Desperate wives and husbands in China are hiring “mistress hunters” to sabotage their partner's extramarital relationships.

Zhu Lifei heads one such firm. The team at Changzhou Sincere Heart Marriage and Family Consulting includes psychologists, lawyers, counsellors and beauticians. A recent plot to thwart a relationship invovled covering a woman in chicken blood and damaging her car to fake an accident in order to attract her husband’s attention.

Projects last six months on average and can cost between $15,000 to $150,000. Most clients are women, says Zhu.

A common tactic involves a spouse and a psychologist confronting the lover. Other times a fake suitor will be used to try to lure the lover away.

One case invovled a mistress being offered a higher-paid job in another city to cut an affair short, the New York Times reported.

Although Zhu's services are expensive, customers hope they will be cheaper and less drawn-out than a divorce - rates of which have trippled in China since 2002.

But despite their efforts, so-called mistress hunters don't always suceed. Around a quarter of Zhu's cases fail. The husband of the woman covered in chicken blood, however, ditched his mistress when, according to Zhu, a “splitting specialist” persuaded him his lover was allegedly with him for his money. The couple split 13 days later.

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Critics argue that the services are morally and legally suspect.

Liu Weimin, director of the Guangdong Province Marriage and Family Counselors Association, told the New York Times that the service “won’t bring a family back together” and the husband and wife need to solve their issues between themselves.

Zhu sees it differently, and stresses his organisation is legitimate and legal.