05:55 AM PST on Tuesday, November 29, 2005

By MIMI JUNG / KING 5 News

They do it in secret when they think no one is watching. Married men and women sneaking into chatrooms looking for love.

"Twenty, 30 years ago, you wouldn't see people that would be in contact with the other sex as much as you'd see now. Now, it's very easy,” said Seattle divorce attorney Rodney Pierce.

Pierce said he’s seeing more cases of cyber affairs.

“I have a situation where a person didn't turn off their computer and left their email program and it's a shock for people to find that stuff,” he said.

But as husbands and wives stray into cyberspace, their suspecting spouses are using the same technology to catch them in the act.

“The people who hired me are husbands and wives,” said Taunya Messner, who makes a living by catching cheating spouses.

She started a Web site, cheatingspousesonline.com.

For $30 Messner will bait your mate in chat rooms by asking first about their marital status and then swapping phone numbers.

“The majority of them are willing to meet and swap phone numbers and are telling me they're single and looking or separated which I've learned means separated by walls.  Usually the spouse is in the back sleeping while they're online,” she says.

But if you're more of a do-it-yourself kind of sleuth, some software programs will help you out.

KING

What's he really doing online?

E-blaster gives you an hourly report of what your spouse is doing online.

At Fox’s Spy Outlet, which has stores in Bellevue, Portland and Sacramento, eBlaster has been a big seller.

“They just want to know if anything is going on whether they're being paranoid or not,” said Jodie Fish.

There's also "The Spector," which allows you to trace emails from your spouse's computer, and the KeyKatcher, an adapter that logs every key stroke.

It’s technology that is complicating the world of Internet infidelity.

It is important to note that while it is legal to put spy software on a computer you own, but it is illegal to put it on your spouse's computer at work or any other computer that you do not own.

Also, the Spectorsoft license agreement license agreement to install eBlaster only on a computer you own and to inform anyone using your computer that monitoring software has been installed. You may also be required by local, state or federal laws to inform anyone who may use your computer that logging software has been installed on your computer.

KING