sense but in an attempt to keeps things simple at first Barry [[InvokedTrope claims that they are with the "Department of Safety"]] (which doesn't exist, there is a Department of Public Safety) and Stein has to clumsily add that the department is very new, and they don't have a website up yet.
188* ''Series/GetSmart'': Maxwell Smart pretends to be in the greeting card business.
189** He also mentions that, to keep his landlord from getting suspicious about all the attempts on his life, he told him he works for [[IntimidatingRevenueService the IRS]].
190** Max praises the Israeli spy agency "YENTA" for its cover as a delicatessen. It turns out YENTA ''is'' a delicatessen [[InvertedTrope that only does spy work in its slack season]].
191* ''Series/{{Ghosted}}'': To the general public, the [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction Bureau Underground]]'s base of operations in LA is simply the Mid Valley Coat Hanger Company.
192* The Company in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' uses Primatech, a paper company based in Odessa, Texas. Noah Bennett outwardly seems to be a run-of-the-mill manager there.
193* ''Series/{{Intelligence|2006}}'': The protagonist has many front companies, including a shipyard and a lumber business, but his favorite is a strip club called the Chick-A-Dee.
194* The protagonists of ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'' belong to "The Agency", a covert organization that due to defense budget cuts ended up being absorbed by the Department of Fish & Game. In the second season, The Agency ends up being absorbed by several similar unrelated departments, such as the Department of Indian Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Postal Service until finally settling in... the Bureau of Weights and Measures.
195** This becomes awkward in one episode where they go to a physics lab, and the scientists are actually expecting people from BWM to re-calibrate their equipment.
196** On at least one occasion, they are forced to handle cases of their current parent organization, such as when they are sent to a Native American reservation to investigate a murder supposedly committed by Bigfoot while working for the Department of Indian Affairs. As it turns out, [[spoiler:not only is Bigfoot real, but it's invisible too and is suffering from Quicksilver madness]].
197** When going to the Chinese embassy to rescue their agents, the Official introduces himself as from the Department of Fish & Game. The Chinese assume the second part of the name has to do with the Olympics, causing the Official to describe a different meaning of the word "game", including showing horns with his fingers.
198** In one episode they actually managed to leverage being under Fish & Game on paper to be officially involved in the investigation of a foreign dignitary being assassinated. It happened at a nature reserve, and the sniper's bullet by sheer coincidence also struck an endangered species of falcon.
199* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "Impact", The Bradenhurst Corporation officially handles toxic waste near Twenty Nine Palms, CA, but in reality builds UFO-like [=UAVs=] for Uncle Sam.
200* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' plays this [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] in Season 4 with the ATF. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms exists in RealLife; it is an organization within UsefulNotes/AmericanLawEnforcement with a focused scope of authority. In the show, the bureau operates ''vastly'' beyond this scope. Among other things it negotiates FirstContact with the crew of the Lexx, it forcibly maintains the {{Masquerade}}, and even PresidentEvil is merely the puppet of its [[SatanicArchetype director]].
201* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': The Others recruit Juliet through Mittelos Bioscience.
202* ''Series/TheManFromUncle''. U.N.C.L.E. headquarters is located behind Del Floria's Tailor Shop, while another entrance is via The Masque Club. U.N.C.L.E.'s "Section VII: Public Relations and Propaganda" had a charity fundraising group as a front.
203* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
204** In ''Series/AgentCarter'', as far as civilian acquaintances are concerned, Peggy Carter heads to work every day in the Bell Phone Company, which is a cover for the Strategic Scientific Reserve. In Season 2, she moves to LA, and the SSR office there is disguised as a talent agency.
205** ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
206*** In Season 1, Wilson Fisk owns a number of legitimate companies and shell companies to hide the source of his income, investing in real estate and construction. However as Fisk sees himself as a WellIntentionedExtremist seeking to revitalize Hell's Kitchen (at least in Season One), it's meant as more than just a means of money laundering.
207*** The Hand in Season 2 are hiding behind the face of Asano, Japanese branch of the Roxxon Corporation.
208** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes has a number of fronts to his name, including real estate holdings, and his nightclub Harlem's Paradise. Harlem's Paradise is enough of a money-spinner that [[CutLexLuthorACheck Cottonmouth could still remain afloat even after losing his other criminal assets]].
209* In ''Series/TheMiddleman'', the title character and Wendy do this, such as claiming to be from Sanitation in the first episode and climatologists in the second. RuleOfFunny is the operating factor, as in another episode, the heavily [=WASPy=] Middleman claims he, and Latina Wendy, are Mossad agents. (Then again, [[FridgeBrilliance Mossad undoubtedly has agents who don't look recognizably Israeli/Jewish]]...) Also, Wendy's family and friends think she works for the Jolly Fats Weehauken Temp Agency. In fact, even the Middlemen [[CutShort claim not to know]] who they work for. They just came up with the acronym OTS2K (Organization Too Secret To Know) to use when referring to the organization employing them.
