The 'loyalty testers' who can check a partner's fidelity

If someone suspects their partner is cheating on them then help could be a few clicks away.

"Loyalty testers" have taken the honey trap online. For a modest fee, suspicious people can hire someone to "flood" their partner's direct messages and see if they will take the bait, reported Sky News.

A typical 'mission'

When Savanna Harrison, 27, was cheated on she decided to help other women avoid the same hurt she went through. She started working for a company called Lazo, which markets itself as a "tool designed to see intentions and let go of toxic relationships", said Sky.

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Harrison performs dozens of loyalty tests a month on people – usually men – who are suspected of cheating on their partners. A typical "mission" sees her message her client's partner, using tailored "details" which the client has suggested. She might tell the man she's seen him in his favourite bar, or she'll pretend to accidentally send him direct messages and photos. 

A small percentage of men targeted this way immediately shut down the tester, but "roughly 70 per cent take the bait", said The Cut.

During the test, which typically lasts around five days, she'll be updating her client, with screenshots of the incriminating conversations. She might even arrange a date with the boyfriend. She won't turn up to – but sometimes the girlfriend or wife will.

Although some suspicious partners try to do the catfishing themselves, the company's team believe having "emotional distance from the cheater" makes it much easier to dupe them. Loyal tests usually cost between $50 and $80 (£37.50 to £60) but the fee can range from checker to checker, with some demanding over $100 (£75).

Moral boundaries

But should partners even be trying to dupe each other? The history of "honey-trapping goes back a long way" and is "not a new invention with social media", Dr Julia Carter, a senior lecturer in sociology specialising in marriage and relationships told Grazia.  Ethically, it might not be too far from hiring a real-life detective to uncover infidelity. But social media "allows and enables a more public invasion of privacy", so "we are still in the process of working out where our moral and ethical boundaries fit with its use".

A relationship expert told Sky News that it "would be much better" for suspicious partners to "talk about why they feel insecure in the relationship", rather than testing them this way.

"It's about saying: 'There's something wrong with us, what's happening?'", said Marian O'Connor, consultant couple and psychosexual therapist at Tavistock Relationships. "That is the important thing, not to catch them out."

But Ashlyn Nakasu, community manager at Lazo, insists it is a "misconception" that the company is "here to entrap people". Loyalty tests are just a "final kick in the butt" to let someone know they're with the wrong person, she added.