Honey trapping

Last updated
Careless Talk Costs Lives poster from World War II, depicting an attractive woman speaking to a Royal Air Force sergeant; the woman may be a spy. Keep Mum - She's Not so Dumb! - Careless Talk Costs Lives Art.IWMPST13908.jpg
Careless Talk Costs Lives poster from World War II, depicting an attractive woman speaking to a Royal Air Force sergeant; the woman may be a spy.

Honey trapping is a practice involving the use of romantic or sexual relationships for interpersonal, political (including state espionage), or monetary purpose. The honey pot or trap involves making contact with an individual who has information or resources required by a group or individual; the trapper will then seek to entice the target into a false relationship (which may or may not include actual physical involvement) in which they can glean information or influence over the target.

Contents

The term "honey trap" is also used when dating sites [1] are used to gain access to a victim. [2] [3]

Private investigators are often employed to create a honey pot by wives, husbands, and other partners usually when an illicit romantic affair is suspected of the "target", or subject of the investigation. [4] Occasionally, the term may be used for the practice of creating an affair for the purpose of taking incriminating photos for use in blackmail. A honey trap is used primarily to collect evidence on the subject of the honey trap. Honey trapping is also used in getting a new user addicted to illegal drugs and also for drug smuggling. [5] [6]

Espionage

Honey trapping has a long history of use in espionage.

During the Cold War, female agents called "Mozhno girls" or "Mozhnos" were used by the KGB of the USSR to spy on foreign officials by seducing them. [7] The name Mozhno comes from the Russian word "mozhno" (Russian : можно), meaning "it is permitted", as these agents were allowed to breach regulations restricting Russian contact with foreigners. [7]

In 2009, the British MI5 distributed a 14-page document to hundreds of British banks, businesses, and financial institutions, titled "The Threat from Chinese Espionage". It described a wide-ranging Chinese effort to blackmail Western business people over sexual relationships. The document explicitly warns that Chinese intelligence services are trying to cultivate "long-term relationships" and have been known to "exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships ... to pressurise individuals to co-operate with them." [8]

Private investigators

Each assignment varies depending on what the agent and client decide on during their prior consultation. A common assignment consists of the agent initiating contact with the subject through face-to-face interaction. The agent will attempt to take the communication further into other outlets including: e-mail, text messaging, phone calls, etc. The step after this can be considered the most crucial moment of the assignment. The agent will propose a second meeting to the subject. Whether or not the subject agrees to further communication will determine whether the assignment will go deeper or come to an end. Hotels are often used as a meeting place to determine whether the subject intends for the relationship to escalate. Once the investigation comes to an end, the agent will turn over any record of communication they had with the subject. Other documents that are recorded include: photographs, videos, venue appointments, etc.

See also

Related Research Articles

Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage is called an espionage agent or spy. Any individual or spy ring, in the service of a government, company, criminal organization, or independent operation, can commit espionage. The practice is clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome. In some circumstances, it may be a legal tool of law enforcement and in others, it may be illegal and punishable by law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sting operation</span> Deceptive way to catch a person committing a crime

In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather evidence of the suspect's wrongdoing. Mass media journalists occasionally resort to sting operations to record video and broadcast to expose criminal activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hanssen</span> American double agent spy (1944–2023)

Robert Philip Hanssen was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterintelligence</span> Offensive measures using enemy information

Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or other intelligence activities conducted by, for, or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations or persons.

In intelligence organizations, agent handling is the management of so-called agents, principal agents, and agent networks by intelligence officers typically known as case officers.

<i>The Kremlin Letter</i> 1970 film by John Huston

The Kremlin Letter is a 1970 American spy thriller film in Panavision directed by John Huston and starring Richard Boone, Orson Welles, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Patrick O'Neal, and George Sanders. It was released in February 1970 by 20th Century-Fox.

Andrew Daulton Lee is a former drug dealer who was convicted of espionage for his involvement in the Cold War spying activities of his childhood friend, Christopher Boyce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tradecraft</span> Espionage techniques

Tradecraft, within the intelligence community, refers to the techniques, methods, and technologies used in modern espionage (spying) and generally as part of the activity of intelligence assessment. This includes general topics or techniques, or the specific techniques of a nation or organization.

