E-DULTERY
Does your spouse or significant other mysteriously turn off the computer whenever you enter the room? Do you suspect you're living with a cybercheater who's trolling chat rooms to engage in illicit romance? In a recent poll by Women.com, 36 percent of respondents said engaging in a "hot chat" is equivalent to having an affair.
Enter Elizabeth Field, the 25-year-old founder of Infidelity Busters (www.infidelitybusters.com), a decoy-for-hire service which, for 100 bucks, will smoke out your no-good cheater of a partner. While the suspect uses Instant Messenger, Field will try to lure him or her into a steamy chat and arrange a secret rendezvous (which never takes place). She'll then forward a transcript of the exchange to the suspecting party, usually within 72 hours, along with a brief analysis.
Field isn't a certified counselor - by day she works in the finance department of her dad's car dealership. But she's read enough women's magazines to be savvy in the ways of love. "From all my Cosmopolitan and Glamour training," she says, analyzing one customer's dilemma, "I could see the woman needed some help in the sex department. I said, 'Buy a black nightie and cook a good meal.'"
Field, who is dating a cop, insists what she does isn't entrapment. "I'm not pressing my breasts up against them. They could say, 'I'm busy.'" She has both male and female clients, and in the five months the site has been up, she says no client has complained.
How far will Field go to catch a philanderer? A colleague submitted my chat handle along with a profile of a man suspected of cheating - a beer-swilling, T&A-loving piece of trash. Field IMed me some 24 hours later and quickly tried to tap into my baser instincts.
Using the handle Tie-me-up-n-spank-me2, "Libby" said she was a bartender who was into "riding the roller coaster," and she wasn't shy about mentioning her DD-sized breasts. ("In real life, I'm a B," Field later confessed.) She told me she was wearing a thong and that she masturbates at her computer and wants to be spanked, hence the screen name. My hottest reply: "I'm 30, but I work out."
After 20 minutes, with Field's bang for flat-rate buck dropping, she dramatically cut to the chase: "I wish you were here to jack me off! Top or bottom or ... doggy style." I didn't take the bait, but chatting as long as we did sealed my fate. The verdict? Guilty of cyberflirtation.
As a detective service, Infidelity Busters clearly has some rough edges, but the transcript Field sent me is probably worth the 100 bucks.
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