Distraction message

distraction messages are those communications with false content exchanged between two interlocutors who are known or have a premonition, due to some critical political, economic, industrial or technological circumstance, that they are being observed, intercepted, filmed or recorded by agents of some kind of Intelligence Service.

Likewise, this search for information is carried out by unscrupulous people dedicated to the commercialization of classified information and who obey the objective of profit due to the concern of another country in a certain subject.

There are various forms of distraction messages

a.- A diplomatic official, due to a series of indications, perceives that he is being intercepted since his country is in a situation of tense diplomatic relations with another country. In this case, the diplomat can reach an agreement with his Foreign Ministry to send false information by fax at a certain moment that is known to be intercepted, so that the Intelligence Service, in search of information or almost in a situation of harassment, begins to look for clues on the other hand, a fact that allows diverting attention from reserved communications by other means that the representative has with his client.

b.- Similar case with telephone information exchange.

c.- Leaving messages written by hand with wrong information half finished, when the diplomatic representative is going to be absent from his home and knows that his residence is going to be "visited" by the Intelligence Service of the receiving country. In this case, invisible traps are "sown" to know if it has happened or not.

d.- Mention, supposedly in private but within the framework of a public meeting where it is known that one is being intercepted, that information of vital importance is taken to its destination by a person whose name is invented and that the documents They have already left the country, with a stopover at this or that site before arriving at where the information is expected to be received.

In some cases, the distraction message is a tasty way of responding by other means to the extreme harassment, visibly uncomfortable and bordering on the grotesque that out of desperation is carried out by an intelligence service towards a diplomat who represents a country in a situation of war or that represents, due to the breakdown of diplomatic relations, another country in a situation of war.

Distraction messages have been used, among other innumerable cases, during the Falklands War.

This illegal form of information search carried out by the intelligence services is normally directed at embassies, representations before international organizations, high levels of the government of a country, high-tech companies and even international organizations (for example, cases of espionage from the British intelligence services to Kofi Annan in his United Nations office).