Caden Redmond, a college student in West Palm Beach, Fla., was on TikTok in April flirting with a woman living in South America. While writing to her via direct message, he told her he had never been to her home country but was planning a trip soon.<\/p>\n
The conversation was going smoothly. He asked if she would show him around when he arrived; she said that would be cool. He called her cute, and she called him cute back. At one point, she said she \u201ccan\u2019t wait\u201d for him to get there.<\/p>\n
Moments later, he took screenshots of their conversation, blocked the woman\u2019s account and sent the images to her boyfriend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just texted him and was like, \u2018Hey, she said she wants to go out,\u2019\u201d Mr. Redmond said in a phone interview. \u201cI sent him screenshots and he said, \u2018OK, that\u2019s enough, thank you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Redmond, 19, was hired by the man to test his girlfriend\u2019s loyalty, and according to him, she failed, leading her boyfriend to dump her. All the arrangements to lay the trap were made through Loyalty-Test, a service that allows people to hire \u201ctesters\u201d to flirt with their significant others online to see whether they respond to the romantic advances or remain faithful.<\/p>\n
Mr. Redmond charges $100 a test and has conducted five since joining the site this spring. Sometimes it takes just one DM exchange; other times it\u2019s two to three days of online conversation: He determines what is included in his flat fee on a case-by-case basis. He only tests women, he said, and he doesn\u2019t share any sexually explicit messages or private information of his customers and wouldn\u2019t conduct tests on behalf of anyone he knows personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t aim to make people cheat,\u201d said Mr. Redmond, who is a running back for Keiser University\u2019s football team and a TikTok and Instagram creator. \u201cI just do it because I\u2019ve been cheated on, and I feel like if someone wants to know, they should know from someone who is actually not going to take their girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s part of the job: Never follow through,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Since beginning in January, Loyalty-Test has brought aboard 30 testers \u2014 like ride-share drivers, they are free to take on as many or as few clients as they wish \u2014 and has been used by roughly 1,000 anxious customers who are unsure about their partners\u2019 loyalty, according to Brandan Balasingham, 27, the website\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n
In a chaotic dating ecosystem made all the more unpredictable by how easily accessible we are to thousands online, it might not be surprising that those with trust issues would feel justified in resorting to schemes predicated on dishonesty and misrepresentation, all in the name of protecting their hearts.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur dating market has become so much bigger than it was before,\u201d Mr. Balasingham said, \u201cand I just noticed around me how that made people a little bit more unfaithful.\u201d<\/p>\n
To get people to sign up as testers and customers, Mr. Balasingham posted listings on job sites like Indeed, Handshake and Backstage. He also searched for microinfluencers to promote the service. He offered a $20 signing bonus to anyone who signed up as a tester, he said, and ran ads on Google with terms like \u201chow can I test my husband?\u201d<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t take much to be approved to be a tester: just an active Instagram account (it doesn\u2019t have to use a real name) and an agreement to abide by Loyalty-Test\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just have to agree to confidentiality when they\u2019re signing up,\u201d he said, adding that testers are expected not to disclose the personal information of clients, including names and exact locations.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s mostly women who sign up to use the service, but there\u2019s also \u201ca good amount of guys,\u201d Mr. Balasingham said. Testers can set their own pricing, and he keeps 10 percent of each transaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a huge variety of testers,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd on the website, you can filter it down to whatever your partner would be interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another tester, a 23-year-old woman living in Jersey City, originally encountered the service while searching online for ways to test her own boyfriend\u2019s loyalty. She didn\u2019t end up hiring a tester, but after she broke up with him, she became one herself in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to see what it was about because I know what it feels like to be cheated on,\u201d she said. \u201cSo if I could help test other people\u2019s boyfriends to see if they were also cheating, I wouldn\u2019t be mad about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity (\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like something I want to publicize, but I want to do it\u201d), was a tester on the website for about two months before deactivating her profile. She doesn\u2019t want her real identity involved with the site, using a \u201cfinsta,\u201d or fake Instagram account, to work.<\/p>\n
One woman asked her to send her boyfriend a message on Instagram to see if he would respond. She wrote \u201cheyyy cutie,\u201d and he replied with five red-faced hot-and-bothered emojis and asked for her Snapchat. Just like Mr. Redmond, this woman took screenshots of the conversation, blocked the boyfriend and sent her findings to his girlfriend.<\/p>\n
The woman estimated that about half the men she tests respond with interest. All together, she has conducted about 40 \u201cloyalty tests,\u201d charging $50 to $60 to start. While she was doing tests regularly, she made a few hundred dollars a week on average, she said, earning close to $500 in one week alone.<\/p>\n
Another woman pressed her to test her boyfriend in person, but she declined out of safety concerns. One woman messaged her asking her to write something \u201creally specific\u201d and explicit to her boyfriend.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I did it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was just something very sexual.\u201d<\/p>\n
He messaged back. So she sent it to the girlfriend, who replied, \u201cI knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she would do tests again in the future but admitted that she did feel bad sometimes. \u201cAnytime you lie to someone, anyone, you feel some sort of guilt about it, even though I feel like I\u2019m lying for the right intentions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I regret it, though, just because I\u2019ve been able to help so many people,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be pros and cons, but I feel like the pros are outweighing the cons for me.\u201d<\/p>\n