During drills near the Russian border when they clicked on a female profile in a dating app, they were probably hoping for a little romantic adventure. Instead, they turned out to be the lab rats for a NATO-led anti-disinformation test.

Axar.az reports citing Der Tagesspiegel daily that NATO soldiers fell into a honey trap set up by a communications team and went on Tinder dates with a non-existent woman, reports.

According to the newspaper, some NATO soldiers participating in allied drills in Latvia, near the Russian border, flirted with women on Tinder in their leisure time. At least one of them asked for a rendezvous, and two men reportedly left their post for a date one evening, in breach of rules.

The date never occurred because the woman's profile was created by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. The center, based in Latvia's capital, Riga, is said to be studying weaknesses in army ranks and ways to counter them.

In another test, the communications team launched a website that soldiers advertised as a platform designed by and for soldiers. Soldiers there could chat about the army and life and could buy T-shirts there – which required them to reveal their home addresses for delivery.