Re: How would you see this?
Going to this guy’s neighborhood and asking about his character, talking to his friends to find out more about him, even so much as talking to his colleagues to verify his claims about employment are all situations where you’d be telling the parties involved WHY you’re doing this and WHO you are. And according to our culture, “investigating” is pretty normal.
Setting up a fake profile and talking to a guy to see if he takes the bait is indeed spying and considered sneaky from the other’s perspective. If a guy ever did that to me and I found out, I would never want to see him again. I would never trust him again.
Do you know this guy personally? Have you ever spoken to him? Met up for coffee? Dinner? Developed an emotional attachment? Chatted with him on the phone? Does he know you like him? Has he told you he likes you or wants to marry you?
To him, at this point…you are no one. He is free to do as he wishes…no penalties at all whatsoever.
And one last thing…if during this process you somehow think the above set up revealed a character flaw…then its not a bad thing for either side. If he ever found out you did that before marriage, he would probably be pretty upset and lose trust in you. You would probably spend your days worrying about possible cheating scenarios and hack into his FB account to find some dirt. And it would be better to avoid that type of relationship altogether because trust is everything.
Rest is up to you.