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In espionage, a honeypot, more often called a honeytrap, is a trap set to capture, kill or compromise a person, commonly but not necessarily an opposition agent, officer, or employee, using sex as the lure.

There are many ways in which the technique can be used to gain advantage. If the target is genuinely attached to the person who seduces him (see recruitment through friendship or romance), information can be obtained over a long period — the target may trust his or her seducer enough to reveal secrets, or may even change his allegiance due to emotional attachment. Even if the target does not deliberately give information to his seducer, the seducer may accidentally be given opportunities to obtain it herself.

A long-term relationship is not necessarily the goal (see casual sex and recruitment), however — the technique can also be used to blackmail those who later regret their actions. Incriminating photographs can be an effective tool of coercion, for example. Sometimes, the technique is nothing more than a means of getting the target to lower his guard so that he may be captured or killed, or getting him to go to a location where this is more easily accomplished.

The most common employment of this technique is by women, either female intelligence agents or (if the purpose is simply to obtain material for blackmail) prostitutes. Some intelligence agencies, particularly in the Soviet bloc, are alleged to have agents (called "swallows") specially trained for this purpose. Not all traps are carried out by women, however; sometimes, women are ensnared by male agents, and sometimes same-sex traps are used. (The latter were particularly effective during times, or in countries, where homosexuality was taboo, and the very fact that an agent was homosexual was material suitable for blackmail.) Quite often, alcohol is involved, as any inhibitions the target has will be reduced.

• The earliest, classic example of the honeytrap would be the biblical figure Delilah, who seduced Samson, discovered the secret of his strength, and sold it to an enemy.
• In the apocrypha, Judith seduced the enemy commander Holofernes. When he was fully enamored with her and lowered his guards, Judith assassinated him.
• Clayton J. Lonetree, a Marine Sergeant embassy guard in Moscow, was entrapped by a female Soviet officer in 1987. He was then blackmailed into handing over documents when he was assigned to Vienna. Lonetree is the first US Marine to be convicted of spying against the United States.
• Roy Rhodes, a US Army NCO serving at the US embassy in Moscow, had a one-night stand (or was made to believe he had) with a Soviet agent while drunk. He was later told the agent was pregnant, and that unless he co-operated with the Soviet authorities, this would be revealed to his wife.
• Irvin Scarbeck, a US diplomat, was entrapped by a female Polish officer in 1961, and photographed in a compromising position. He was blackmailed into providing secrets.
• Sharon Scranage, a CIA employee described by one source as a "shy, naive, country girl", was allegedly seduced by Ghanaian intelligence agent Michael Soussoudis. She later gave him information on CIA operations in Ghana, which was later shared with Soviet-bloc countries.
• Mordechai Vanunu, who had disclosed Israeli nuclear secrets, began an affair with an American Mossad agent, Cheryl Bentov, operating under the name "Cindy" and masquerading as an American tourist, on September 30, 1986. She persuaded him to fly to Rome, Italy with her on a holiday. Once in Rome, Mossad agents drugged him and smuggled him to Israel on a freighter.
• John Vassall, a British civil servant who was guided by the KGB into having sex with multiple male partners while drunk. The KGB then used photographs of this to blackmail Vassall into providing them with secret information.
• Bernard Boursicot, a French diplomat, was entrapped by Shi Pei Pu, who was working for the Chinese government. Shi Pei Pu, a male Chinese opera singer, successfully masqueraded as a woman and told Boursicot he was carrying Boursicot's child. The situation was fictionalized into the play M. Butterfly.
• Katrina Leung, indicted as a double agent working for both China and the FBI, seduced her FBI handler, James J. Smith, and was able to obtain FBI information of use to China through him. She also had an affair with another FBI officer, William Cleveland.
• In 2006, the British Defence Attache in Islamabad Pakistan, was recalled home, when it emerged that he had been involved in a relationship with a Pakistani woman, who was an intelligence agent. While the British Government deny that secrets were lost, others sources say that several Western operatives and operations within Pakistan were compromised. [[1]]
• In May 2007 a female officer serving in Sweden's Kosovo force is suspected of having leaked classified information to her Serbian lover who turned out to be a spy.^[1]

• North by Northwest has Eva Marie Saint as both the honeypot and a double agent
• In From Russia with Love, SMERSH uses Tatiana Romanova in an attempt to lure James Bond to his death
• In Munich Avner says: "beware the local honey trap"
• Traffic features a same-sex honeypot trap
• In an episode of Life on Mars, Sam Tyler arrests the henchman of a local Mr. Big, only to be humiliated in a honey trap.
• The M*A*S*H episode "Are you now, Margaret?" from September 24, 1979 ^[2]
• In Bad Boys 2, Martin Lawrence's character refers to his sister as a honeypot for the DEA.
• In Alias, Laura Bristow, the mother of the central character Sydney Bristow was a honeypot.
• In Battlestar Galactica, a copy of Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, pretending to be the real Valerii, staged a rescue of the stranded Helo on occupied Caprica. The rescue mission was an elaborate ruse to get Helo to fall in love with Valerii, but backfired when Valerii also fell in love and betrayed her own people to flee with Helo.
• In his book Kotilaisen kotiryssä (1991) Lasse Lehtinen describes a failed honey trap attempt: Lea Kotilainen is well aware of his husband's whereabouts and would react on Ostap Nepeipivo's extortion attempt on photographs with indifference.
• In the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the player character can defend a Republic agent accused of murder. It's revealed that the murder victim was a Sith woman sent to seduce the Republic agent and gain information.

• False flag
• Honeypot (computing)

1. ^ Swedish soldier fed secrets to Serbian lover. The Local (2007-05-14). Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
2. ^ Doug Krause (1997). M*A*S*H FAQ: Episode Guide #172. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.