The messages targeted politicians, advisers and journalists, and even if some of them struggled to remember ever having met the sender, the texts had accurate personal information.
Soon, they became flirtatious. Some came with an explicit image. For several days, mystery surrounded the unsolicited WhatsApp messages that gripped British politics.
The news media reported that two legislators had replied by texting back images of themselves. A prominent Conservative lawmaker, William Wragg, owned up to his unwitting role in what is being called the “honey trap” scandal late Thursday, admitting that he had given the phone numbers of fellow members of Parliament to someone he had met on Grindr, a gay dating app.
Mr. Wragg handed over the information, he told The Times of London, because he was scared that the man “had compromising things on me.” Mr.