Chinese spies have created thousands of LinkedIn profiles to target UK defence chiefs and government officials.
Agents pose as corporate headhunters offering trips for speaking or consulting roles in the Far East.
Sources claim Beijing has launched a “mass fishing expedition” – targeting people looking for jobs on the networking site.
MI5 and MI6 have alerted hundreds of defence and technology firms that staff could be unwittingly recruited by foreign intelligence. A dodgy character named “Robin” targeted ex-army intelligence officer Col Philip Ingram, a veteran of the Iraq War and a Nato planner.
“Robin” claimed to be a Chinese businessman with links across the security industry.
He asked Col Ingram to fly to China and asked for “inside information” via encrypted messaging that could only be accessed by intelligence services. Col Ingram, 58, said: “Alarm bells started ringing when he said we would want to get information that isn’t easily accessible to anyone. He said, ‘You can guess the sort of stuff I’m after’.
“At that stage I was 99.99% sure it was someone linked to the Chinese government. It was classic recruitment. If I’d decided to go to China, they’d have sent me back to get other bits and pieces. They’d have effectively recruited an agent.
“If I wasn’t co-operative, they’d engineer activities to gather compromising material for blackmail.”
After Col Ingram halted contact, Robin’s profile was removed from the site. LinkedIn has been approached for comment. The disclosure comes days after it emerged ex-RAF Top Guns were offered up to £250,000 a year to train Chinese combat pilots.
