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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Inside The World Of The Online Honey Trappers

She added him on Facebook, struck up a conversation, and now they speak every day.
They are flirtatious and intimate - he talks about his children, his job, but never his wife.
What he does not realise is that Amy is setting a cyber honey trap. She has been paid by the man's partner - £30 for a week's services - to tempt him to cheat.
"I think these people deserve to be exposed," Amy says.
"If you want to be in a relationship with someone then stay in that relationship, if you want to go around then do, but don't mix the two."
At the end of the week, she will send a report to his spouse and break off all conversation. She will never meet him, and probably never speak to him again.
Amy is part of a new generation of online honey trappers.
Taking advantage of the growth of social media, investigative businesses are now offering these internet services to suspicious partners.
The trappers - some called "investigators", others called "honeys" - are paid to test the fidelity of a target.
Over the course of a conversation honeys say they are often sent explicit messages - including pictures - and are asked to meet.
Amy says that  the majority of men she speaks to will take the bait.
At another company, new recruits are being specifically trained in how to target both men and women online.
Jade, a trainee investigator, is learning the ropes.
She says: "I've personally been cheated on, and it was a really horrific experience, so you don't want other women to go through it."
Sat in front of a laptop, she says: "I'm learning how to create a fake Facebook profile, I have to be very generic... learning how not to give anything away."
The well-established business she works for - with 42 investigators on its books - has had to temporarily offer reduced rates to compete in this growing market.
The boss, Rebecca Jayne, accepts her business is making money out of mistrust, but she argues it is providing a service that is in demand.
She says: "Morally I don't think it's a correct thing to do. But it's not my place to say to a client that they're wrong, if this service can give them some peace of mind"
But therapists are warning these services are detrimental to relationships. They advise counselling, or simply talking, as more productive ways of getting to the bottom of your concerns.
And they warn that the partner who has paid for the service has also betrayed the trust of the relationship - by trying to entrap their other half.
"It's one thing to discover your partner is unfaithful, it's another to set your partner up to be unfaithful," says psychotherapist Dr Sheri Jacobson.
"I think it adds another dimension in terms of being sly and manipulative."

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