210* {{Parodied|Trope}} in the ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' "Mr. Neutron" sketch. The U.S. government had F.E.A.R. (Federal Egg Answering Room) as a front group for F.E.E.B.L.E. (the Free world Extra-Earthly Bodies Location and Extermination centre).
211* ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'': The heroes operate out of a pizza place whose one normal employee doesn't know what's going on for quite some time.
212* ''Series/ThePretender'': The Centre pretends to be a think-tank as a front for their research and dubious business deals.
213* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'': The Village, where Number 6 and the others are imprisoned, passes for an eccentric holiday resort.
214* The covert agency that employs the titular characters of ''Series/ScarecrowAndMrsKing'' is secreted within a film production company, reached through a closet that's actually the agency's front door.
215* ''Series/SpecialUnit2'':
216** The eponymous Special Unit uses a dry cleaners for cover. The actual base is located in an abandoned subway station under the dry cleaners.
217** In one episode, a guy tries to rob the place with a handgun. Cue all the undercover cops taking out their oversized guns in a scene reminiscent of ''Film/RoboCop3''.
218* ''Series/StargateSG1'': The Stargate program has the official cover of "deep-space radar telemetry". When Carter claims she's doing astronomy in an ''underground'' bunker, she gets some funny looks. [[BunnyEarsLawyer O'Neill]] or [[ScaryBlackMan Teal'c]] claiming likewise elicits outright disbelief. It also serves as a MythologyGag. In the [[Film/{{Stargate}} original movie]], they mention using radar to track the end of the wormhole; you can still see the mapping device in the show a few times.
219* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
220** In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', the Federation's covert black ops group is known by the benign name 'Section 31' and its agents masquerade as working for any of Starfleet's security divisions. Slightly subverted in that this cover only fools other Federation citizens. The Romulan Tal Shiar is well aware of the agency's real name and purpose... which is exactly what Section 31 wants. [[BatmanGambit It's a long story.]] Ironically, Section 31 operates as something more akin to a rogue agency than any kind of legitimate intelligence agency, and routinely uses the Federation's legitimate intelligence service (Starfleet Intelligence) as a mundane cover.
221** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' has [[TimePolice an organization of temporal agents]] from the 31st century. Their front man on ''Enterprise'', Daniels, serves as Captain Archer's personal steward because it puts him near the man he was assigned to watch while allowing him to fly under everyone else's radar.
222* ''Series/StrangerThings'':
223** Officially, the Hawkins National Laboratory is a research center run by the Department of Energy, which leads most people to assume it is fairly uninteresting (Dustin initially thinks they "design lightbulbs or something"). However, it becomes clear the research they do, such as using Eleven's telekinesis and mind reading to access alternate dimensions and monitor Soviet officials, involves multiple higher-ranking government agencies than the DOE. It has military police (US Army) providing security, and the badge that Connie Frazier shows to the Wheelers suggests she works for the NSA, which could also explain the phone bugging (not exactly within the Dept. of Energy's remit). The entire venture also likely has CIA backing (what with the whole thing being an offshoot of the classic MKULTRA experiments).
224** The government field agents use vans marked "Hawkins Power And Light" to drive around town and carry out surveillance without getting too much attention.
225* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' Three's main entrance is in the back of a Cardiff Tourist Bureau.
226* ''Series/TrueLies2023'':
227** Harry appears to work for Telynox Solutions, a run-of-the-mill computer company that's a front for Omega Sector. Banter between Harry and a desk assistant indicates that the front office staff honestly believe they're working for a computer company and have no idea this is a government spy agency.
228** "Working Vacation" confirms most of the office staff is unaware the annual company retreat in Mexico is a cover for Omega Sector brass meeting. Thus, when the resort is attacked, Maria has to keep employees safe and unaware of what's happening.
229* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich", the mob boss Nino Lancaster uses Nino's Toys & Imports at the docks as a cover for his smuggling operation.
230* ''Series/UFO1970'': SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization) operates under the cover of a film studio.
