Australians are torn over a social media tactic growing in popularity that’s used to expose unfaithful partners, with some labeling the trend “crazy.”
Several new Facebook groups with the question “do we have the same boyfriend/girlfriend” in their title have emerged within the last week, with the purpose of helping couples identify if their partner is cheating.
Concerned members usually post photos of their partners to determine whether others know about them or to see if they are dating someone else.
Other posts include screenshots of dating app profiles and social media, DMs from the person in question and queries such as “is anyone talking to this boy” or “does anyone know who this is”, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Despite such groups existing for some time, six new groups designed to catch “homewreckers” have emerged within the last seven days, with some gaining just under 10,000 members.
But with the trend gaining more attention — especially in Sydney — those who have seen their pictures shared in the groups have started to speak out about the movement, with some claiming they’ve been falsely accused.
Musician Kouxan is one Sydneysider who’s been at the center of one of the posts, however, he claims the comments are coming from women who are “playing” him.
“If you are commenting, first of all do you have nothing to do with your time?” Kouxan said in a TikTok video addressing the matter.
“Don’t comment like this ‘run babes’ if you’re in my DMs.”
Meanwhile, Sydney influencer Olan Tekkers also took to Tik Tok to explain the dangers of some of the posts being published on the platform.
One of his videos on the subject featured an example of one member asking the group if they know the guy featured in a photo or if they’ve “got tea on him”.
“This is a problem because I’m all for you exposing men that are cheating on women or multiple different girls, I get that,” he said.
“(But) what if he’s rejected another girl and the girl he has rejected is in the group chat and goes ‘yeah, yeah, yeah he’s a d******d’, (because) one time he rejected her and that’s the reason she’s dogging him out.”
Sydney isn’t the only state at the center of these groups, with others made for couples in Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Gold Coast and even overseas in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, a Melbourne group that was created on 30 January this year has since changed its name to “do we have the same boyfriend? Melbourne Edition! (DELETED) POLICE INVOLVED”.
“Rip queens my group is getting deleted,” the admin said in the group’s bio.
It’s unclear if and why the group is being removed, with Victoria Police telling news.com.au they’re not across the specifics of the matter and cheating on a partner isn’t a criminal offense.
Meanwhile, some men have decided to take the trend into their own hands by creating groups for guys to catch out their partners.
“Let’s run it up boys” is the bio for the group ‘Do We Have The Same Girlfriend? / Sydney’ reads which gained over 1,100 followers in six days.
Most groups created for this trend on Facebook are currently private and require moderator approval to gain access.
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