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Israel: citizens continue to fall for social media honey traps 

December 14, 2022 at 2:41 pm

Social media applications on a smart phone screen on October 4, 2021 [Özge Elif Kızıl/Anadolu Agency]

Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, has found fake social media accounts impersonating real Israeli women, run by activists affiliated with the resistance in the Gaza Strip. The “Palestinian Electronic Resistance Fighters” use pictures of beautiful Israeli women to attract settlers and soldiers and get them to contact the account holder so that information they have or store on their devices can be gleaned by the resistance groups.

According to Israel Defence website, Shin Bet found profiles impersonating an Israeli personal trainer named Maria David or Maria Shimon on both Facebook and Instagram. After the discovery, the agency contacted the Cyber Department of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is responsible for dealing with illegal content on social media, and the pages were removed.

“Palestinian activists use social media to create fake profiles and deceive Israelis in a way that poses a threat to their privacy and personal safety,” explained Shin Bet.

READ: Israel soldiers using fake accounts on Twitter to attack left-wingers

Israel’s Channel 12 military correspondent, Nir Dvori, said that at least ten Israelis maintained an ongoing relationship with the fake profiles, but after examining the accounts, Shin Bet determined their location. “The agency contacted the Israelis linked to the fake profiles, and asked them to cut off contact… Shin Bet’s investigations indicate that the conversations sought to plan to harm the Israelis.”

This is not the first time that the occupation has revealed the attempts by Hamas and the Palestinian resistance to lure Israelis through the internet, which confirms that this cyber confrontation has reached an advanced stage. The matter was evident when many Israelis found that their personal files had been hacked, creating sudden and unfamiliar chaos, despite the superior technical capabilities of the occupation authorities.