231* The team from ''Series/TheUnit'' use the cover of being in logistics. To be fair, though, they do in fact do logistical work -- in fact, one episode begins with Brown being tested in such. However, the cover is entirely believable; no one ever questions why the obviously badass soldiers are working in logistics, they simply believe, or are told by someone and ''then'' believe, that the operators have ''earned'' safe, cushy desk jobs after serving multiple tours in the Middle East as part of the regular Army. This cover does falter at times. One episode has the newest recruit SFC Bob Brown's young daughter Serena blabbing that [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes "my father shoots bad guys"]]. This alarms some senior officials, since the Unit's cover is a non-combatant clerical unit, forcing Bob and his wife to teach Serena to lie about what he does. Another episode has Unit operator Hector Williams' new girlfriend's retired [[SergeantRock Senior NCO]] dad [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect showing disdain to him due to him officially being a logistics clerk]]. The guy then suddenly starts being buddy-buddy with Hector, upon being subtly informed of his actual job. This sudden change makes the girlfriend a little suspicious. When he admits his cover, she dumps him, because she wanted someone who'd leave the Army and settle into a stable civilian job. A logistics clerk has transferable skills, while a "gunfighter" doesn't.
232* ''Series/Warehouse13'':
233** The eponymous artifact-collecting Warehouse was officially operated by the Secret Service, and they get somebody giving them trouble over it about OnceAnEpisode. RealityIsUnrealistic in this case: protecting the President is the most well-known duty of the Secret Service, but they were originally the enforcement arm of the US Treasury, among other things. (In 2003, the Secret Service was moved from Treasury to Homeland Security, though they still investigate financial crimes and provide security for Treasury.)
234** Warehouse 13 itself is out in a remote part of South Dakota and is officially an IRS warehouse. Good cover, except that everyone in the small town [[IntimidatingRevenueService hates]] the protagonists.
235** The Regents, the secret society that really runs the Warehouse, make use of underground facilities hidden beneath places as mundane as grocery stores, and host meetings in diners run by several of their members.
236* ''Series/TheWire'':
237** The Barksdale Organization initially operates out of Orlando's, a strip club, and have a problem with the Front's owner, Orlando, wanting to get into drug dealing for more income, when they need someone to run the club with a clean criminal record. After Avon is arrested, Stringer runs the operation out of a funeral home.
238** The Greek's associate Spiros almost always meets his drug dealer associates at a dingy Greek diner that never seems to have any clientele except for an old man who just sits at the counter reading a newspaper. It turns out [[spoiler:that "customer" is the Greek himself]].
239** Proposition Joe runs his drug empire out of his appliance repair shop. He actually does repair appliances for people in his community, though he notes that modern society is too wasteful to actually make appliance repair profitable. He does the work because he actually enjoys it.
240* ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}'': "Lifeguard" (Vinnie Terranova's MissionControl) answers the telephone as "Sailor Hardware", run by Vinnie's "Uncle Mike".
241[[/folder]]
242
243[[folder:Manhua]]
244* ''Manhua/HitoriNoShitaTheOutcast'': One of the secret Outsider factions operates using a public front company: Express Delivery, a delivery service.
245[[/folder]]
246
247[[folder:Pinballs]]
248* TheSyndicate in Creator/{{Capcom}}'s unreleased ''Pinball/{{Kingpin}}'' operate out of the Hotel Lex.
249* ''Pinball/TheSopranos'' has both the Bada Bing! strip club and Satriale's Pork Store.
250[[/folder]]
251
252[[folder:Radio]]
253* ''Radio/AnotherCaseOfMiltonJones''. Inevitably, Milton suspects the National Trust of being a front. For the National Front. (They aren't, but they are sinister.)
254* In ''Radio/{{Nebulous}}'', K.E.N.T.'s cover is that they're a laundry. Much to Professor Nebulous's annoyance, their sponsors in the Government seem more inclined to buy equipment for the laundry than for eco-troubleshooting operations.
255[[/folder]]
256
257[[folder:Roleplay]]
258* ''Roleplay/AGeeksGuideCorporationOfOccultResearchAndExtermination'': CORE hides its activities behind a variety of normal businesses, which doubles at their primary budget source.
259[[/folder]]
260
261[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
262* ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' has the Canadian black-ops anti-occult organization known as M-EPIC. The "EPIC" in M-EPIC stands for ''Environment Policy Impact Comission'' and it's officially and publicly part of the Department of Environment attached to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The group uses this cover so they can easily secure any rubber stamps from the Parliament and investigate anywhere without many questions.
263* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' has Task Force VALKYRIE, the high-priority special ops group that deals with supernatural incursions. Like the Secret Service, they're based out of the Treasury Department.
264* Every single conspiracy in ''TabletopGame/PsionicsTheNextStageInHumanEvolution'' maintains mundane fronts for their psionic super soldiers, who are waging a shadow war right under the noses of the public.
