British MPs have received explicit images and flirtatious messages from anonymous WhatsApp accounts in an apparent “honeytrap” after an MP was coerced into sharing their numbers. What’s not known is who is behind these messages and what their motive is.
On Thursday, Tory MP William Wragg admitted to giving the personal phone numbers of fellow MPs to a person on the Grindr dating app. He said he had sent them photographs of himself and feared what they would do with them if he didn’t comply.
Senior political figures including Alicia Kearns, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, and Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, have suggested that a foreign state may be responsible.
Yet government sources told the Guardian there is no evidence that the messages are the work of a foreign power and that the pattern of behaviour does not fit with what is known about Russian or Chinese operations. The incident is not being treated as a cybersecurity incident either, given there is no evidence of technology being compromised or passwords being handed over.
Alan Woodward, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Surrey, said working out who is behind such incidents is difficult but that nation states are more interested in obtaining confidential material through ongoing business-style relationships: “I think the Chinese already have MPs’ telephone numbers, they don’t need someone on Grindr.”
He suggested a nation state would be more likely to approach an MP through LinkedIn: “You can use kompromat once. But if you have a professional relationship with someone and are exchanging ideas and information you can elicit valuable intellectual property.”
Rather than gaining access to parliament’s internal systems, the individual (or individuals) who sent the messages relied on a combination of old-fashioned social engineering, Westminster’s party culture, and a growing willingness to send naked pictures to strangers.
Wragg’s confession that he had handed over his colleagues’ phone numbers came after a report by Politico that at least a dozen men working in Westminster politics – including a serving minister and other MPs – have been targeted in a similar fashion.
The messages showed a deep understanding of the Houses of Parliament and the places where people might bump into each other while working in Westminster, according to individuals who received them. This included references to specific bars at political party conferences or roles on long-defunct leadership campaigns. Often the targets would be told they had met the unknown number at an event some time ago, taking advantage of memories that were blurry after long nights of drinking and meeting new people.
The same WhatsApp numbers were also used to target multiple victims over several months, in another sign that this may not be a hi-tech operation. This has led to speculation that it could be a rogue political insider who enjoyed gathering compromising material on their colleagues.
Catfishing – where someone is convinced they are talking to a potential love interest under false pretences – is not illegal in the UK. Nor is convincing someone to willingly share naked photos under false pretences. But an individual who publishes those pictures at a later date could be convicted of breaking “revenge porn” laws, while police are assessing potential for blackmail offences.
Although Wragg is the only politician to have gone public, some of those targeted as part of the apparent honeytrap have told the Guardian they do not believe the MP would have had their number in his phone contacts. This suggests there was a wider campaign that did not just rely on a single MP opening up their phone book.
Woodward said the incident had more in common with old-fashioned blackmail. He said the only solution for the victims is to confess and own up to mistakes at an early stage: “Kompromat these days is so ineffective as people are not so easily shamed. And if you’re willing to send these images to a stranger on Grindr, are you even so ashamed?”
