A senior UK lawmaker fell victim to a sexting scam. His colleagues are being urged to go to police
British lawmakers who may have been targeted in a sexting scam were urged Friday to go to police, after a senior Conservative admitted disclosing the personal phone numbers of some colleagues to an unknown individual who held “compromising” material on him
LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers who may have been targeted in a sexting scam were urged Friday to go to police, after a senior Conservative admitted disclosing the personal phone numbers of some colleagues to an unknown individual who held “compromising” material on him.
William Wragg, who chairs the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee in Parliament, told The Times of London newspaper that he had handed over the phone numbers to a man he met on a gay dating app, after he had sent intimate pictures of himself.
Wragg, 36, told The Times that the man had “compromising things” on him and he was “scared" and “manipulated” into giving his colleagues' numbers to the unknown individual he had met on the gay dating app Grindr.
“I gave them some numbers, not all of them,” he said. “I got chatting to a guy on an app and we exchanged pictures. We were meant to meet up for drinks, but then didn’t. Then he started asking for numbers of people. I was worried because he had stuff on me. He gave me a WhatsApp number, which doesn’t work now. I’ve hurt people by being weak. I was scared. I’m mortified.”
