Cell Phones Reveal Love Affairs in Italy
By TOM RACHMAN, Associated Press
Writer ROME - Italy's love
affair with text messaging is having an unexpected consequence: Cell phones
have become a leading giveaway of secret affairs.
Snooping
spouses are finding amorous messages, as well as inexplicable phone numbers,
stored in the memory of mobile phones. Divorce
lawyers are ecstatic, magazines are warning readers to watch out, and one
private investigator has even issued "Five Golden Rules" on how to
cheat with a cell phone and not get caught. Antonella,
a 19-year-old art student who declined to give her last name, recounted an ugly
experience involving a boyfriend and a mobile. "We
were looking at the cell phone together because he was expecting a message from
a relative," she said. "Instead, it was from a girl saying she'd had
a lovely time with him last night and sending him lots of kisses." Their
breakup came soon after. Private
eye Miriam Tomponzi says a study by her firm found cell phones involved in
nearly nine of every 10 discovered affairs in Italy. As an antidote, her agency
has offered up its five rules to avoid discovery. One
trick is to immediately delete call records from phone memory, as well as text
messages — "even the most beautiful," the agency advises
wistfully. Another tip, for when a paramour's call comes when a spouse is
present, is to fake a normal work conversation. "Practice
this by yourself in a closed room in front of a mirror and in a loud
voice," the agency exhorts. Tomponzi,
speaking in an office stuffed with old-school sleuthing tools like the
magnifying glass, explained why text messaging appeals to the unfaithful. "Say
I'm talking to you, I can write a text message to my lover without you
realizing," she said. "I send it calmly, it's done. But a phone call
I couldn't do, right? 'Amore, I love you, I want you' — written I can do
it, verbally I can't. This is the convenience of the short messages." Divorce
lawyer Cesare Rimini said text messages have taken the place once held by love
letters. "Secret
affairs are discovered by what? Through communication," he said.
"Communication at one time was letters — I've joked that it was once
even Morse code. Today, the methods of communication are these." That
mobiles should intersect with love in Italy is not surprising. Rarely
does a crowd of Italians gather without at least one punching out a text
message on a cell phone. The telltale beep of an incoming message will send
them fumbling excitedly for their phones. It is like passing notes in school,
only on a national level. Even
the Vatican (news
- web
sites) now sends urgent notes to journalists using phone messaging. Cell
phone use is high in much of Europe, and Italy has one of the highest levels of
all. In a nation of 58 million people, there are 53 million mobile
subscriptions — a market penetration of 92.4 percent, says the industry
review Mobile Communications. The United States has only about 50 percent
penetration, editor Shani Raja said.
The
figures don't mean 53 million Italians have cell phones. Some people have more
than one account. Some
customers use one mobile phone account for work calls and another for family
and friends. In some cases, however, the reason may be less innocent. Mobile
operator Vodafone Omnitel has made life easier for those wanting multiple
numbers. Its Alter Ego service gives subscribers two separate numbers on the
same microchip. Asked
about the cheating possibilities this offers, Vodafone spokeswoman Silvia de
Blasio said that wasn't the intent. "Services
that you have on your mobile phone help your mobility, and allow you to have a
more easy life — more easy, but not necessarily to betray your wife or
husband," she said. "Maybe
it's also useful for that; I don't know. In their private life, our clients do
what they want." |
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