• @stoly
    link
    159 months ago

    I’ll never get why people think they can get away with this stuff.

    • FuglyDuck
      link
      English
      18
      edit-2
      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
        link
        fedilink
        49 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.

    • Twinklebreeze
      link
      69 months ago

      Some people are getting away with this right now, and we don’t hear about it because we don’t know.

      • @SkybreakerEngineer
        link
        English
        39 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

    • Pons_Aelius
      link
      fedilink
      49 months ago

      Because a ridiculously small amount of cash is enough for most people to do this sort of shit.

      • partial_accumen
        link
        10
        edit-2
        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.

        • @Serinus
          link
          49 months ago

          I’m just going to assume the $15,000 was all up front, and all of the spying after that was blackmail after having accepted a bribe.

      • tiredofsametab
        link
        fedilink
        39 months ago

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

  • @cybersandwich
    link
    99 months ago

    Before reading th article: these are going to be Chinese ‘expats’. It always is.

    In the article:

    Wenheng Zhao, 26, and another US sailor, Jinchao Wei

    Well…who could have seen this coming.

    • tiredofsametab
      link
      fedilink
      39 months ago

      So it was OK to intern all Japanese-americans during WWII based on their heritage? Can I use this logic today to decide things? I don’t think so.

      • @cybersandwich
        link
        29 months ago

        Lol what an Internet argument thing to say. Is that what you heard me say when you read that? That I wanted to throw people into internment camps and that I think what Americans did to the Japanese was okay?

        That was your takeaway from my comment?

        • tiredofsametab
          link
          fedilink
          19 months ago

          That I wanted to throw people into internment camps

          I did not remotely say that.

          and that I think what Americans did to the Japanese was okay?

          Which is closer to what I was asking.

          You lead with the assumption that they are “Chinese ‘expats’”. I don’t even know what your quotes on expats are doing there. Your later response was listing names and stating “Well…who could have seen this coming.”. To me, that just reads as you saying that Americans with Chinese-sounding names can’t be trusted. If that is indeed your position, I think it’s an awful, racist one.

  • @Custoslibera
    link
    49 months ago

    If the country you’re spying for knows who you are you’ve already fucked up.

    Use a dead drop, at least you’ll continue to get paid instead of blackmailed.