I am a secret fan of the reality TV show Cheaters. The appeals on Twitter for a local version of the show that exposes unfaithful spouses has motivated me to confess. The hype has been prompted by the e.tv promo featuring a local woman being shown video footage of her boyfriend at a chisanyama with several women.

Things heat up when Don Juan kisses one of his companions, which causes his suspicious but surprised girlfriend almost to faint. It comes to a head when she starts removing her jewellery in preparation for the confrontation between herself and the cheaters.

What happens after that is left to our imaginations because, as it turns out, the promo is a marketing gimmick for the US version, which plays on Wednesday nights. The script for the skirmish is always the same, though: the hysterical, aggrieved party screams profanities and beats up the cheaters, who are in most cases much more mortified by the cameras and all the commotion than they are about being caught in a compromising position.

My fascination with Cheaters has always been with how far people will go to verify or dispel any suspicions they may have about their partner's fidelity. Cheaters is the extreme route, and perhaps a guide for what not to do.

But is there a foolproof method to check fidelity? Since the promo was launched, I've heard many sad and hilarious tales of snooping partners. I'm not talking about stalkers and bunny-boilers but ordinary people you could be friends with, or are already friends with.

How many people do you know who "innocently" check or regularly "stumble" upon their partners SMSs or BBM, e-mail, Twitter and Facebook accounts, looking to see if everything is above board?

Most probably more than you know, because how many will admit to it? I know someone who secretly has the login names and passwords of her husband's social media accounts. She does random spot checks to ensure that his inbox messages are hanky-panky free. To date, the most extreme thing she has done is block all his ex-girlfriends from his Facebook account.

I have often wondered how she would explain knowing what goes on in his in-boxes if she ever found anything seriously incriminating.

Another friend recently bought herself a brand-new car, which she kitted out with a tracking device. (This particular device has made life easier for companies, because they can follow their vehicles' movements online.) Since getting her new ride, she has introduced regular car swaps into the relationship, which works well for her boyfriend, since her car is the faster and more pimped-out ride.

The car swap is especially useful on boys' nights out, when he ignores her calls and provokes her paranoia. She only has to go online to track him down and maybe drop in to give him a mouthful about ignoring her calls.

I understand that infidelity is a betrayal of trust, but so is snooping, isn't it?

The person being spied upon has just as much right to be angry, not because they are being defensive but because snooping suggests a lack of trust. It is one thing to spy and catch someone out, but what if you go to all that effort and find nothing and then get caught?

Instead of Cheaters SA, maybe e.tv should turn the tables and produce a show called Snoopers to call all the infidelity trackers and hackers to account.