Liv spends her free time flirting up a storm with other people’s boyfriends. But for a very good reason…
I opened up Instagram to see a new message in my inbox.
Hi gorgeous, it read, followed with heart emojis.
I replied and flirty messages flew back and forth.
Do you want to meet up? I asked.
Definitely, came the reply.
That’s when I stopped typing and took a screenshot instead.
Uh-oh, your girlfriend’s not going to like this, I thought, getting ready to send it.
You see, it wasn’t my potential boyfriend I’d been messaging — it was someone else’s.
But it was all above board — the girlfriend in question was aware of my antics.
I was working as a honeytrapper, testing people’s fellas to see if they would cheat.
I’d got the idea from a video I’d seen on TikTok, and decided to have a go myself.
The way it worked was, girls would message me, wanting to put their boyfriend’s loyalty to the test.
'Do you have a girlfriend?'
They’d pass on their man’s social media accounts and I would then follow them, slide into their DMs and see if they took the bait.
And as I was discovering, a lot of men were falling hook, line and sinker.
Do you have a girlfriend? I asked one guy I was ‘testing’.
His partner had told me he’d cheated in the past, and she wanted to see if he’d changed.
I’d followed him on Instagram and we’d been chatting.
No, I’m single, came his reply.
Sorry hun, I typed as I forwarded his answer to his girlfriend.
I’m in the room with him while he’s messaging you! she seethed.
What a snake!
I didn’t ask for payment for my honeytrapping, I just asked permission to post the results on my TikTok, with names deleted.
Soon, my videos were getting millions of views.
I was being flooded with so many requests, I could barely keep up.
One girl got in touch and said her boyfriend treated her badly.
‘I just need some proof he’s disloyal, so I can walk away,’ she admitted.
I messaged her boyfriend and we got chatting. His messages were peppered with kisses and heart emojis.
I’m a night manager at Tesco, he wrote.
Meanwhile, I sent everything on to his girlfriend.
He’s not a manager! she shot back. He’s just a cashier!
Eventually, I asked if he was single.
If I had a girlfriend, hun, I wouldn’t have replied to you, he replied.
Then he followed up with: I just focus on work and bettering myself as a person.
‘Oh, puh-lease,’ I sighed aloud.
I feel sick, his girlfriend said when I forwarded her the evidence.
She sent me a picture of the flowers he’d just bought her after taking her on a date night.
I posted it all on TikTok and eventually the girl commented.
Don’t worry everyone, I’ve dumped him, she said.
Up to 90 per cent of the guys I ‘tested’ would flirt back when I messaged, or would lie about not having a girlfriend.
'I need some proof he's disloyal'
It didn’t taint my view of men as, to be honest, I already knew what they could be like. I’d been cheated on in the past.
Often, the guys would get angry with me when caught out.
I knew you were faking, I was just pretending, they’d say, trying to worm their way out.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I’d scoff, rolling my eyes.
A lot of the girls thanked me after I’d caught out their blokes. But some of them ended up taking their boyfriends back.
I’d see them on Instagram in a relationship again.
‘Rather you than me,’ I sighed.
Then the girl would ask me to take down the video from TikTok.
It was frustrating as I’d spent all that time and effort for nothing.
On the odd occasion, a guy didn’t follow me back or reply to my messages.
I’d contact the girlfriend and say: ‘Congratulations, he passed!’
But unfortunately, those times were rare.
One day, a girl got in touch asking me to test her boyfriend who’d cheated in the past and was always on his phone.
She sent me his profile and I could see he was a keen fisherman.
He followed me back and the messages flew between us.
Then I asked: Do you have a missus who fishes with you?
I do, he replied.
Yay, I thought. He’s passed the test!
But then, over the next few days, whenever I posted pictures on Instagram, there was one account that kept popping up in my likes and comments.
Fisherman guy.
I posted a sexy selfie on my Instagram stories and he commented: Wow! Brave, no bra.
Then he posted heart emojis on my pictures, said I looked ‘fresh’ and even complimented my feet.
I took screenshots and posted them on TikTok, saying: Unfortunately, he didn’t pass the test after all.
One girl hadn’t been reeled in.
I knew something was dodgy when he messaged you back in the first place, she astutely pointed out.
I had to agree. By now, I realised that when men followed me back on Instagram, that was a red flag in itself.
Soon, I’d honeytrapped about 200 guys, although the requests were getting into the thousands.
It took a lot of time and effort to keep up with all the messaging, alongside my job as a social media assistant.
The hardest part was remembering which boyfriend was with which girl!
It was all too much for just one person so I decided to set up an agency.
I named it The Loyalty Testers and recruited a team. That way, I could help more girls than doing it alone.
I also took part in a Channel 4 documentary about honeytrapping.
Due to the publicity, I took a break from loyalty tests as I thought men might recognise me.
Working as part of the agency meant I could still help the cause from behind the scenes.
I’m going to start up again soon though as the demand is so high.
We charge £20 per loyalty test, which is a good deal considering the time and effort spent.
Now, I’m with a new boyfriend and he finds what I do hilarious. He doesn’t mind me messaging other guys as he knows it’s all part of the job.
Despite seeing so much evidence of men straying, I don’t worry my boyfriend will cheat, as I believe I can pick the right guys.
Plus, he’d be silly to try to cheat a honeytrapper!
I don’t feel bad for being the cause of relationship break-ups. It’s not me that’s the problem, it’s the cheater. I’m just revealing their true nature.
And most of the time, the problems in the relationship started well before I got involved.
If a girl has suspicions about her guy’s loyalty, there’s usually a reason for that. Always trust your instincts.
I’m determined to carry on my mission. Cheaters, watch out!
Liv Shelby, 20, Cheshire