History Main / FeedTheMole

* In the second half of ''Manga/DeathNote'', Near and Mello are both heading organizations trying to stop Kira, the supernatural serial killer targeting criminals-- Near with law enforcement, and Mello with the mafia. When Kira kills off Mello's mafia gang, his only recourse is to rely on Halle Lidner, a second mole he has in Near's group. (He killed the first one, along with most of Near's lackeys.) While Mello is determined to catch Kira before Near, Near only cares about winning against Kira, and knowing that Mello's actions often generate information, leads, or scenarios he can take advantage of, he instructs the mole on what to say (and occasionally, what not to say). Mello makes a few shrewd guesses as to what it is that Near actually wants him to know, and while he initially tries to make it look like he's threatening Halle, Near doesn't buy it. Halle really acts as something of a DoubleAgent between the two-- she seems to have more respect for Near, who is polite but distant, but more genuine liking for Mello, who points a gun at her head but is more charismatic. When Mello asks her point blank who's side she's on, she says neither-- with the three of them all wanting Kira taken out, it's pointless for her to choose a side, since the job will get done faster with all three of them are working on it.

* Attempted in the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Day of the Cheetah'' when those involved with an experimental fighter project are each shown slightly different plans for modifications. Unfortunately, the DeepCoverAgent sees right through the ruse and decides not to pass on the information. He even invokes this trope when his handler [[WhatAnIdiot insists he should have done so anyway]].

* Copyright traps, either in the form of "phantom settlements" in terms of published maps, or "fictitious entries" for published dictionaries and encyclopedias, serve this function. Reference works like these are inherently based on factual information, and you can't copyright the true definition of a word or the actual layout of a city. So, to prevent lazy publishers from simply copying your reference, the idea is to plant a trivial bit of false information in your own work -- a fake street in a big city, or a ghost word in a dictionary that has no true meaning. If you find the same bit of planted info in a rival publisher's work, you could use this as credible legal evidence that they are copying your work, rather than doing their own research.

** Attempted in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' to identify the ominous Delta Source. It doesn't work since [[spoiler: the Delta Source is not a person.]] It ''still'' proves useful because [[spoiler:it pins down the ''location'' of Delta Source, which turns out to be an ingeniously hidden recording system.]]

* Someone in the group knows who the mole is but hasn't exposed them yet (if they ever will). He simply arranges matters so that the mole ends up passing on bogus information to whomever they work for. The information is always to the other side's detriment. Perhaps it's useless or designed to throw them off the scent. Perhaps they'll act on it, in which case they may get caught in a trap or be led to their deaths. Perhaps, if they're getting more than one report, the information confuses them and thus buys the group some time as their enemies (it's usually an enemy) try to work out which of their contradictory reports are true and which aren't.\\

You have TheMole on your team. Perhaps you even know who he is, feeding information to the BigBad, or (if DividedWeFall) to TheRival. How convenient! [[FlawExploitation You can now spread whatever (dis)information you want spread]]! You may even manage to trigger an EnemyCivilWar.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': It's spelled out more explicitly in the print novelizations than the original comic, but Klaus and Gil Wulfenbach do this with both the noble-family students/hostages on board [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld Castle Wulfenbach]], ''and'' Gil's manservant Ardley Wooster, who is a British spy.

* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'': An alien in the guise of an AmazonianBeauty once infiltrated [=MiB=] and [[InterspeciesRomance gains the confidence]] of Frank the Pug. J and K cottoned on pretty quickly and provided Frank with bogus information. Frank was ''genuinely'' saddened when he learned of her intentions.

** ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': PlayedForLaughs. Sheppard is captured by the Wraith and placed in a cell with another human prisoner, a frightened young woman. However, he becomes suspicious when she asks a few leading questions about Earth ([[spoiler:[[ProperlyParanoid he's right]], [[LesCollaborateurs she's a Wraith-worshipper]]]]), so he tells her about the terrible enemy that they're at war with: '''''clowns'''''.

* The SIS (British) spy Kim Philby was accused of being TheMole for the KGB (Soviets). He was exonerated, but still not completely trusted. Then he came under greater suspicion, and he had to leave the SIS, and defected to the KGB for real. The thing was, the KGB were quite suspicious that he was a FakeDefector and they didn't trust him either, which prompted Philby to regain contact with the SIS in an effort to ''actually'' become a FakeDefector. In the end, since neither side trusted him any more, they embraced this trope, making him [[FeedTheMole essentially a glorified messenger boy.]]

