Love cheats find perfect alibi

12 August 2004

BRUSSELS – A new company has been created in Belgium to provide the perfect alibi for cheating partners or bored boyfriends, it emerged on Thursday.

Initially formed as a joke, the Mona-Libi copies an American idea and has proved a success here. Business is rapidly growing.

The agency works by providing alibis for customers seeking to hide what they are really up to. It is used, for example, by cheating spouses who want to meet up with their lover or by a boyfriend who would rather watch the football than visit his partner’s tedious friends.

The company has already been approached by customers wanting it to cover for illegal activities such as car crashes or provide false medical records for people pulling sickies. But it stresses it can only help if the activity is legal.

In providing an alibi, the agency tries to cover every eventuality. It sends invitations to home for the time customers want to disappear, which include a contact telephone number and hotel reservations if needed.

The phone number can be re-routed to a Mona-Libi employee as a further precaution. The employee would take a message and pass it on to stop the cheater being caught out.

The invitations are all to events that actually exist. For example, if it is for a theatre performance then a seat will be booked.

Mona-Libi looks after all the necessary details, covering reservations, enrolments to seminars, cars, flowers, gifts, mobile phone alerts, transferred calls, post cards and souvenirs.

The company’s cheating business makes it an initial EUR 50 for customers to open an account with it. The invitation costs another EUR 50, rising to EUR 100 for a phone transfer.

Subject: Belgian news