Learn English – What word describes a person who gains the trust of people on behalf of an adversary

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What word or idiom describes a person who gains the trust of people
in an organization to identify potential threats to that organization?

Example:

Say Company (Organisation) "A" wants to know how many of its employees are inclined to take part in or form unions.

  • Company A then sends its own person Mr "M" to locate such employees.
  • Mr M then starts his own Workers’ Union and performs activities and gives speeches against the interest of Company A.
  • All this is done to gain the trust of the employees (of Company A).
  • Company A not surprisingly is silent & passive about Mr M.

Mr M's union grows in size as employees seeing his actions and hearing his words fall for the snare and join his Union, hoping to fight against Company A.

Company A now possesses a list of persons that are a threat to it.

  1. What do you call Mr M?
  2. What are the actions & activities of Mr M called?

Best Answer

Such a person is often called a mole because they burrow into an organization to gain information. From the Oxford Dictionaries:

mole

NOUN

  1. A small burrowing mammal with dark velvety fur, a long muzzle, and very small eyes, feeding mainly on worms, grubs, and other invertebrates.

  2. A spy who gradually achieves an important position within the security defences of a country.

    ‘a well-placed mole was feeding them the names of operatives’

    2.1 Someone within an organization who anonymously betrays confidential information.

    ‘the company is hunting for the mole who revealed details of planned job cuts’

They could also be called a spy or a plant (See definition #3).

As to what you would call the mole's activites, he is engaged in subterfuge. From the Oxford Dictionaries:

subterfuge

NOUN

[mass noun]

Deceit used in order to achieve one's goal.

‘he had to use subterfuge and bluff on many occasions’

[count noun] ‘I hated all the subterfuges, I hated lying to you’

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