Shin Bet says it thwarted Iranian attempt to recruit Israeli spies via social media
Security agency says Tehran attempting to ‘damage Israel’s national resilience and war effort’ by encouraging targets to carry out espionage missions in exchange for money
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Shin Bet security agency said Thursday that it had uncovered new attempts by Iranian operatives to recruit Israelis over social media to carry out spying missions for them, including an assassination, in exchange for money.
The agency said that individuals affiliated with Iranian security services have contacted Israelis on various platforms in recent months, including X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, and sparked an initial conversation using various deceptions.
It said the operatives posed as real estate brokers, people interested in the marketing of drones, people requesting photo shoots, people interested in online dating, people looking for private investigators or courier services, and other false pretexts.
The operatives would then ask the Israelis to carry out various missions in exchange for money, which the Shin Bet said were “seen as apparently not relating to security aspects, but are definitely intended to serve the Iranians and enrich the intelligence in their possession.”
It said the Israelis were asked to photograph various sites and verify addresses.
According to the Shin Bet, some of the Israelis did not carry out the tasks and instead notified authorities.
The attempts to recruit the Israelis are a “well-known method of operation of the Iranian security agencies,” the Shin Bet explained.
It added that since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip in October, the agency has identified that “the activity efforts of Iranian security forces have greatly intensified, while using digital space for the purposes of intimidation, conveying messages or advancing terror activity.”
“Its purpose is to assist Hamas in its war and to damage Israel’s national resilience and war effort, sowing demoralization and deepening social divisions,” the agency said.
The Shin Bet said it has also identified social media pages posing as Israelis and “making cynical and manipulative use of the issue of the hostages, and even trying to act against families of hostages and bereaved families.”
It added that “a lot of information was collected about the identity” of the Iranian operatives behind the fake profiles.
In a video published in Persian with Hebrew subtitles, the Shin Bet revealed their knowledge of the Iranian plan to recruit Israelis for their cause, and warned against its continuation.
“Through our unlimited control, we have closely monitored your empty efforts to establish contact with Israeli citizens and assign various tasks to them,” a Shin Bet operative says through a voice modulator and with his back to the camera.
“We emphasize that all your activities against Israeli citizens, both Arabs and Jews, are under the strict control and supervision of the Shin Bet and will be neutralized and thwarted immediately,” the message continued.
“I warn you; playing with fire has difficult and dangerous implications and we advise you, in order to protect your life and the lives of your families — do not interfere in matters that don’t concern you.”
Screenshots of conversations released by the Shin Bet appeared to show an Iranian operative asking one of the Israelis to carry out the murder of an unknown target.
The Israeli then responded by asking for 70,000 euros for the hit, to which the Iranian, posing as a young woman named Sofi Portman, said he would pay 10,000 euros upfront and another 50,000 once the Israeli showed images of the dead victim.
In another instance, an operative posing as “Yigal Hazan,” a man with an interest in drones, could be seen attempting to encourage his target to work for him “several days a month,” although said he wasn’t yet sure what the work would entail.
The agency also released an audio recording of an Iranian operative speaking in Hebrew, offering an Israeli victim 100 dollars for an unknown task.
The plan uncovered by the Shin Bet is not the first instance of Iranian operatives trying to target Israelis via social media.
In July of this year, the Shin Bet said it had uncovered an Iranian phishing campaign against Israeli civilians, mostly targeting state employees and researchers, in a bid to obtain intelligence on state policy.
According to the agency, Iranian operatives would contact Israeli targets on LinkedIn while posing as acquaintances, and the conversation would move to an email, where the operatives would either invite them to a conference by sending them a document with further details or sharing a research paper.
In 2021, something similar was attempted, and Iranian operatives were found to have attempted to lure Israeli academics, business people and former defense officials abroad, in an effort to kidnap or otherwise harm them.
At the time, the Shin Bet said the operatives used spoofed emails, pretending to be academics, journalists, businessmen and philanthropists.
