Exclusive | The sneaky ways social media has become the ultimate infidelity machine and the so-called innocent red flags to watch for

I was halfway through my morning coffee when my phone buzzed with an Instagram DM.“Hey, what’s up?”Harmless enough, right?Except it was from a radio executive I knew by reputation but had never met.

He was extremely successful and riding on the coattails of some big-name shows he had been put in charge of.Safe to say, I was very excited to hear from him.He wanted to take me to lunch to discuss a potential new show that I would headline.I jumped at the chance to meet with him and didn’t think twice about us meeting for lunch rather than at his workplace.

I arrived on time and was prepped with pre-prepared notes for what I thought would be a brilliant late-night radio show. At first, I didn’t mind that he went on and on about his former dating (and sex) life — I’m a dating columnist, so this makes sense.But the hours were ticking by, he kept ordering more wine and he hadn’t got to the business part of the meeting yet. Well, spoiler alert: There was no radio show.

Just a man who got drunk far too quickly, raved about my saucy Instagram stories (as well as dissecting some of my “thirst traps” as he enjoyed calling them), then casually mentioned at the end of the lunch, “Oh yeah so let’s meet again and I can tell you about this show I have in mind for you.”He then continued to text me throughout the Christmas break, just to “say hi.” My Spidey senses were tingling, and not in a good way.Had I just been duped into lunch with a horny married man? It would appear so. It’s then that it really hit home for me, if someone wanted to invent the ultimate infidelity machine, they wouldn’t need to.

It already exists.It’s called social media.

I mean, that’s where he came across me. Once upon a time, cheating required real effort — furtive glances across a bar, stolen kisses at an office Christmas party, or elaborate excuses involving “late meetings” and “business trips.” But now? The gateway to adultery is as simple as a doubl...