Man from Minas Gerais has posted names of 300 supposed cuckolds on popular social networking site Orkut

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

Brazilian police are hunting for a mysterious blogger who claims to be waging a lone crusade against unfaithful wives.

So far the elusive blogger, from the small rural town of Lagoa da Prata in Minas Gerais state, has posted the names of 300 supposed cuckolds on the popular social networking site Orkut.

The list has caused consternation in this normally tranquil town.

Several other copycat lists – entitled "The cuckolds of Lagoa da Prata" – have also emerged.

"This is not a very nice joke – for people to say that your boyfriend or your husband is a cuckold," saleswoman Juliana Oliveira, whose boyfriend's name was on one list, told local television network MGTV. "I don't really know what to say to people."

Several victims have spoken out to reject the accusations. "My wife is a Catholic and a worker," insisted one unnamed male victim. "I have never had cause to doubt her."

Not all relationships have emerged unscathed since the emergence of what local people ominously refer to as "The List".

"They put his name and his nickname [on the list]," one woman told TV Alterosa on condition of anonymity. "We fought ... [and] we nearly separated."

"The military police are advising people to stay calm," said Lieutenant Marcondes Couto, from Lagoa da Prata's police force. "We are investigating and we will catch this criminal. Justice will be done."

Civil police in Lagoa da Prata, a former goldmining town located about 120 miles from the state capital, Belo Horizonte, said that they had questioned one suspect this week after he was caught on camera leaving a copy of "The List" in a local bank.

A study in 2004 by a leading Brazilian psychiatrist claimed that Minas Gerais state had one of the country's highest rates of infidelity among women. Nearly 30% of the women interviewed admitted to having had an "extra" relationship.

"Don't get so upset," one newspaper reader wrote of the Lagoa da Prata cuckolds. "Everybody will be a cuckold one day."