265* ''TabletopGame/TalesFromTheLoop'': In theory, "Riksenergi" is a state-run power company. It is, however, the world's worst kept secret that it is in fact a cutting-edge STEM research think-tank, and that it's main mission is operating the titular Loop, a massive particle accelerator hidden underneath a Stockholm exurb.
266[[/folder]]
267
268[[folder:Theater]]
269* ''The Hairy Ape'': {{Subverted|Trope}} -- Yank goes to a meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World, expecting it to be a front for an organization that achieves its goals by blowing things up. The people there assume that he is a government spy trying to entrap their genuinely legitimate organization when he approaches them, and kick him out.
270[[/folder]]
271
272[[folder:Theme Parks]]
273* In ''Ride/MenInBlackAlienAttack'' at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Florida]], the MIB headquarters entrance this time around is disguised as a World's Fair pavilion, called "The Universe and You".
274[[/folder]]
275
276[[folder:Video Games]]
277* Season 2 of ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'' features a sinister rogue government conspiracy who have their secret base hidden in a spa. Give them points for trying; Bruce enters to scope the place out and the dangerous operatives start telling him about the massages they have on offer.
278* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries'', the Brotherhood of Nod had operated through various proxies and organizations like the Black Hand for much of its existence. This is most evident during ''Tiberian Dawn'', with Nod using terrorist activities, making black market deals through shell companies, and playing up being an anti-imperialist movement. It largely drops the act afterwards, though it still tries to mask its less savory actions through propaganda campaigns and espionage by ''Tiberium Wars''.
279* In ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'', the Federal Bureau of Control, the US ArtifactCollectionAgency, claims to the people LockedOutOfTheLoop that it exists purely as a liaison office for various other federal agencies.
280* ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'': The base for Jensen's task force is hidden underneath a nondescript store run by a kindly old lady.
281* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
282** In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', the player can search the ruins of two corporations, L.O.B. Enterprises and Mama Dolce's, in the post-nuclear war Washington, D.C. and find that they were fronts for Chinese espionage and commando operations before the war. The former was being used to manufacture a pistol that shot incendiary rounds and the latter still has Chinese commandos, now ghoulified, using it as a base.
283** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', there's an old secret [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction DIA]] command center called the Switchboard located in the basement of a Slocum Joe's doughnut shop. The Slocum Joe's corporation itself is a legitimate company, and several other Slocum Joe's franchises can be found elsewhere in the Commonwealth which do not contain any secret government bases. At least, none that the player can find.
284** In ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', the entrance to one of the game's nuclear missile silos is disguised as a cargo elevator in a processing factory. Terminal entries found in the factory imply that the pre-war US government subsidized the factory's operations and maintained a bare minimum of activity to keep up appearances. The game also features another Chinese base (a military intelligence bunker) under the local Mama Dolce's factory, though unlike the commando base in ''Fallout 3'', this one was wiped out by the Enclave after the war.
285* The [[StateSec secret service]] player runs in the game ''VideoGame/Floor13'' is officially a part of the Home Office Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
286* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' has the United Liberty Paper which is a cover for an unrevealed government agency, headed by [[TheSpook a mysterious man]] [[ShoutOut wearing]] [[Series/{{Heroes}} horn-rimmed glasses]]. They apparently are a black-ops organisation judging by the type of assassinations they blackmail Niko into making. ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' reveals that this organization was a front company for the IAA, a GovernmentAgencyOfFiction with an InterServiceRivalry with the FIB.
287* In ''VideoGame/{{Inscryption}}'', the ARG reveals [=GameFuna=] is a government front created for the purpose of [[spoiler:decoding and analyzing the OLD_DATA acquired from Hitler's corpse]]. The developers assigned to the ''Inscryption'' game development were kept in the dark on the true purpose of the project.
288* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', the Bumani Exchange Corporation in the space station above Telos is a poorly-concealed front for [[TheSyndicate the Exchange]]. It's poorly concealed in part because of, and for, being an OpenSecret among the station's leadership for when they need a friend in extralegal business; and the Exchange has worked with enough discretion to avoid an investigation by the authorities.
289* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'':
290** In the first ''VideoGame/MaxPayne1'', the title character infiltrates the Cold Steel Foundry at the start of the third act, a facility which Max notes is "a perfect front for all kinds of illegal activities." It turns out to hide [[spoiler:a top-secret military bunker called the Deep Six, which is the home of Project Valhalla and Valkyr]].
291** In ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'', "Squeaky Cleaners" are a bunch of hitmen serving as the BigBad's private army. This has a further practical aspect in that [[CleanupCrew the cleaning equipment helps remove bodies, blood and otherwise clean up the aftermath of killings]].
