Israeli diplomats said added to WhatsApp groups run from Iran, other hostile nations

Israeli diplomats have been added to WhatsApp groups run from Iran and other hostile nations, according to a Monday report that cited an internal security warning issued to Foreign Ministry staff.

The memo came after multiple instances of Israelis being recruited via social media to spy for Iran, and of Iran contacting Israelis for both intimidation and recruitment purposes, the Ynet news site reported.

“Recently, there have been reports of [diplomats] being added to WhatsApp groups, not through their contacts. These are groups that are opened and run by our adversaries from phone numbers from Iran, Pakistan, and more,” read the warning.

“Therefore, it is necessary to be vigilant about the groups you join and are added to, and even change the settings so that you can only be added to the groups by contacts who are registered with you,” the warning said.

Last month, the National Cyber Directorate said it was investigating a wave of reports from Israelis who received calls, apparently from Iran, with recorded Hebrew messages trying to recruit, threaten and intimidate them.

And in June, during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, several Israeli political figures reported receiving threatening phone calls from Iran. The Islamic Republic also reportedly hacked former justice minister Ayelet Shaked’s phone during that time.

Meanwhile, dozens of cases have come to light over the past two years of Iranian agents successfully recruiting Israelis into espionage schemes via social media, specifically the Telegram messaging app.

The Israelis are usually ordinary civilians contacted by Iranian intelligence officers online.

Most of the accused spies start out by completing apparently innocuous tasks for payment that gradually grow into more serious offenses, like intelligence gathering and assassination plots.

Charlie Summers contributed to this report.