The honeytrapper - as we shall call him, her or them - first popped up on Saturday, 23 September last year in Bournemouth, the opening day of the Liberal Democrats' annual conference.
We have spoken to two male conference attendees who received messages that day on the gay hook-up app Grindr from someone with the user name M-xl.
Months later, people would suspect what became known as the Westminster honeytrap of being the act of anyone ranging from a lone individual seeking sexual gratification to being the actions of a hostile state.
Those messaged in Bournemouth reached a different conclusion: they thought they were being targeted by a journalist seeking information.
Others then disclosed that M-xl had asked them questions about what the worst thing they had ever heard an MP do was, and to share any compromising photos they had of others.
Despite Grindr being designed to show you men nearby, M-xl was not actually there.
One of those messaging M-xl realised why he appeared keen on information but not that keen on meeting up: he was using a feature of the app where you can chat to profiles elsewhere.
A few weeks later M-xl was messaging men at the Labour conference in Liverpool.
Several attendees, including an MP, have reported speaking to M-xl on Grindr there.
The BBC has not been able to speak directly to those who exchanged messages with M-xl on Grindr at the Labour conference.
A crucial question is whether M-xl was indeed in Liverpool or was messaging from London, as with the Liberal Democrat conference.
As polls closed, one person working in parliament received a message from a number they did not have saved on WhatsApp asking them if they were staying up for the by-election results.
The next day, as jubilant Labourites celebrated their victories, one got a message from Abi.
Either way, the honeytrapper's known actions became much more intense after the Met was first made aware of their work.
From February onwards, it seems to have mainly been politicians and political journalists receiving unwanted messages, as some of us have already recounted, including details of a fractious exchange on the morning of Monday, 11 March.
Last week we reported that a former MP had been messaged by Charlie just after 5pm.We now know that another man, a former Conservative MP, received a message from Charlie 15 minutes earlier that same night, to which he did not respond.
A serving government minister also received a message from Charlie late that night, telling Politico that they engaged briefly before blocking that number.
The BBC is aware of another man working in Westminster who was contacted by Charlie on 22 March.
If the honeytrapper is never identified, we may never know how vulnerable Westminster's inhabitants are to security threats.
Police knew about 'honeytrap' messages last year.
This Cyber News was published on www.bbc.com. Publication date: Sun, 14 Apr 2024 14:14:31 +0000