Internet Divided As Husband Blocks Women's Cell Numbers: 'Suspicious'

A post about a wife who discovered several allegedly female contacts blocked on her husband's phone has gone viral on Mumsnet, the U.K.-based online forum.

In a post shared by user Footbal on Mumsnet's Am I Being Unreasonable (AIBU) subforum, the mother of three said she felt "sick" to her stomach after finding "three female contacts I don't know" on his WhatsApp account.

"One was a picture of a girl and her name, the other two were saved under initials and they were in lingerie but couldn't see their faces with suggestive emoji after their name. He had them all blocked and no conversations," the user said.

A September 2016 study in the peer-reviewed journal Computers in Human Behavior found that "married/cohabiting individuals who were less satisfied and more ambivalent in their relationship were more likely to engage in IR [infidelity-related] social media behaviors."

The study noted that "social media may provide social support for those in unhappy marriages, offering opportunities for cheating behaviors that may cause conflict and erode marital quality."

Higher levels of relationship satisfaction "predicted lower levels of social media IR behaviors for men with lower attachment anxiety," such as "more secure attachment styles."

The wife in the latest post said she was on vacation with her husband and three kids when he left his phone on the table.

"I never go near his phone but I checked it," she said, adding there were "no messages that were suspicious" and "nothing on his email in the inbox sent or archived."

The user said: "I don't know what to do. I've never ever doubted him. He works really hard for our family. He's loving affectionate and attentive towards me."

The latest post sparked debate among Mumsnet users, with some saying the husband is "suspicious."

User OldEvilOwl said: "Doesn't look good does it. You must have already [been] suspicious to have checked his phone?"

User lanawinters said: "I discovered the same and found a year long 'affair' chronicled in the archived folder of WhatsApp."

But others believed he may have just been blocking spam phone numbers.

User Christonabike37 said: "Sounds like spam accounts tbh. I absolutely wouldn't be concerned."

User jinglejanglemorning said: "I don't think this in itself is suspicious. I've got a handful of blocked contacts on Whatsapp. A couple of them sent me weird scammy messages in response to listings I'd posted on gumtree…"

User belliniqueen agreed, stating: "I would say he has received an obvious scam message and has blocked it and never thought of it again.

"I know some guys who have had weird messages from sextortion scam artists posing as ladies."

In a later post, the original poster said she spoke to her husband and "he said they are spam and he blocks them straight away."

"He offered to unblock them, message them and ring them to show they are spam," the original poster added.

"He reassured me that I'm the only one for him and he loves me and our family more than anything. He wasn't angry I checked his phone as he understands what I've being going through the last while,"

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of this case.