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Israel's National Cyber Directorate warned citizens on Saturday of a campaign of fake phone calls attempting to intimidate and recruit Israelis as 'spies' reportedly for Iranian intelligence, with hundreds of reports flooding police emergency lines.
People across Israel received phone calls from suspicious numbers featuring recorded messages in broken Hebrew that issued threats and recruitment offers.
The recorded messages heard by Israeli citizens included the following recruitment pitch: "Iranian intelligence is looking for qualified agents. Competitive salary, comprehensive security. Find us on Telegram and the internet."
"It was offered to me and my wife to receive monetary payment for recruitment as agents for Iran," one recipient told Israeli news outlet Ynet.
Police reported that "hundreds of citizens reported to emergency line 100 about phone calls they received from an unknown number, with someone who offered to recruit them for an Iranian organization."
The phone calls originated from numbers beginning with the digits 03-6817*** and 03-3067***, according to the National Cyber Directorate's announcement.
Israeli police described the calls as designed "to cause panic among the public during wartime and attempts by Iranian intelligence elements to recruit Israeli citizens at home and abroad to advance intelligence collection and terror activities in Israel."
The Israeli National Cyber Directorate issued specific recommendations to the public:
"This is an intimidation attempt only," the National Cyber Directorate emphasized, adding that "the matter is under investigation and handling by the system with relevant authorities."
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