Indian soldier 'honey trapped' by 'Pakistani' Facebook account

Pair shared intimate messages and photographs, money, army information

An Indian soldier was 'honey trapped' into revealing sensitive information to a fake 'Pakistani Facebook account', CNN reported.

Honey trapping is a practice in which an individual uses romantic or sexual attraction to entice another into revealing information.

The Indian soldier, Sombir Singh, aged 22, allegedly connected online with who he thought was an Indian army medical officer while stationed at the Pakistan-India border. Singh revealed sensitive information such as troop and tank movements to the fake profile he believed was his paramour.

"He was honey-trapped via Facebook from a lady in Pakistan," claimed Umesh Mishra, additional director general of police (intelligence) for the Rajasthan Police.

Officials alleged that the pair shared intimate and sexually explicit messages and photographs. The fake account featured a picture of a woman wearing a green sari under the name 'Anika Chopra'.

Singh received money from 'Anika' through his brother's bank account. He was arrested and could face up to three years in prison under Indian law.

"She started getting confidential information about the army in lieu of which he received money," Mishra said.

Last week, India's belligerent army chief Bipin Rawat claimed the Indian army was facing a wider catfishing campaign. Many have been duped by scams and warnings have been issued to army personnel.

"For those people who are not reporting the matter, if it comes to our notice that they have been continuously flouting the rules of social media, the punishment being meted is heavy," Rawat said Thursday.

"We are taking this very seriously and can't allow the compromise of security through ... social media."

The scammers "from across the border" use Bollywood actresses' names to entice recruits into online relationships, said Rawat, urging troops to be sceptical of such accounts.

"I tell my boys, Do you think that your film star wants to become friendly with you?" he said. "But yet people are getting trapped by these names. We have told them, Be careful, don't go into these things."

Mishra added that the Indian army was monitoring the online activities of soldiers and that this surveillance had raised the red flag in the case of Singh.

"We have seized his mobile (phone) and his digital footprints are being investigated," said Mishra.

 

This article originally appeared on CNN.