GERMANY’S intelligence service has released details of what it says are fake social media profiles by Chinese intelligence to gather personal information about German officials and politicians.
The BfV domestic intelligence service published the names of fake profiles and organisations to warn the public of the risks of sharing valuable personal information on social media.
“Chinese intelligence services are active on networks like LinkedIn and have been trying for a while to extract information and find intelligence sources in this way,” including seeking data on users’ habits, hobbies and political interests, they said.
Nine months of research found more than 10,000 Germans had been contacted on the LinkedIn professional networking site by fake profiles posing as consultants, headteachers, think-tankers or scholars, according to the BfV.
“There could be a large number of target individuals and fake profiles that have not yet been identified,” they added.
Among the faked profiles whose details were released were “Rachel Li”, identified as a “headhunter” at “RiseHR”, and an “Alex Li”, a “Project Manager at Center for Sino-Europe Development Studies”.
Many of the profile pictures show stylish and visually appealing young men and women.
The picture of “Laeticia Chen”, a manager at the “China Center of International Politics and Economy” was taken from an online fashion catalogue, an official said.
Some profiles were connected to senior diplomats and politicians from several European countries. There was no way to establish whether contacts had taken place beyond the initial social media “add”.
The warning comes at a time of growing concern in European and western intelligence circles at Chinese covert activities in their countries and follows warnings from the US Central Intelligence Agency over attempts by the economic giant’s security services to recruit US citizens as agents.
The BfV invited concerned users to contact them if they encountered social media profiles that seemed suspect.
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