🫰Feedback

Created to answer questions received in the project’s bot. @ID_Feedback_bot

Methods used by intelligence services in recruitment are based on psychological manipulations aimed at establishing a trust-based relationship with the target, as well as gathering information and gradually involving the person in cooperation, often linked to breaking the law or hostile activity.

Main methods used by intelligence services in recruitment

Information gathering (reconnaissance): Recruiters thoroughly study the target: their biography, circle, interests, habits, and role in the organization. Information is often collected from open sources—social networks, messengers, professional platforms. This reconnaissance helps create the most plausible, individualized scenario for interacting with the target.

Pretexting: Creating a false pretext for contact, where the actor poses as a government employee, colleague, security specialist, etc. Pre-prepared scripts with elements of manipulation, intimidation, and promises of help or career advancement are used. As a result, the target discloses information, performs desired actions, or agrees to cooperate.

Phishing and vishing: Use of emails, calls, and messages, often on behalf of official organizations, to obtain confidential data and access, or to convince the target of the need to cooperate. Vishing refers to calls that deliberately inspire trust through spoofed voices or numbers.

Building trust: Recruiters spend time cultivating dialogue to form psychological closeness, sympathy, and emotional attachment. This can be through friendship, romantic relationships, or business cooperation.

Manipulating fears and crisis situations: Using intimidation (e.g., threats of prosecution or a criminal case) or promises of protection from an imagined threat to push the target toward cooperation.

Gradual involvement in subversion: Recruitment often proceeds in stages—first small, seemingly harmless tasks, then more serious actions, including illegal acts such as sabotage or espionage.

Other techniques and features of recruitment:

Use of popular communication channels such as Telegram and WhatsApp for covert contact and mass recruitment.
Organized call centers with a structured hierarchy to conduct cold calls and identify potential candidates.
Emphasis on the psycho-emotional vulnerabilities of potential targets: loneliness, financial hardship, ideological disagreements, dissatisfaction with authorities.
Use of new technologies to mask identity and create a veneer of legitimacy (e.g., spoofing email addresses and phone numbers).
Thus, the methods of intelligence services constitute a comprehensive system of psychological, technical, and organizational techniques for involving a person in agent activity, maximizing the exploitation of trust, fears, and vulnerabilities.

In the near future, the Deep Operations Group team will publish insider materials related to this post. Join us.