A "Mole" who willingly feeds the information you want is a DoubleAgent. A Mole who is BecomingTheMask may slowly move to being a DoubleAgent--though if the mole doesn't know you have twigged, there is the little problem that they will choose their own misinformation. Feed The Mole may lead to a YouHaveFailedMe moment for the unlucky mole concerned, if their boss ever figures out what they did. The boss may even accuse the mole of doing it of their own free will, when really the mole had no more idea what was going on than the boss did.

* During Eren's first outside-the-walls expedition in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', Commander Smith, suspecting there might be a mole in his unit, gives different members different information regarding Eren's position in the formation. When an attack, indeed, comes, Smith is able to narrow the suspects down considerably (and eventually expose TheMole) by comparing its direction with his earlier misinformation.
* Kanta of ''Manga/DesertPunk'', when asked to guard a town about to become an oasis from the Edo River Gang, starts partying around the village and gains a ProfessionalButtKisser in the process. When it's revealed said ass-kisser was a spy, Kanta explains that he knew this, and lead the spy to believe the villagers would all be defending the side of the village facing an abandoned city, when they were really defending the side facing the open desert. [[UnspokenPlanGuarantee Unfortunately for Kanta]], the Edo River Gang [[OutGambitted were smart enough to spot bad intel]], and attacked from the city anyway, forcing him to [[DespiteThePlan fight them all himself]].
* In ''Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam: The Steel Seven'', the heroes become aware that Europa is an unwitting mole for the enemy, because the BigBad can read her mind whenever he wants. As a result, they take the prudent measure and lock her up (at her own request). Then when Tobia comes in with her meal, he tells her exactly where they're going, and why they think the item they're after is in the area. When Europa protests this action, Tobia smirks and replies "What guarantee is there that I'm telling you the truth?" As it turns out, he actually was telling the truth, but the BigBad took the bait and didn't trust his words. When they ''do'' end up meeting and fighting, the BigBad had figured out the heroes' location through other evidence.

--->''The thing to do with a spy is to let him breathe, encyst him with loyal comrades, and feed him harmless information to please his employers...But it would be the greatest waste to eliminate them--not only would each spy be replaced with someone new, but also killing these traitors would tell the Warden that we have penetrated his secrets.''

* In ''Literature/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' by Creator/JohnLeCarre, the sort of intelligence deemed suitable for leaking to moles is dubbed "Chickenfeed". The cabal of high-level intelligence officials ''believe'' that they are only giving chickenfeed to their pet Soviet mole, while one of their number is in fact feeding the mole with real, vital intelligence. Similarly, they view the intelligence supplied back to them as being gold; Smiley, however, is suspicious from the get-go - "Topicality is always suspect," he remarks of the first report - and confirms in the end that it was all Karla's chickenfeed, with just a few scraps of the good stuff at the start in order to bait the hook.

*** Used more simply when it was discovered that there was a mole among one of Rogue Squadron's trading partners. Talon Karrde offered to let them execute her in whichever way they desired - he's got a really good reputation to uphold, after all, and having your trading partners sold out to the authorities is bad for business - but they opt to feed her a little information first, letting her find their base in order to draw out the enemy while making it ''look'' like they're still taking ProperlyParanoid precautions to hide it so that a trap won't be suspected. It takes a ''lot'' of money for them to convince Karrde to hold off on executing the traitor until after they're done feeding her.

* ''Literature/FullDisclosure:'' When Ericson’s disgruntled mistress and personal photographer Buffie becomes a source for Bannerman, she is quickly found out and fed information meant to make Bannerman distrust his allies and fear for his job, although this doesn't deter him.

* Subverted in ''Series/BionicWoman'' (2007 remake). Jaime overhears her colleague talking on the phone to an assassin planning to kill an African dictator. Jaime is told to feed him false information on the dictator's movements. This leaves the dictator wide open--instead of following the false information, the assassin is following her original plan as Jaime's colleague isn't in cahoots with the assassin, he's just trying to warn her off (she's a former LoveInterest turned RogueAgent).

* [[Series/HogansHeroes Hogan]] and company once (in the pilot) fed a mole… pretty much the entire truth about their operation, knowing that [[RefugeInAudacity he would never be believed]].

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': In the seventh episode of season 1, Dinah Madani realizes her office has been bugged as that's the only explanation for how Gunner Henderson got tracked down and killed so quickly by Rawlins's commandos (as he overheard her talking about him with Sam Stein). After an hours long search, she and Sam find the bug, and decide that the best course of action is to stage a conversation that leads Rawlins and Billy Russo to think Madani is setting up a sting to bust Frank Castle as he meets with a gun buyer at an abandoned warehouse. Actually, it's a sting to capture them, but it goes badly as Russo recruits some private military contractors to come with him to the meet. It ends in a fatal shootout with Russo's men all being killed, and Russo killing five DHS SWAT officers (including Sam).

