German intelligence warns citizen of fake Chinese social network profiles

A German intelligence service has released a list of social network profiles warning the public officials about the risk of leaking valuable personal information through social media.

The domestic intelligence has claimed that these social network profiles were faked by Chinese intelligence.

It said that the Chinese intelligence collects personal information relating to German officials and politicians through these social network profiles.

The German domestic intelligence has listed out individual profiles which it believes are fake.

A media report quoted BfV saying "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".

The claims of the German intelligence service are based on a research of nine months.

The research revealed that over 10,000 German citizens had been contacted on the Linkedin professional networking by fake profiles. The profiles were disguised as headhunters, consultants, think-tankers or scholars.

It also added that there may be many more fake profiles that are yet not identified.
Some of the fake profiles mentionedwere "Rachel Li", identified as a "headhunter" at "RiseHR", and an "Alex Li", a "Project Manager at Center for Sino-Europe Development Studies".

The intelligence said that the display picture of these fake accounts had stylish and visually appealing young men and woman.

The service has invited the users tohelp inaccessing suspectedsocial media profiles.