German intelligence uncover covert Chinese social media profiles

An alleged number of social network profiles which according to information are fronts faked by Chinese intelligence to gather personal information about German officials has been unraveled.

German intelligence which published the details of the fake social network profiles warned public officials about the risk of leaking valuable personal and government information via 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, German intelligence said in a statement.

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According to the BfV domestic intelligence service, 10,000 German citizens had been contacted on the LinkedIn professional networking site by fake profiles disguised as headhunters, consultants, think-tankers or scholars.

“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 published were that of “Rachel Li”, identified as a “headhunter” at “RiseHR”, and an “Alex Li”, a “Project Manager at Center for Sino-Europe Development Studies”.

 

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