Honeytrap - malevolent forces at work?

flappergirl

Didn't Oscar Wilde sent private letters to a number of Tory MP's with the words "the game's up". Half a dozen of them quickly packed their bags and left on the boat train to France.

Love this!

Didn't Oscar Wilde sent private letters to a number of Tory MP's with the words "the game's up". Half a dozen of them quickly packed their bags and left on the boat train to France.

What a pusillanimous bunch of wallies our current MPs are. Ready to panic at every tiny threat.

Why can none of them respond as the 1st Duke of Wellington did when a high class prostitute he frequented wrote a book revealing the sexual secrets of all her clients, old and new, sending them the relevant pages and offering to leave them out if they paid her suitably. The Dukes responsed 'Publish and be damned'

Nothing any of these men are doing is particularly illegal, just something they are ashamed of - sharing dick pictures, using prostitutes, male or female, or whatever

Supposing one of them were to stand up and 'Yes, I frequent prostitutes, so what? and just got on with his life.

People can only shamed or humiliateted, if they agree to it. If someone doesn't cooperate by actting ashamed or humiliated there is little anyone can doto make them so.

Seems more and more likely it’s just a prankster or a group of pranksters phishing to see who responds and reciprocates with compromising messages and pictures - little different to the explicit spam that can sometimes find its way into anybody’s email inbox if one isn’t careful about cookies.

WhatsApp and the way Meta shares data has always put people at risk of this rubbish and highlights once again, as has been revealed by the Covid enquiry, the perils of using that app for business communication.

Again, what we don’t know is whether the people being approached are the same people whose numbers were disclosed by Wragg.

I’ve just read this on the ITV News website.
www.itv.com/news/2024-04-04/police-investigating-after-explicit-images-sent-to-mps-in-sexting-scam
It does involve Labour as well according to this account, a Labour official was contacted by ‘Charlie’ (the male Charlie, apparently some were also contacted by a female Charlie) - the plot thickens.

I expect Labour and the other parties are well aware this incident might involve their MPs.
Call me old fashioned, I won’t mind but, people in jobs thar mean they could be sacked for bringing the organisation into disrepute or more seriously blackmailed need to Think On before sending dick pics
He should resign or Sunak should sack him

Who knows? These things have a habit of growing exponentially once phone numbers get into the public domain which is what Wragg’s foolishness has enabled. It’s unknown whether Evans’ number was among those which Wragg disclosed but, like Wragg, he was another of the 2015 intake.

One would have to examine his Parliamentary record to see who he might have aligned himself with or upset. He’s been PPS to Rees-Mogg and Shapps but remains with Energy as PPS to Claire Coutinho. Maybe he’s upset someone who isn’t a fan of net zero? He was a supporter of Mordaunt in the 2022 party leadership election but now seems to support Sunak which would upset those in the “plot against Johnson” lobby. He’s been vocal on the matter of digitally-altered body images which might have upset some in the advertising lobby. Again, who knows? This could all just be some minor political hack or teenage pranksters.

I also think there’s too much emphasis on the fact that William Wragg is gay actually, I get the sense that isn’t the major issue, as the targets appear to be both gay and heterosexual - presumably all men, although that hasn’t been confirmed either.

I had wondered about the involvement of another political party. Who would be better placed to know about his proclivities than a fellow MP? Even one of his constituents has said here that she didn’t even know he was gay.

I suspect its cross party.

I’m sceptical. It’s strange that Labour have been so quiet, and very little from the Lib Dem’s. Most likely there are politicians involved from outside the Tory party too, we just don’t know who they are yet. Also, Luke Evans tows the party line so if it was an internal party job, why target him?

Visgirl writes: My money is on outside UK cyber influences and he fell for it, can't believe he's the only one.

My money is on this turning out to be an inside job within the party. It’s unclear when this incident with Grindr happened, exactly when Wragg committed the breach of privacy disclosing other people’s phone numbers, but I assume it happened before he announced that he would be stepping down at the next election.

However, in January 2022, Wragg spoke out in Parliament and spoke to the Metropolitan Police about a campaign to blackmail MPs who did not support Boris Johnson’s leadership.

news.sky.com/story/police-will-meet-with-mp-who-claims-conservative-critics-of-boris-johnson-are-being-blackmailed-12522217

Watch the video to hear what he said and what Speaker Hoyle said.

Wragg’s actions will not have made him popular with some members of the party. We know that whips and SpAds are vicious and like to collect dirty on people.

Almost since he was first elected, he has made it clear that he doesn’t have the stomach for Westminster game-playing. Scroll half way down the page in this:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/17/mps-on-why-they-are-leaving-parliament-standing-down-after-election-conservatives

It’s up to Wragg if he gets his jollies sharing porn with strangers but he must have been incredibly naive not to realise that using the sordid pit that Grindr is would leave him open to extortion. It remains to be seen whether he fell victim to a honeytrap that is connected to the earlier blackmail attempts.

Germanshepherdsmum

Yes! 🤣🤣🤣

Red, not read!

I think the men using prostitutes are about a thousand times worse than sending consensual pictures. I dont mean unasked for ones.

HousePlantQueen

Germanshepherdsmum

Yes, Cynthia Payne and the luncheon vouchers - that produced some red faces.

From what I remember of the court reports, it produced some read backsides too

But very clean ovens!

It all seems rather innocent and amusing now, compared with the desperation of dick-pics.

how bad must the nudes have been that he sold out the security of his fellow MPs rather than run the risk of them being exposed

The oldest trick in the book but it still works.
History shows its a powerful form of coercion especially now when so many contacts start via an App.
My money is on outside UK cyber influences and he fell for it, can't believe he's the only one.

Yes! 🤣🤣🤣

Germanshepherdsmum

Yes, Cynthia Payne and the luncheon vouchers - that produced some red faces.

From what I remember of the court reports, it produced some read backsides too

I'm not very tech savvy but why didn't Wragg block the person who sent a message with the blackmail in? He has said he couldn't stop them as they wouldn't leave him alone, but maybe he could have stopped them....?

How horrible, JaneJudge. Presumably they are just nasty exhibitionists - would they seriously think that a dick pic would make any sane woman want to get to know them better?

Ah, the colourful Cynthia Payne - but she was the one who got the prison sentence! Ironically, her "staff" were entertaining judges amongst the clients, but hey - why let fairness get in the way of double standards?

GSM one of my friends is single and she said it is astounding how many men on online dating sites show a bit of interest and then second post is photo of their tackle. She said it is disgusting. I feel sorry for what women (and men) have to put up with now, it's almost like an abuse as it isn't even consensual it seems.

I really, really don’t understand why anyone, gay or straight, would send intimate photographs to anyone, let alone a total stranger.

Wragg - who sent photos of his willy plus details of telephone numbers of several fellow MPs to a total stranger on Grindr is a member of the Conservative “Common Sense” group. Says it all.