FBI Warned ICE Agents Could Be Targeted by Fake 'Tradwife' Dating Profiles, Memo Shows

The memo, which the FBI's Chicago office disseminated to other law enforcement officials across the United States, said that "as of late January 2026" a small group of women allegedly were creating fictitious dating profiles for that purpose. It did not explain the source of the information or provide many details about the alleged scheme.

The FBI said the profiles incorporated imagery of a "traditional wife" aesthetic and listed specific interests in an attempt to appeal to law enforcement personnel. The objective, according to the memo, was to lure affiliated law enforcement personnel into an online or in-person interaction under the guise of a date, after which they would be publicly exposed and doxed online. The tactic was intended to generate public embarrassment and deter immigration enforcement activity, the memo said.

Property of the People obtained the document through a public records request. The group has collected numerous internal law enforcement records that reveal concerns about activists organizing against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The FBI's "situational information report" did not list the dating sites allegedly used by the women or where they were located, nor did it specify whether agents had actually been exposed. The FBI wrote that the memo aimed "to raise awareness" about the doxing "technique" and included a disclaimer that the report was "not finally evaluated intelligence." The "tradwife" reference pointed to a trend popularized in recent years by influencers promoting traditional gender roles, with women romanticizing domesticity. Doxing generally refers to publishing someone's private information online without consent, though the administration has used the term loosely, claiming doxing includes posting videos of officers.

The FBI declined to answer detailed questions about the memo, saying the bureau generally does not comment on intelligence briefings. A spokesperson said in an email: "The FBI regularly shares information with our law enforcement partners to assist in protecting the communities they serve as well as protecting those who serve and protect communities. The FBI is committed to ensuring that law enforcement officers are safe from threats or violence while performing their duties." The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

The memo was sent weeks after the New York Post, a conservative outlet, ran a story saying that "lefty TikTokkers" were "orchestrating groups of women" to "chase dick picks and selfies of ICE agents in a twisted scheme to dox them." That story cited Libs of TikTok, a rightwing account that had posted a screenshot of someone claiming to be part of a Facebook group dedicated to going on dates with agents to expose them. The article listed a handful of posts and videos from users discussing the tactic, but it did not include interviews with anyone who claimed to be duping agents, and there was no evidence that agents had been tricked. The news coverage did not mention women using "tradwife" imagery, so it is unclear whether the FBI may have received direct accounts from targeted agents or was simply summarizing social media trends.

Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, said in a statement: "It's absurd the FBI issued a thinly-sourced security alert about ICE agents' online dating troubles. 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."

Mike German, a former FBI agent and longtime civil liberties advocate, reviewed the document for The Guardian and said it was odd that the briefing did not have footnotes or citations. The briefing said the intelligence came from a "collaborative source." German said: "The rightwing echo chamber creates threats and the government's intelligence apparatus just repeats those threats without any context, more detail or any instruction of how agents or officers should respond." He argued it seemed likely the briefing was inspired by the New York Post story. "They must have run out of other threats," he said. German added that the document "reinforces the paranoid 'us versus them' mentality within law enforcement."

The briefing comes as U.S. law enforcement has raised increasing alarms about officials, and ICE agents in particular, being doxed. More than a dozen internal law enforcement reports, obtained via records requests by Property of the People, include similar warnings about doxing, according to The Guardian.

Editor's Summary The FBI warned in a February 2026 memo that a small group of women were using fake "tradwife"-style dating profiles to lure immigration enforcement agents and dox them, according to a document obtained by Property of the People and shared with The Guardian. The memo did not identify the dating sites, locations or whether agents were actually exposed, and the FBI declined to answer detailed questions. The warning followed a New York Post report about similar claims, while critics questioned the memo's sourcing and said it reflected law enforcement anxieties over doxing.