Infidelity can begin with a Facebook message to an old high school flame. Or an ad posted on Craigslist seeking a

one-night stand. Or a profile created by a married man for Match.

The affair can be stoked in a chat room. Encouraged by sexually charged text messages. And

fueled by flirtatious e-mails.

But, as Tiger Woods knows, this leaves behind a lot of evidence: The same technology that

enables a clandestine relationship also leaves an electronic trail.

"In some ways it's easier, and in most ways it's easier to get caught," said Ken Horton,

vice president of Probe Services, an Amherst investigation firm.

Dating sites, social networking sites and sites designed for would-be cheaters expand the

pool of potential partners.

And cell phones, e-mail and other tools for untethered communication make it easier to go

behind a spouse's back to arrange an illicit encounter.

Some Web sites even help people create affair alibis.

"The whole electronic technology has taken infidelity and pornography and chats to a whole

different level," said Carol Conklin, a licensed clinical social worker who counsels couples

in her private practice.

Here's the hitch: It's almost impossible to completely scrub records of cell phone calls, text

messages and the Web sites you've visited.

And suspicious spouses can use online banking and credit card records, E-ZPass statements,

GPS devices and hidden cameras to do serious snooping.

"I certainly have seen a significant increase in people getting caught cheating via

texting, via e-mail, via spyware being put on computers," said Chris Mattingly, a matrimonial

lawyer and senior partner with Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria.

One private investigator said several clients' spouses have had affairs with former crushes

they reconnected with on Facebook because of an upcoming high school reunion.

In chat rooms, people who visit out of curiosity or loneliness may end up feeling a bond

with someone, even before they've met offline, said Jeffrey J. McConnell, a computer scientist

at Canisius College.

The online interaction can speed up the process of seduction, creating a "false intimacy"

and producing a sexual encounter after a matter of days and not the months often required in

the past, Conklin said.

She has a friend who left her husband after meeting someone in Second Life, the virtual

online world. She moved from Washington State to Montreal to be with him, Conklin said, even

though he also was married at the time.

"They are living together, but not married," she said.

Ashley Madison is a Toronto-based Web site with the motto "Life is Short, Have an Affair."

It's free to sign up for an account, but members must pay to contact other members or to

read and respond to messages.

The site informed a recent visitor it has 2,201 local members.

Most members used a black line or a marker to obscure their faces, but some weren't shy.

"Wow so this is where all and bad boys come ... well move over there is a new bad girl in

town now," wrote "BirdyNumNum," 38, a Scorpio from North Tonawanda who wants a "Don

Juan/Orlando Bloom" type.

Craigslist, the classified ads site, is a haven for ads posted by married people looking

for companionship or a no-strings-attached sexual escapade.

One professional, married Amherst man in his late 30s, who spoke on condition he not be

named, uses Craigslist to meet women for sexual encounters.

He's been on the site for about three years and has met 12 women in person, some for

one-night stands and others for longer-lasting relationships.

He went on Craigslist because of a lack of sex in his marriage and said he gets a kick out

of engaging in cybersex or receiving a naked picture from a stranger.

The man said he's careful and hasn't gotten caught yet.

"Never never never never give them your cell number 1 txt can end it all," he said in an

e-mail.

It's hard to find reliable data on cheating. The General Social Survey operated by the National Opinion Research Center has some

of the best statistics.

In 2004, 15.7 percent of married people ... 20.5 percent of men and 11.7 percent of women ...

admitted to cheating at some point in their marriages, the most recent survey found.

Men, people who live in cities, people who don't attend church regularly, people who earn

$30,000 per year or less and people who aren't happy in their marriage are more likely to

cheat, the survey found.

A Buffalo woman in her 40s who spoke on condition she be identified by her middle name,

Ann, said her ex-boyfriend regularly cheated on her.

She doesn't know how many affairs he had but believes he met most of the women online.

She naively trusted him but said she should have been more suspicious, given how much time

he spent online ... even when they were on a cruise.

He always kept his cell phone hidden and rarely answered the phone in front of her.

Even as Ann was breaking up with him in 2008, a call came in that her ex ignored. A message

soon followed, and when Ann asked to see the text, he refused.

"He would have cheated, regardless, if there had been no technology," Ann said. "But the

technology made it easier for him, and he was able to be in touch with more people."

Cheaters have new options.

TigerText, for example, is a mobile software application that lets the sender make

incriminating text messages disappear from the recipient's phone.

And Alibi Network provides excuses for people who need to prove to a skeptical spouse they

really were at that business conference in Chicago. The alibis vary in price and can include a

voicemail confirming attendance or a printed program.

By the time someone contacts a marriage counselor, an investigator or a lawyer, they

already have at least a suspicion ... if not outright proof ... of an affair. There's so much

easily accessible evidence, experts said.

A lot of banking and credit-card records are available online, giving spouses a chance to

keep tabs on any unusual purchases or financial transactions.

If a wandering spouse is careless enough to leave a cell phone lying around, the device is

a treasure trove of records.

"It's hard to hide now," said Judith Slater, a clinical psychologist who works with

couples.

One woman Conklin met with suspected her husband was cheating on her whenever she went out

of town, so she did some investigating.

The woman used his E-ZPass, phone and credit-card records to determine that he was spending

thousands of dollars on his girlfriend.

"Bingo ... she's got him," said Conklin.

Even if philanderers take steps to cover their tracks, experts say you can't completely

erase an electronic record.

"I can't remember the last trial that didn't introduce incriminating e-mails for one reason

or another. E-mails are deadly," said Joan Casilio Adams, a local matrimonial lawyer.

Computer forensic analysts can reconstruct e-mails and Web browsing histories, and records

of phone calls and text messages ... though not the message text ... are subject to subpoena.

The Spy Security Outlet in the Town of Tonawanda sells eBlaster monitoring software, which

records everything that's done on a computer and sends a report by e-mail to the person who

installed the program.

The store also sells tracking devices and hidden cameras, but owner Karla Crowley usually

tells people they don't need to buy these products. "I tell people every day, "Go with your gut ... save your money,'"

she said.

Some spouses want proof.

Randy Margulis, an Amherst matrimonial lawyer, represented a man who had keystroke-logging

software installed on his home computer.

The client found out his wife was talking online with another man, divulging personal

information and expressing a desire that her husband be physically harmed, the lawyer said.

The electronic snooping might have saved the life of the husband, who briefly went into

hiding and got an order of protection, Margulis said.

"Again, people do things without realizing that in this age of technology, it's hard to be

as secretive as you want to be," he said.

A client of Peter M. Vito & Associates, a Buffalo private investigation firm, installed a

GPS device in the car used by her husband because she thought he was cheating.

"She caught him making drug deals," said Patricia Hensley, chief operating officer for the

firm.

Data from the GPS device ... and a follow-up investigation ... showed the husband was driving

to known drug corners and then to a strip club to share the drugs with his dancer girlfriend,

she said.

It's harder to get away with an affair, but that doesn't stop people from trying.

"Everybody thinks they're smarter than the next person," Hensley said.