THESE days, when she opens her e-mail account, she psychs herself for death threats and warnings of rape and other forms of assault from anonymous senders.
"I will kill you when I hunt you down," one e-mail reads. Another says: "I will rape you ladies when I get hold of you."
Yet another adds: "Geylang syndicate is not good to be trifled with."
But these ominous e-mail messages have not deterred the woman, who prefers to be known as Angie, from running Geylang Checker, a website she set up last July to monitor "cheating men in Geylang".
In an e-mail interview with my paper, she revealed that she has put together a team of more than 50 so-called "checkers", mostly women and a few men, who conduct "hourly patrols of Geylang streets" every day.
They snap photographs of boyfriends, husbands, male relatives and colleagues who solicit the services of prostitutes, she said.
The checkers receive assignments and tip-offs from women who seek their help in finding out if their men have been to the red-light district.
Angie is in her early 30s and works in "one of the five big auditing firms" here. She confessed that she feared for her life and those of her volunteers "many times".
"Safety is a concern, but helping Singaporean women takes a higher priority," she said. Her family is unaware of her activities. She started the website because she did not want other women to go through what she had experienced.
In May last year, she caught her then boyfriend stepping out of a brothel in Geylang and saw him kiss a woman on his way out.
"I didn't believe it when my friend told me, so I took a cab down and waited outside," she recalled. Angie immediately broke off their relationship.
"We had been together for six years. I deleted his contact numbers and warned him not to look for me any more," she said.
To date, there have been 43 postings on the website, featuring photographs of men and women, and recruitment ads for more volunteers.
She and her volunteers have received 30 requests so far and exposed 15 cases of cheating, she said. The website was initially a one-woman operation but Angie roped in two friends whose boyfriends had cheated on them to take photos surreptitiously in the Geylang area.
She said she did not have any long-term plan at first.
She wants website to deter cheating by men
She conjectured that the initial trio were able to take photos without any fuss as they were "dressed formally" and people thought they were tourists.
She said that, while they are not trained professionally or skilled in martial arts, they have "the guts and strategy", although their "cameras are not well-furnished".
The site has a donation link but funding is limited as people think it is a scam, she said. Still, the team grew bigger when people heard of the site by word of mouth and through their call to arms on the site.
The volunteers come from all walks of life. They include lawyers, doctors, junior-college and university students, office workers and housewives.
Men have stepped forward as well. She calls them "our secret weapon" and revealed that one of them works in the army and provides them with "expertise in guerilla warfare".
She said the army expert has taught the volunteers to work in two teams. One works as a decoy, while the other snaps photos.
Angie said: "We have also planned our escape route. We know which hotels we can hide in if we're being chased."
However, there have been some close shaves with the men they were tracking. She recalled that a female volunteer was once caught taking photos and was chased by two men.
They cornered her and smashed her camera on the ground. Before they could "make advances on her", the police arrived and the men fled, she said.
Security experts my paper spoke to said that while they commend the intentions of the volunteers, they may not achieve the best results.
Mr James Loh, 39, who owns SG Investigators, said that the cheating spouse may not stop his errant ways even after being confronted.
In fact, he said that the group's photo-taking "will jeopardise the collection of evidence that can be used by the court". Such evidence is required for settling divorce claims.
Only evidence collected by a professional and licensed source may be used, said the investigator of more than eight years.
Nevertheless, Angie said she does not intend to stop the website any time soon.
She said she wants the site to become a "whistle-blower" and her master plan is to create a site that is "a complete deterrent to cheating among Singaporean men".
She is single and has not dated anyone since her break-up last year. But she is still keen to pursue a relationship.
She said: "Yes, trust (in men) has been lost, but I want to see how my future partner can help me regain this trust so that Geylang Checker may be passed on to the next hurting woman."
"I will kill you when I hunt you down," one e-mail reads. Another says: "I will rape you ladies when I get hold of you."
Yet another adds: "Geylang syndicate is not good to be trifled with."
But these ominous e-mail messages have not deterred the woman, who prefers to be known as Angie, from running Geylang Checker, a website she set up last July to monitor "cheating men in Geylang".
In an e-mail interview with my paper, she revealed that she has put together a team of more than 50 so-called "checkers", mostly women and a few men, who conduct "hourly patrols of Geylang streets" every day.
They snap photographs of boyfriends, husbands, male relatives and colleagues who solicit the services of prostitutes, she said.
The checkers receive assignments and tip-offs from women who seek their help in finding out if their men have been to the red-light district.
Angie is in her early 30s and works in "one of the five big auditing firms" here. She confessed that she feared for her life and those of her volunteers "many times".
"Safety is a concern, but helping Singaporean women takes a higher priority," she said. Her family is unaware of her activities. She started the website because she did not want other women to go through what she had experienced.
In May last year, she caught her then boyfriend stepping out of a brothel in Geylang and saw him kiss a woman on his way out.
"I didn't believe it when my friend told me, so I took a cab down and waited outside," she recalled. Angie immediately broke off their relationship.
"We had been together for six years. I deleted his contact numbers and warned him not to look for me any more," she said.
To date, there have been 43 postings on the website, featuring photographs of men and women, and recruitment ads for more volunteers.
She and her volunteers have received 30 requests so far and exposed 15 cases of cheating, she said. The website was initially a one-woman operation but Angie roped in two friends whose boyfriends had cheated on them to take photos surreptitiously in the Geylang area.
She said she did not have any long-term plan at first.
She wants website to deter cheating by men
She conjectured that the initial trio were able to take photos without any fuss as they were "dressed formally" and people thought they were tourists.
She said that, while they are not trained professionally or skilled in martial arts, they have "the guts and strategy", although their "cameras are not well-furnished".
The site has a donation link but funding is limited as people think it is a scam, she said. Still, the team grew bigger when people heard of the site by word of mouth and through their call to arms on the site.
Men have stepped forward as well. She calls them "our secret weapon" and revealed that one of them works in the army and provides them with "expertise in guerilla warfare".
She said the army expert has taught the volunteers to work in two teams. One works as a decoy, while the other snaps photos.
Angie said: "We have also planned our escape route. We know which hotels we can hide in if we're being chased."
However, there have been some close shaves with the men they were tracking. She recalled that a female volunteer was once caught taking photos and was chased by two men.
They cornered her and smashed her camera on the ground. Before they could "make advances on her", the police arrived and the men fled, she said.
Security experts my paper spoke to said that while they commend the intentions of the volunteers, they may not achieve the best results.
Mr James Loh, 39, who owns SG Investigators, said that the cheating spouse may not stop his errant ways even after being confronted.
In fact, he said that the group's photo-taking "will jeopardise the collection of evidence that can be used by the court". Such evidence is required for settling divorce claims.
Only evidence collected by a professional and licensed source may be used, said the investigator of more than eight years.
Nevertheless, Angie said she does not intend to stop the website any time soon.
She said she wants the site to become a "whistle-blower" and her master plan is to create a site that is "a complete deterrent to cheating among Singaporean men".
She is single and has not dated anyone since her break-up last year. But she is still keen to pursue a relationship.
She said: "Yes, trust (in men) has been lost, but I want to see how my future partner can help me regain this trust so that Geylang Checker may be passed on to the next hurting woman."
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