* ''Series/TheWire'': After Burrell is surprised to learn about the bug in the Barksdales' back office at Orlando's during season 1, Daniels realizes that Carver was Burrell's informant on the detail, since Carver had been at an in-service training that day. Subverted in that in that Daniels wasn't actively trying to figure out who the mole was.

* A small questline in the fan-made ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' mod pack ''VideoGame/TamrielRebuilt'' centers around the EnforcedColdWar between the [[MagicalSociety Mages Guild]] and [[TheMagocracy House Telvanni]], and both sides, regardless of which one you take, have a quest where you have to help root out a suspected mole[=/=]leak from the other side this way. The Telvanni version has you baiting out four suspected moles with "gossip" about a defecting Guild mage (with a different story[=/=]mage for each suspect), then laer checking if any of the "defectors" have [[UnPerson suddenly disappeared]]. The Guild quest has you spread a rumor about a fake expedition to one of their agents within the Telvanni to see if they've been flipped. [[spoiler:For extra points, the spy for both quests is [[DoubleAgent the same person]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'': An alien in the guise of an AmazonianBeauty once infiltrated [=MiB=] and [[InterspeciesRomance gains the confidence]] of Frank the Pug. J and K cottoned on pretty quickly and provided Frank with bogus information. Frank was ''genuinely'' saddened when he learned of her intentions.

* Copyright traps, either in the form of "phantom settlements" in terms of published maps, or "fictitious entries" for published dictionaries and encyclopedias, serve this function. Reference works like these are inherently based on factual information, and you can't copyright the true definition of a word or the actual layout of a city. So, to prevent lazy publishers from simply copying your reference, the idea is to plant a trivial bit of false information in your own work - a fake street in a big city, or a ghost word in a dictionary that has no true meaning. If you find the same bit of planted info in a rival publisher's work, you could use this as credible legal evidence that they are copying your work, rather than doing their own research.

* By ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Dawlish, the most evil-minion-y member of the elite police force, has been [[MindRape mind-raped]] for this purpose so many times it seems to have affected his gross motor skills.

* ''Series/TheWire'': After Burrell was surprised to learn about the bug in the Barksdales' back office at Orlando's during season 1, Daniels realized that Carver was Burrell's informant on the detail, since Carver had been at an in-service training that day. Subverted in that in that Daniels wasn't actively trying to figure out who the mole was.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': In ''Literature/AClashOfKings'', Tyrion assumes at least one of three members of the DeadlyDecadentCourt is Cersei's Mole, and so feeds them all different stories to see which one gets back to her. Tyrion even singles out one of these three whose motives are still mysterious and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome and tells him everything he's doing and why]], thereby trapping the schemer [[XanatosGambit between the choice of playing along or passing the info and thus letting Tyrion know he's truly an enemy]]. Hell with Littlefinger, Tyrion is the true MagnificentBastard.

* By early 1942, the US had already broken the Imperial Japanese Navy's JN-25 codes, and they found out that they were planning an operation around "Objective AF". Certain of their intel but needing an example to show to the brass, they had their base at Midway begin sending false messages saying that its distillation plant had been damaged and that they were short on water. When Japanese messages began stating that "AF" was short on water, the US had their proof, giving them the element of surprise that the US utilized to great effect at the Battle of Midway that June. The result was the loss of four Japanese carriers to one American one, and from that point forward, Japan was on the defensive in the Pacific War.

** In ''Literature/HanSoloAtStarsEnd'', Han has discovered the planet that the secret base is on, and has his crew do research on the place. But he tells each of them a slightly incorrect name for the planet, knowing that the Mole would unconsciously look up the ''correct'' name.

** This was also part of [[spoiler:Colby's ReverseMole operation]]. Under the guidance of his handler, [[spoiler:Colby]] fed information to [[TheMole genuine mole]] [[spoiler:Carter]] in hopes that [[spoiler:Carter]] would eventually reveal the identity of his contact. [[spoiler:He does. Unfortunately, it's not until after said contact had figured out Colby's true allegiances.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Grand Admiral Thrawn says in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E08AnInsideMan "An Inside Man"]] that he plans to do this once he finds out who the [[ReverseMole mole]] is, now that he knows there is one. At the end of [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E15ThroughImperialEyes "Through Imperial Eyes"]], [[spoiler:now that he knows who the mole is, he tells Yularen that he can start actually doing it.]]

