• FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      You do it once, with something small. nobody notices.
      You do it again… because now they got their hooks in you… that’s when you get caught, but you don’t have a chioce, so you do it anyhow.

      These kinds of things frequently start small and grow, they don’t get turned into spies overnight.

      • bedrooms@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Plus your lover tells you to do that, and you can’t consult your wife or anybody else. Turns out, your lover has been a honey trap all along.

      • SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Some people are getting away with it right now, and the only reason we know about it is because it got so bad the FBI couldn’t ignore it anymore

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Seeing some of the payouts for these bribes, it is absolutely ridiculously small. Like the one in the article:

        According to US officials, Zhao, who was stationed at a naval base north of Los Angeles, received nearly $15,000 from the Chinese intelligence officer between August 2021 and May 2023.

        I can’t imagine risking my military career and risk spending time in military prison (much less being a traitor to my country) for the cost of a used 2012 Toyota Camry with 77k miles.

      • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        In some cases, there have been threats against family in those countries IIRC. How credible, etc. is not something I know.