Internet safety, also known as online safety, cyber safety and electronic safety (e-safety), refers to the policies, practices and processes that reduce the harms to people that are enabled by the (mis)use of information technology.

Clandestine human intelligence is intelligence collected from human sources using clandestine espionage methods. These sources consist of people working in a variety of roles within the intelligence community. Examples include the quintessential spy, who collects intelligence; couriers and related personnel, who handle an intelligence organization's (ideally) secure communications; and support personnel, such as access agents, who may arrange the contact between the potential spy and the case officer who recruits them. The recruiter and supervising agent may not necessarily be the same individual. Large espionage networks may be composed of multiple levels of spies, support personnel, and supervisors. Espionage networks are typically organized as a cell system, in which each clandestine operator knows only the people in his own cell, perhaps the external case officer, and an emergency method to contact higher levels if the case officer or cell leader is captured, but has no knowledge of people in other cells. This cellular organization is a form of compartmentalisation, which is an important tactic for controlling access to information, used in order to diminish the risk of discovery of the network or the release of sensitive information.

The Clandestine HUMINT page adheres to the functions within the discipline, including espionage and active counterintelligence.

Clandestine HUMINT asset recruiting refers to the recruitment of human agents, commonly known as spies, who work for a foreign government, or within a host country's government or other target of intelligence interest for the gathering of human intelligence. The work of detecting and "doubling" spies who betray their oaths to work on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency is an important part of counterintelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Pakistan</span>

Prostitution in Pakistan is a taboo culture of sex-trade that exists as an open secret but illegal. Prostitution is largely based in organisational setups like brothels or furthered by individual call girls.

In espionage terminology, honeypot and honey trap are terms for an operational practice involving the use of a covert agent, to create a sexual or romantic relationship to compromise a target. The operator may be a government spy service or organized crime syndicate and the target, or victim, can unwittingly provide intelligence or perform other services for the operator. These situations are a very common trope in spy fiction and media portrayals of female espionage. Variations include same-sex relationships and complications may involve the covert agent falling in love with the target.

Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the US Army is a program directed by Army Regulation 381-12 (U). The regulation, published January 15, 1993, has three chapters and two appendices. The SAEDA program was created in order to combat Adversarial Intelligence (ADVINT), Industrial Espionage, and Terrorism during both peace and war.

Kompromat is damaging information about a politician, a businessperson, or other public figure, which may be used to create negative publicity, as well as for blackmail, often to exert influence rather than monetary gain, and extortion. Kompromat may be acquired from various security services, or outright forged, and then publicized by use of a public relations official.

Russian espionage in the United States has occurred since at least the Cold War, and likely well before. According to the United States government, by 2007 it had reached Cold War levels.

The Mind Poisoners is the 18th novel in the long-running Nick Carter-Killmaster series of spy novels. Carter is a US secret agent, code-named N-3, with the rank of Killmaster. He works for AXE – a secret arm of the US intelligence services.

Sexpionage is the involvement of sexual activity, intimacy, romance, or seduction to conduct espionage. Sex, or the possibility of sex, can function as a distraction, incentive, cover story, or unintended part of any intelligence operation.

Cybersex trafficking, live streaming sexual abuse, webcam sex tourism/abuse or ICTs -facilitated sexual exploitation is a cybercrime involving sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and/or rape on webcam.

References

  1. ↑ "Fermanagh women deny honey-trap attack plot". Belfasttelegraph.
  2. ↑ "Single father killed in 'honey-trap' after meeting date on Plenty of Fish website".
  3. ↑ "Honey-trap gang lures victims on dating sites, extorts money, threatens with fake rape case".
  4. ↑ Kelland, Kate. "Private Eye Defends Integrity of 'Honey Trapping'" Reuters 13 Feb. 2008. 18 Feb. 2008.
  5. ↑ "I fell for cocaine honeytrap, claims British physicist in Argentine jail". The Telegraph.
  6. ↑ K, Ashoka M. (August 31, 2020). "Indrajit Lankesh links Sandalwood drug abuse to KPL and honey trap". Deccan Chronicle.
  7. 1 2 Deacon, Richard (1987). Spyclopedia: the comprehensive handbook of espionage. W. Morrow. p. 405.
  8. ↑ Phillip Knightley, The History of the Honey Trap. Five lessons for would-be James Bonds and Bond girls – and the men and women who would resist them, Foreign Policy , (March 12, 2010).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.