The FBI's Chicago field office circulated a February memo alleging a "small group of women" used fake dating profiles styled as "tradwives" to target and dox Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, The Guardian reports. The memo, obtained by the transparency nonprofit Property of the People, says profiles used a traditional-wife aesthetic to attract law enforcement and then publicly expose their personal information. Property of the People criticized the alert as thinly sourced, and the allegation follows separate reports that ICE has quietly fired recently hired officers over vetting and performance concerns.
FBI Warns Women Allegedly Posing As 'Tradwives' Used Fake Dating Profiles To Dox ICE Officers
FBI Panics Women Are Pretending to Be Tradwives to Catfish and Dox ICE
The FBI's Chicago field office circulated a brief memo in February warning that a "small group of women allegedly were creating fictitious online dating profiles with the purpose of attracting and then doxxing law enforcement participating in immigration enforcement," according to a report in The Guardian.
The document says the profiles reportedly used imagery associated with a "traditional wife" aesthetic and listed specific interests to appeal to individuals in law enforcement. The alleged tactic was to lure officers into online or in-person interactions under the guise of dates, then publicly expose personal information to cause embarrassment and potentially deter immigration enforcement activity.
Source And Context
The memo was obtained through a public records request by Property of the People, a government-transparency nonprofit. The alert followed social-media posts by conservative influencer Chaya Raichik, who said groups of TikTok users were organizing to entice federal agents into dates and publish their personal information. Raichik's post did not mention "tradwives," and it remains unclear whether her claims were accurate or directly connected to the FBI memo.
Reactions
"It's absurd the FBI issued a thinly-sourced security alert about ICE agents' online dating troubles," said Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People. "It's equally ludicrous the FBI is spending taxpayer dollars to protect ICE agents from possible 'embarrassment' at the hands of a supposed 'small group of women' who might name and ridicule them online."
Observers noted the memo's limited publicly available detail and questioned the strength of the sourcing. The FBI has not publicly released the full investigative material referenced in the memo.
Related Developments
Separately, officials have reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has quietly fired some newly hired officers who were recruited during the agency's recent hiring push for so-called "Homeland Defenders," citing poor performance and vetting concerns. Critics say those problems highlight broader issues in recruitment and oversight at the agency.
The memo highlights how social media and dating apps can be used for targeted harassment or doxxing, and it raises questions about how law enforcement agencies assess and respond to such online threats while balancing transparency and public accountability.
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