Iran has been using a fake Facebook profile by the name of Sara Puppi to try to gather information and harm Israelis, the Shin Bet revealed on Monday.
The Iranian operator of the fake account presented himself as a young Jewish woman with connections and business in Israel. The account added thousands of friends in a very short period, most of whom were from Israel. The Shin Bet has monitored the account since its inception.
After speaking with the targets on Facebook, the Iranian operator managed to get the victim to switch to WhatsApp.
According to the Shin Bet, Iran and its proxies have increasingly focused on contacting Israelis via the Internet in order to recruit them to gather information and carry out terrorist activities.
The Iranian operator behind the “Sarah Puppi” account asked his agents in Israel to locate information on Israelis that Iranian intelligence was interested in, unaware that he was talking to Shin Bet agents.
The fake account asked what it believed to be its Israeli operative to gather information on Israeli figures and examined the operative’s willingness to harm them. The Iranian operator was applying pressure and promising to deliver sums of money amounting to thousands of dollars, while trying to use emotional and romantic manipulation.
The Iranian trader transferred the funds to the Shin Bet operative using Bitcoins. The operator used commercial reasons as a cover for the missions he assigned, including a desire for revenge against those who owed him money, a desire to harm personal opponents, and even a desire to harm LGBTQ+ people in general.
The Iranian operator also tried to get the Shin Bet agent he believed was working for him to put up posters inciting against Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to damage Israel-Russia relations.
The fake account operator also tried to gather information and harm business representatives and diplomats from Arab countries working in Israel.
“This Shin Bet activity exposed Iranian practices along with the desire to harm Israeli personalities and Israel’s foreign relations with various countries,” the Shin Bet said. “The Shin Bet, in accordance with its mission under the law, continues to act against other similar movements of the Iranians and terrorist organizations in cyberspace.”
The security agency called on Israeli citizens to be vigilant and cautious about the threat posed by terrorist elements on social media and to report any unusual contacts to the Israel Police.
Terrorist groups, including Hamas, have often used fake Facebook accounts to attack Israelis and gather information.
Last month, Cybereason reported that it had tracked down two Hamas-affiliated groups targeting Israeli individuals with sophisticated social engineering techniques to deliver spyware to extract sensitive information from Windows and Android devices.
Hamas groups used fake Facebook profiles to trick targeted people into downloading trojanized direct message apps for Android and PC.
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