292* In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', SEES; practically TheMenInBlack investigating and hunting monsters formed out of the human subconscious stationed in a high school are officially listed as an unnamed extracurricular group that arranges activities for its alumni, which are also double-excuses to train them with weapons.
293* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
294** In the original games, the criminal organization Team Rocket runs the Rocket Game Corner and Viridian City Gym. This is played completely straight in the game, despite Team Rocket having constructed a secret base beneath the casino, through which they must enter. Considering that Team Rocket members wear all-black matching uniforms wherever they go, this may be enough to raise suspicions of corruption or willful blindness on the part of the police.
295** Team Galactic in the fourth-generation games uses the cover of being a research center into alternate forms of energy production. This is a bit more plausible, as despite their nefarious goals, they don't do a whole lot of obvious crime, so mostly they just get funny looks from other people for their uniforms.
296** Team Flare passes themselves off as a fashion cult who are harmless aside from the truly abhorrent amount of money you need to pay to join. Their leader Lysandre never even openly associates with Team Flare and doesn't even run his secret base near the HQ of Lysandre Labs, his legit company, instead having a hidden underground base located elsewhere. [[spoiler:Even when they are revealed to be a Pokémon-abusing terrorist corporation to the world, they just let that label stick for a while so that they can focus on their true ([[OmnicidalManiac and much worse]]) goals.]]
297* The Milkman Conspiracy from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' uses a [[GirlScoutsAreEvil cookie-selling girl scout organization]] for cover.
298* In ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' and its associated media, including anime and movies, the Takarazuka Revue hosts an elite unit of demon-fighting badasses under the cover of a theatre troupe.
299* In ''VideoGame/TheSinkingCity'', the town of Oakmont has a charity called EOD which stands for "Everyone's Obvious Duty (is to help each other)" (they had to shorten the last part). Most of the members come from the neigbouring town of Innsmouth, home of the Esoteric Order of Dagon.
300* RED and BLU in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' have several of these, and might be considered to be front companies themselves since even though they claim to be demolition and construction companies respectively, they've basically turned into [=PMCs=].
301* In ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}}'', in order to make the Secret Police building, you just have to designate an already built structure (bar, restaurant, theater, etc.), then it will be converted into the agents' base of operations. Their job description includes lots of wiretapping, preventing assassinations and [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial swearing all the time that the place is not the Secret Police HQ]].
302* In ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', the Ventrue prince of Los Angelos rules from a skyscraper named Venture Tower (notice that the name is a misspelling that is still easily recognizable to any newly arrived Kindred who needs to know where the local prince is based), which hosts a number of high-class banking and corporate offices, all of which serve as a cover for him.
303* ''VideoGame/WayOfTheSamurai4'' has the Shogunate-aligned "Black Mask" covert ops/assassination group. Their front? The [[spoiler:Toasty Truth Bar]], which is also ironically the favorite haunt of the anti-government rebels Disciples of Prajna. In fact, one of the finer plot points is to discover that you've been fed false information if you play the Prajna route.
304[[/folder]]
305
306[[folder:Visual Novels]]
307* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', [[spoiler:both Alice and Clover]] are secret agents of the Department of Defense. Their [[VaporWear outlandish outfits]]... tell a different story, because "the less they look what they are, the better".
308[[/folder]]
309
310[[folder:Web Originals]]
311* In ''Podcast/AliceIsntDead'', the narrator works as a long haul [[IntrepidMerchant truck driver]] for Bay & Creek Shipping, to {{Exploit|ed}} the job's mobility in her search for her missing wife Alice. That company, in particular, featured heavily in Alice's scattered documentation of TheConspiracy she'd been investigating shortly before her disappearance. According to the Narrator's alternately wry or bored audio diaries, it hauls thoroughly mundane cargo like travel-sized deodorant and paper products.
312* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' short story "[[https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/dooms-day-hour-one-full-story-read-now-sooz-kempner-james-goss Doom's Day: Hour One]]", the Lesser Order of Oberon is a MurderInc organisation based in an anonymous grey office building, in a city filled with anonymous grey office buildings, on a fairly anonymous and grey planet. The ''entire city'' was secretly built to conceal the Order's offices.
313* In ''WebVideo/KateModern'', the Order's covers are the Hymn of One and St. Grinstead Psychiatric Research Institution.[[note]]Absolutely no relation to Scientology, which has its UK headquarters in the town of East Grinstead.[[/note]]
314* The Order of Denderah in ''WebVideo/{{lonelygirl15}}'' uses the Hymn of One, Verdus Phamaceuticals, the Wyman Foundation, the Lullaby Project, Bio-Therapy Report LLC and Sacred Spirit.
315* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' has several [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-fronts front organizations]]. They usually have [[FunWithAcronyms names with initials that spell out "SCP"]], like ''Soap from Corpses Products inc'' and ''Spicy Crust Pizza''.
316* In ''WebVideo/SMPLive'', Schlatt & Co.'s ordinary looking coffee shop is a front for an illegal drug operation.
317[[/folder]]
318
319[[folder:Western Animation]]
320* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', when a CIA agent answers the phone:
321-->''"Top-secret CIA [[WeatherManipulation Weather Control]] Division. Dick speaking. [[VerbalBackspace I mean]], ''PIZZA STORE!''"''
322* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': The ISIS building literally has a Laundromat as a front for their office building, with the elevator to the office hidden in behind some industrial washing machines. It gets converted into a bar when the agency hits hard times.
323* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the secret police force of the Earth Kingdom capital, the Dai Li, is officially known as the Ministry of Cultural Heritage Preservation.
324* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'': Ben's grandad belongs to the Plumbers, an MIB-like organization. In the latter series, it's revealed that they're basically the Galactic Police, with ''every government on Earth'' respecting their authority in situations involving aliens. We eventually see the Earth headquarters; it's an ElaborateUndergroundBase hidden beneath the unassuming Max's Plumbing shop, accessible by a hidden elevator.
325* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E8TheReturn The Return]]", Lex Luthor has a secret bunker [[BaldOfEvil ironically]] located underneath a barbershop. Equally bald hero Steel does point out that it's the last place anyone would look for Luthor. His tone suggests that he's equal parts impressed by the idea, angry that he didn't think of it, and drumming up plans for his own HQ in a Metropolis Barbershop (the Steel Works, last seen in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', is a rather conspicuous old steel mill).
326* The idea is invoked by Dale as a bluff in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': when he and his friends are captured by Mad Dog, an unhinged member of Arlen's gun club, it turns out that Dale has apparently called the CIA -- who, earlier in the episode, he claimed to have worked with as a mercenary -- to deal with Mad Dog and that they'll be arriving incognito soon, faking that he's wearing a wire and communicating with them to give the signal. It's actually just a flower delivery service, which was a key detail in his story, but he plays it up that they really ''are'' the CIA to get Mad Dog to run away without a fight.
327* In ''WesternAnimation/MaxSteel'', the spy agency N-Tek's building manufactures and sells sports equipment.
328* In ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'', the agents are officially working for the Department of Weights And Measures. The cover they give always takes the form: "<Situationally-Appropriate Government Agency>, Division Six", so they've been hotel inspectors, immigration, coast guard, and a host of others.
329* ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'': In "Going off the Sheep End", General Specific and his soldiers disguise their so-called "Top Secret Military Base" as a bakery. They accomplish this by doing nothing more than covering up the "-se" on their sign with "-kery".
330* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
331** {{Parodied|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E4BartTheMurderer Bart the Murderer]]" with [[SpiesInAVan intelligence agency vans]] disguised as "Two Guys from Quantico Pizza" and "'''F'''lowers '''B'''y '''I'''rene".
332** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper Brother's Little Helper]]", it is revealed that Major League Baseball is actually a secret organization that spies on Americans using everything from satellites to miniature cameras hidden in baseball bats.
333[[/folder]]
334
335[[folder:Real Life]]
336* ''Completely'' averted in the case of real-life [=MI6=], whose headquarters is a very nice building on the river Thames that is actually listed in guidebooks as the headquarters of British Intelligence. However, if you ask the front desk, they will insist that they are simply part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Which they are, incidentally--C (the Chief of [=MI6=]) reports to the Foreign Secretary.
337* Contrary to [[OvertOperative certain media]], most Intelligence Officers ([[InsistentTerminology "spies" work for the]] ''[[InsistentTerminology enemy]]'') take advantage of [[DiplomaticImpunity diplomatic immunity]] by officially being the "Assistant Press Attache" or a similar non-job in an embassy. They'll usually be operating under their real name, too; "cover" doesn't so much mean lying about who you are than lying about what you do (especially these days, when not appearing on Google, Facebook, etc. can seem really odd and raise red flags--best to lie about as little as possible). The largest problem of such a system is that if the embassy is closed, so too are most of the spies in the country.
338** Three quarters of the people in Soviet embassies were spies – with every single one in the military section being a GRU officer, and most of the remaining quarter working for KGB in their free time. The sole exception to the above was often the Military Attache himself, who was often an older man, not always in perfect sound mind, but with a chestful of medals won in World War II. He literally did nothing – not secret, not open – except participate in memorial ceremonies. One of the Soviet military attaches in Canada in TheEighties didn't even bother with that; he acted like his posting was a never-ending vacation. The scuttlebutt of the time was that he had something on someone, and given his standing and great age, maybe he did.
