I’d heard about people getting hired to “test” the faithfulness of their partner – hire some guy to randomly meet up with your girlfriend somewhere you know she’s going to be, having him approach her, see if she takes the bait (or vice versa, if you’re the girl testing your boyfriend’s loyalty). I think there’s a company that does this in the UK, maybe there’s more.
But this I hadn’t really heard of before - at least not outside far-fetched courtroom dramas - people getting hired to seduce half of a couple and bring pictures to the other half for divorce court.
Read all about it in the Times of London here (hat tip - Mr. M):
It’s interesting for more than a ‘stare at the train crash’ kind of way. Look at how they plan these seductions – it’s not some guy running into her at a bar. That’s probably too hit or miss for guys who don’t have pick up artist training, so they’re smart. They set up the social context. Note the presence of other women, including at least one female friend. Note the peer approval for her actions. Note the way it “just happened” that the party continued in the hotel. Note how other people just drifted away so it “just happened” to be her and him in the hotel room at the end. Note also, alcohol
This fits in with a lot of stuff Love Systems (formerly The Mystery Method Corp.) talks about when it comes to dates, like:
Use your turf, not hers
Make logistical moves (bar to hotel, hotel party to hotel alone, etc.) seamless
Groups are great if your friends know what they are doing
Context matters. A lot.
-NS
(Another curious thing just hit me – with that UK company I remember that ‘tests’ for loyalty, I remember reading that one of their rules was that they don’t send testers/seducers who are significantly better looking than the person they are trying to test. That seems weird to me. Most guys who are worried about their wives or girlfriends cheating aren’t really worried about the average guy on the corner - they’re worried about how she’ll react when given a chance with smooth-looking eye candy. And same for women. Odd.)
My humble impression of this is that of a sewer of degenerate ethics… not all that dissimilar from the “honey traps” that were used by eastern bloc (and certainly by the CIA as well) during the Cold War… today one hears reports of the chinese security system using similar tactics for industrial intelligence gathering… supposedly the rooms in all of the hotels there are bugged and can be activated if a compromising recording is needed… J Edgar Hoover, America’s ultimate hypocrite loved to gather sexually compromising “data” he used to blackmail congressmen and senators… it is quite disgusting however has a long tradition… very little is new under the sun.
First of all, Savoy, welcome to the community and I’m glad to see someone with your experience here, I look forward to reading what you have to say.
Secondly, this shit’s been happening for YEARS, I remember it even being used as part of an ad campaign for jeans. It’s the first time I’ve heard of it being men seducing women. It should not surprise me, I suppose. I mean there are TV shows like Cheaters giving equal time to male and female adulterers.
It may be that the target would see the tester as “out of her league” or “a player” if the tester was significantly better looking, and auto-reject herself. Also, it may be that it makes the results more “believable”. How often does an average bloke/sheila with average skills hook up with someone of significantly higher status? Damn near never.
