Girlfriends pay me to conduct loyalty tests via Instagram DMs. It's a lucrative gig, and most boyfriends fail.

• Trinity Howard's personal experience with a cheating boyfriend inspired her to help other girls.
• She's now a loyalty tester for Lazo, charging $70 per mission to see if a boyfriend will cheat.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Trinity Howard, a 22-year-old loyalty tester in Tampa. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Before I became a loyalty tester, I had my own run-in with cheating.

I was in a toxic relationship for two years during high school. Despite my commitment to loyalty, my first love turned out to be a cheater.

Throughout our relationship, I always knew he had another girl on the side. I often saw them sitting together at lunch or talking at school, but when I confronted him, he would say, "I'm going to end it," and "I will block her," but he never meant it.

I decided to test his loyalty and texted him using a fake number, posing as the other girl. When he wanted to meet up with her, I agreed to that, too. I grabbed his things from my house, and at 2 a.m., I showed up as her. We broke up that night.

I didn't know it then, but that was my first loyalty test, and it's now my full-time job.

I became a loyalty tester for others

Not long after I caught my own boyfriend, I made a TikTok video sharing my story, and it quickly blew up. I woke up with more than 300,000 followers on TikTok, mainly girls wanting me to test their boyfriends. I realized this could be a great way to help others who've experienced the same hurt.

I told my new following to DM me if they were interested in a loyalty test and that I'd do it free of charge. As more women took me up on my offer, my new gig started to take up more and more of my time.

I was also in school, had homework, played softball, and worked out — it became very hard to juggle everything, so I began to request donations. I told my audience that I'd make those who offered a donation of their choosing my priority. Some donated $5.00, and some even donated $50.00.

Even after I started requesting donations, there were still thousands of women messaging me for my help. It was a lot of work.

I became a loyalty tester on Lazo

In 2023, the founders of Lazo, a platform specializing in relationship loyalty tests, contacted me. They found me on TikTok and asked if I would offer my service through their platform. I agreed. Now, I do loyalty tests for a living and help even more women than when I did it on my own. I mostly test boyfriends but have tested about five husbands since I started.

When users come to Lazo needing a loyalty test, they can pick the 'tester' they want based on location, hobbies, interests, hair color, and other things they think their significant other might be into. There are roughly 400 testers on the platform. Loyalty testers have different prices, depending on the price they set for themselves.

I have a set fee of $70 for a "mission." Lazo takes $21, and I keep $49.

Depending on how many I can handle, I do 15 to 20 missions a week. Sometimes, a mission can take a little over an hour, but others can take up to a week if not more.

Unfortunately, a lot of the girls who come to Lazo are usually right about their cheating boyfriends.

Once I take on a mission, I get to work

Before hiring me, users tell me what social media platform their boyfriend is on, where he lives, and what he likes. They'll tell me if he likes a flirty girl or if I need to take it slower and get to know him first. At that point, I can accept or decline the mission. I've declined around 30 missions because they were under 18.

I send a request to follow the boyfriend on social media, and if the boyfriend accepts my request, I'll DM him, using my first name and middle initial, and a photo of me. If the guy responds to me and interacts with my message, 90% of the time, they will fail the mission. Though many also do tell me they have a girlfriend.

When messaging, I'm careful about being too straightforward because that comes across as suspicious, so I take my time and try to get to know them. As I talk with the boyfriend, I show the girlfriend what the messages look like. The girlfriend then determines if the boyfriend is cheating or not.

Sometimes, a girlfriend will see that he likes my pictures on social media and call that a fail. Other times, it needs to be more blatant, like the boyfriend wanting to meet up with me or asking if I am single.

Requesting to meet in person is an immediate fail

I've had guys want to meet in person before, and then they get caught because the girlfriend will show up instead of me. I've had men want to Facetime me to see where I am. It rarely happens, but in those situations, I avoid Facetime and just hop on the phone instead.

Since I make videos on TikTok, even though I try to block them, I've had some boyfriends recognize me, but it's always been after they failed or when they were already on the way to failing.

After the girlfriends decide if it is a pass or fail, the mission ends.

This job has changed how I think about relationships

Since becoming a loyalty tester, I've had a lot of people ask if it changes how I view relationships and men. Honestly, in a way, it does. Although I believe partners should be 100% loyal to each other, through these loyalty tests and personal experience, I know not everyone shares that belief.

I plan to do this long-term. It's sad to me that cheating goes on so much in relationships, but I'm happy to help where I can.