339** Just before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, [[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService British intelligence]] used passport control officers as spies as it was a position that generally wasn't very busy. [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Given what was occurring in Europe at the time]], there was suddenly an influx of people wanting to emigrate from Germany at the exact same time that their services as intelligence gatherers was needed the most. As a result they created a second one of these, the Z organization: a network of business contacts throughout Europe that would operate independently of the embassy system.
340** A CIA officer's cover (whether working abroad or at headquarters) might be (theoretically) assigned not only to the usual suspects (Department of State, Defense, Homeland Security) but also some weirder ones (e.g. [[Film/CharlieWilsonsWar Department of Agriculture]], Department of Commerce, and ''yes'', perhaps even the Bureau of Weights and Measures), as well as private US corporations (not naming names) that have agreed to let the CIA use them for cover. Similarly, an SIS officer might easily be assigned to a quango with business abroad (the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Council British Council]] in any country is notorious for being riddled with spies--probably even more so than even the British Embassy) or at home (if working at Vauxhall Cross). During the Vietnam War, the CIA ran a charter airline, Air America, to support covert CIA operations all over Southeast Asia.
341*** One of the few exceptions: You will never, ''ever'' find a CIA officer under Peace Corps cover. ''EVER.'' That would detract from the legitimacy of the Peace Corps (goes the argument), and so if you want to serve in both the Peace Corps and the CIA, you have to do your two years at the Peace Corps, wait ''five whole years'', and then you can ''apply''. Applications to join the CIA take at least six months to process. If you have ''any'' current or former employment in the CIA, you are permanently ineligible for service in the Peace Corps.
342*** The only reason many countries allow the Peace Corps in is because they're emphatically ''not'' a CIA front. Ever. If the CIA tried to use the Peace Corps as a front and got caught, it would mean the Peace Corps would be pulled from those countries, the US would take a terrible diplomatic blow, and a bunch of innocent, skilled, and altruistic people would get hurt, arrested, and/or killed. It's just not worth it, especially when there are much more discreet alternatives.
343* Israel's (only known) nuclear plant is officially a textile factory, although it's reached the point where, after the disguise stopped working in the seventies, they don't even cover it up any more.
344* Subverted when the United States bombed a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory in 1999 that turned out to be ... [[NiceJobBreakingItHero a completely innocuous pharmaceutical factory]].
345* The US Secret Service used to be this way. They were originally part of the United States Department of the Treasury and tasked with tracking and catching counterfeit currency. Then in 1901 the Treasury agents were given the job of protecting the President of the United States and a long list of other people in reaction to the assassination of UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley, which is the public image of the Secret Service these days. Since 2003 they've been shifted over to the Department of Homeland Security, so the trope no longer applies, although the job of chasing counterfeiters is still within their jurisdiction.\
346\
347As for how the Treasury Department ended up providing body guards for the President? Well, a couple of reasons:
348## At that time, it was one of only two civilian federal law-enforcement agencies, the other being the US Marshals. The Marshals, however, were tightly linked to the judiciary; though they are part of the Department of Justice (and therefore formally ultimately take orders from the President), their job revolves around the courts: guarding courtrooms and courthouses, enforcing judgments, serving process, that sort of thing. If it didn't more or less directly involve litigation, the Marshals were generally not inclined to get involved if they could help it. On the other hand, the Treasury Department had for many years routinely loaned out Secret Service agents to other federal departments for investigative tasks, the agency was really the most obvious choice.
349## At the time the need was identified, their office happened to be across the street from the White House. (And still is--the Treasury Department building is at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, and is still used as the headquarters of the Treasury.)
350* Some 9/11 conspiracy theorists claim that the NIST evaluation of and whitepaper about the WTC 7 collapse was doctored by the government to obscure the evidence of explosives/thermite/nanothermite/whatever {{Unobtanium}} the theorists think was used this week. NIST is the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Their domain literally involves weights and measures.
351* India's main secret intelligence agency has the innocuous-sounding title "Research and Analysis Wing."
352* An acronym no doubt familiar to anyone who has played ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'', the main wet work program in the Vietnam War was titled MACV-SOG... Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group. (This one might have renamed more than anything for greater palatability on the home front; the original official gloss for "SOG" was "Special Operations Group", and it's doubtful anyone involved was expecting the change of name to fool the North Vietnamese.)
353* The US atomic bomb program began within the Bureau of Standards (predecessor of the aforementioned NIST). After it was transferred to the Army's Corps of Engineers, it was renamed the "Manhattan District", following the form of the Corps' many civil engineering divisions.