Note that this isn't exclusive to the hero; the BigBad, TheDragon, or TheRival could just as easily manipulate TheMole in this fashion. TheChessmaster and the MagnificentBastard are quite likely to use this tactic to confuse or to trick the hero. If that's the case, then the tactic will generally be condemned more strongly by the audience as playing dirty than if the hero had used it, obviously because the audience is usually (DesignatedHero notwithstanding) on the hero's side, or because it's more likely an opponent will be more ruthless by, for example, using it to get the hero killed. Might make for a good [[TheReveal Reveal]] when the hero or the ReverseMole says "MyGodWhatHaveIDone"

Note that this isn't exclusive to the hero; the BigBad, TheDragon, or TheRival could just as easily manipulate a ReverseMole in this fashion. TheChessmaster and the MagnificentBastard are quite likely to use this tactic to confuse or to trick the hero. If that's the case, then the tactic will generally be condemned more strongly by the audience as playing dirty than if the hero had used it, obviously because the audience is usually (DesignatedHero notwithstanding) on the hero's side, or because it's more likely an opponent will be more ruthless by, for example, using it to get the hero killed. Might make for a good [[TheReveal Reveal]] when the hero or the ReverseMole says "MyGodWhatHaveIDone"

->''"My theory on Feds is that they're like mushrooms, feed 'em shit and keep 'em in the dark."''
-->--'''Dignam''', ''Film/TheDeparted''

* The SIS (British) spy Kim Philby was accused of being TheMole for the KGB (Soviets); he was exonerated, but still not completely trusted. Then he came under greater suspicion, and he had to leave the SIS, and defected to the KGB for real. The thing was, the KGB were quite suspicious that he was a FakeDefector and they didn't trust him either, which prompted Philby to regain contact with the SIS in an effort to ''actually'' become a FakeDefector. In the end, since neither side trusted him any more, they embraced this trope, making him [[FeedTheMole essentially a glorified messenger boy.]]
* On a more mundane note, this is a good way to quickly filter out your junk mail. Any time you fill out a form where your information will most likely be sent or sold to companies that send junk, give a false name (or at least a different form of your own). If anything comes addressed to the name, you can throw it away without opening it. {{Discussed}} one of Creator/WilWheaton's blog posts: ''[[http://wilwheaton.net/2013/12/goddamit-popular-science/ Goddammit, Popular Science. You Had One Job]]''. He used the fake name "Awesomeface Wheaton" when subscribing to ''Popular Science'' and found his information had been shared with a third party. Sites like [[http://sneakemail.com/ Sneakemail]] provide a similar service for email.

* By early 1942, the US had already broken the Imperial Japanese Navy's JN-25 codes, and they found out that they were planning an operation around "objective AF". Certain of their intel but needing an example to show to the brass, they had their base at Midway begin sending false messages saying that its distillation plant had been damaged and that they were short on water. When Japanese messages began stating that "AF" was short on water, the US had their proof, giving them the element of surprise that the US utilized to great effect at the Battle of Midway that June. The result was the loss of four Japanese carriers to one American one, and from that point forward Japan was on the defensive in the Pacific War.
* Subverted in the 1960 U2 Crisis. The Soviets shot down and captured an American spy pilot, Gary Powers, who was flying over Soviet airspace. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev originally gave the impression that they had no idea exactly what the plane was and were merely annoyed that it had been in their airspace without their permission, whereas in actual fact Powers had told them everything. The Eisenhower administration, relieved due to thinking they'd got off the hook, claimed it had been a weather plane. The Soviets then revealed that they knew what the plane was for all along, making the Americans look like liars as well as spies.

* In 2019, Coleen Rooney, wife of soccer superstar Wayne Rooney, suspected another soccer wife of leaking her private stories to the tabloids; she tested the theory by making her social media private to everyone but the suspect, then posting false stories and seeing if they spread. When they did, she made a big public accusation, which of course became huge tabloid fodder again.

* A small questline in the fan-made ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' mod pack ''VideoGame/TamrielRebuilt'' centers around the EnforcedColdWar between the [[MagicalSociety Mages Guild]] and [[TheMagocracy House Telvanni]], and regardless of which one you side with, both sides have a quest where you have to help root out a suspected mole[=/=]leak from the other side this way. The Telvanni version has you baiting out four suspected moles with "gossip" about a defecting Guild mage (with a different story[=/=]mage for each suspect), then seeing if any of the "defectors" [[UnPerson suddenly disappear]], while the Guild quest has you spread a rumor about a fake expedition to determine if one of their agents within the Telvanni has been flipped. [[spoiler:For extra points, the spy for both quests is [[DoubleAgent the same person]].]]