Intelligence: Virtual Honey
The Indian military continues to have problems with its personnel being recruited as spies by Pakistani agents pretending to be an Indian woman looking for love. This is called a “honey-trap” and it is a classic espionage technique that has adapted to the Internet Age. This new version involves Pakistani agents operating via the Internet to engage Indian military personnel and then persuade or entraps them to be a regular supplier of information. The latest case was unusual in that the man honey-trapped in 2019 later agreed to provide more information on an ammunition depot and a firing range. Eventually, with the aid of a friend, this new spy offered to collect and email even more information and get paid for it. Both men were civilian employees of the army. The honey-trap victim received about a thousand dollars and passed on $120 to the associate he recruited. Both men were arrested in 2020 and are being prosecuted for espionage.....MUCH MORE
The honey-trap in this case was in the form of a Facebook page and WhasApp account set up the Pakistani handler to represent an attractive Hindu woman. The Facebook page is used to attract men with a military connection and the Pakistani intel operative running the Facebook account screens Indian men seeking to find likely candidates for development and recruitment. This is classic “social engineering” and also classic spy craft.
Before the Internet it was more time consuming and dangerous for an agent to go out looking to sources among the enemy. Pakistan and, to a lesser extent India, have developed this method to a high degree of effectiveness even though both Indian and Pakistani troops are warned of the existence of this sort of thing and the risks of getting caught in a honey-trap.
The Pakistanis have been very creative in their use of honey-traps....
I've thought of running honey traps on Goldman types but the problem is with Managing directors the Honey would probably come back with an STD and if you go after partners you end up with doublespeak plus they'd try to extract a fee for the encounter.