354** Before that point, the British research on atomic weapons was code-named "Tube Alloys" or "[[Creator/MyrnaLoy Myrna]] [[PunnyName Alloys]]", while the creation of the first nuclear reactor (necessary for the transmutation of uranium into plutonium), was handled by the "Metallurgical Laboratory" at the University of Chicago.
355* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Association_of_Hiking,_Sports_and_Society Austrian Association of Hiking, Sports and Society Club]] was a CIA-funded paramilitary group created to engange in guerilla warfare in case Austria had a communist takeover or a Soviet invasion. Part of the stay-behind networks created by NATO, such as Operation Gladio.
356* The British Army's Special Air Service is believed to have a long-standing secret arrangement with British Airways. If the SAS wants to discreetly move uninspected cargo on BA planes anywhere in the world, or even parachute troops from cargo flights just slightly off their normal routes, the pilots and crews won't ask questions.
357* An increasing number of secretive, tier-one US military special operations units are using innocuous or obscure names. The Navy SEAL counter-terrorist unit formerly known as SEAL Team Six (the one that killed Osama bin Laden) changed its name to "Naval Special Warfare Development Group" (DEVGRU) in 1987, and is now operating under the even more inconspicuous name "Naval Special Warfare Development Group" (NSWDG). 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), more popularly known as "Delta Force," has gone through a few name changes -- such as "Combat Applications Group" (CAG) -- and is now "Army Compartmentalized Elements" (ACE). The folks who collect all the field intelligence these kinds of groups need before they conduct a mission is an Army unit simply called "Intelligence Support Activity," or "The Activity."
358* Name of one of the, if not the, best special force units? [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Air_Service Special Air Service]], which if not for its fame would sound more like a delivery company name or a military unit that serviced aircraft.
359* David Stirling, one of the founders of the SAS, also founded a television distribution company in Africa, Television International Enterprises, to not only serve as a means to keep spreading British culture (they were the [[http://doctorwhoworldwide.com/2013/11/16/the-wild-geese-david-stirling-and-the-secret-life-of-television-international-enterprises/ African distributor of]] ''Series/DoctorWho'') but also as cover for a ''mercenary company''.
360* When anti-capitalist groups staged protests in London in the 1980s, hoping to disrupt the operations of the Stock Exchange, [[DidntThinkThisThrough their attempts failed because much of the actual work of transferring and registering stocks and shares took place in anonymous offices in side streets]].
361* The Indian Navy’s special forces, the MARCOS (Marine Commandos), officially are designated as either submarine crewmen or salvage divers. Official policy is that even their families must be kept in the dark.
362* During the Cold War, Russian Spetsnaz (Special Forces) units were frequently identified as "Auxiliary Communications Units" in military documention.
363* In the United Kingdom, the government-owned rail freight company Direct Rail Services had a pretty unassuming and generic name. Its founding purpose was the transportation of active nuclear materials and waste, often accompanied by a carriage of heavily-armed police. This "masquerade", if it can be considered one, is helped by the fact that DRS locomotives were also often enlisted to help with regular freight and passenger services. This was ultimately {{Averted}} in 2021, when the company was renamed to the more self-explanatory "Nuclear Transport Services".
364* Part of the original Moscow–Washington hotline ran through Finland. [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Hotline_sign_in_finland.jpg Signs marking the location of the hotline's cables]] were stamped with "Post and Telegraph Department", the same stamp applied to signs marking the location of the ordinary cables for the country's national telephone service.
365* UsefulNotes/NaziGermany had the Metallurgische Forschungsgesellschaft (Metallurgical Research Association), better known by the abbreviation MEFO. As a shell company, its true purpose was to hide weapon purchases and rearmament programs from international parties enforcing the Treaty of Versailles, and to fund those same purchases via issuing supposedly private bonds. The scheme was extremely fragile and reliant on amounting massive amounts of debt, and it isn't a complete coincidence that the outbreak of World War II happened not long after the company's bonds started to mature.
366* Owing to the large number of Chinese diaspora at any given time and place, successive Chinese governments and/or groups trying to overthrow them have established foreign fronts to influence the diaspora. While not as important now as in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar era, when nearly every overseas Chinese organization is either a front of Beijing or Taipei's, the tradition continues: The Overseas Police Stations (海外服务站), better known as the Overseas 110 (海外110), are buildings set-up by operatives from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (i.e. the Police) to exert their reach from outside China. On the outside, they aim to provide aid for overseas Chinese living there (such as passports, documents, and driver's licenses) -- on the inside, their mission is to apprehend Chinese dissidents living overseas (using the designation "Operation Fox Hunt").
367[[/folder]]

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