A private investigator has stepped forward to disclose how you can catch a secretive cheater by exposing a commonly used tactic.

While technological advancements have greatly enhanced many aspects of daily life, they have also made it alarmingly easy to cheat and conceal an affair.

Gone are the days when you had to hide your inkwell, quill, and scroll as you penned sonnets to another man.

Now, there are hidden apps, self-deleting chats, and more.

However, if you’re not savvy enough to use these methods, you’re likely to get caught.

A private investigator has revealed a new way people cheat (Getty Stock Images)

According to a poll by World Population Review, 36 percent of Brits confessed to cheating just last year.

In a survey conducted by Resume.io for 2025, 46 percent of respondents admitted to cheating.

It’s alarming to think that so many people casually choose to deceive their partners, but there are steps you can take to gather the evidence needed to walk away.

Paul Evans from I-Spy Detectives told Metro about a common way cheaters are discovered, and it’s not what you might expect.

It involves using an app that we all have and use daily, often without much thought.

The private investigator noted that more and more people are using shared calendars to schedule their secret meetings, even disguising them as work or appointments.

“At first glance, it seems like an innocent dentist appointment or a work meeting, but upon closer inspection, those calendar entries often serve as a cover for something else,” Paul explained.

“We’ve uncovered cases where the same time slot is used weekly, always at different locations, with no trace of genuine work involved.”

Whether it’s a ‘team lunch’ or ‘client call’, cheaters can conceal their illicit activities for a long time, as their plans appear legitimate on the surface.

It's using their phone calendar (Getty Stock Images)

The calendar app also allows for private sharing, making it possible to hide plans or send them to different accounts.

Notifications can be turned off or muted, meaning you - the significant other - may never be aware of the plans.

Paul elaborated: “They can sit there for months without arousing suspicion, particularly if the partner never checks.

“That’s where we see a lot of deception occurring. They know most people won’t question a notification that appears work-related.”

If they don’t utilize a calendar app, Paul suggests it’s only a matter of time before they slip up, as they’ll engage in behaviors that ‘always reveal the truth eventually’.

For instance, suddenly needing to put in extra hours at work.

“If your partner consistently seems to be ‘working late’ on Tuesdays, but there are no calls, no emails, and no explanations, it’s worth questioning,” Paul advised. "Patterns are the biggest giveaway.”

There are other signs you might notice too, and you won’t have to look too hard to identify them.

He added: “You don’t have to snoop, but you can start by asking direct questions. Most affairs unravel when people notice the small inconsistencies.”