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The FBI has seized more than a dozen websites that officials say were used by suspected Chinese agents to recruit Americans with security clearances.

Getting into it: The 13 domains posed as consulting companies advertising jobs, such as “Defense Analyst,” aimed at current and former US government and military workers who hold clearances, though officials say the firms were fakes and the postings a sham. Linked from hiring platforms like LinkedIn and Upwork, the sites used aliases, stolen identities lifted from real people, and AI-generated photos to appear legitimate. They offered money for “research reports” while pressing recruits to hand over insider information, with payments routed through cryptocurrency and overseas accounts to hide their source.

According to the affidavit, seven people were recruited via the sites and asked to write reports on subjects like China-US relations, Iran, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The FBI says it identified the scheme after targets came forward reporting suspicious payments that felt “weird,” and believes the operators, all based overseas, were acting “wittingly or unwittingly” on behalf of Chinese intelligence.

As of now, it remains unclear whether any classified material was actually shared or whether the conspirators (who denied any foreign-government involvement) can be prosecuted. The 13 seized domains, with their fake company names:

• Centrik Global Consulting (centrikglobalconsulting.com)
• Rightinfo Consulting (rightinfoconsult.com)
• Finnacle-Vesper Consulting (finnaclevesperconsulting.com)
• CYDF Consulting (cydfconsulting.com)
• Pulse Wave Global (pulsewaveglobal.com)
• Catalyst Global Solutions (catalystglobalsolutions.com)
• Horizzen (thehorizzen.com)
• GeoIndopacific (geoindopacific.com)
• Global Peace Foundation – Indonesia (gpf-ina.org)
• SafeSec Group (safesec-group.com)
• The TruthInfo (thetruthinfo.com)
• Vandercons (vandercons.com)
• Gulf Peace Foundation (gulfpeace.org)

The takedowns are part of a wider Western alarm over Chinese online recruitment, after the Five Eyes alliance warned last week that China is targeting clearance holders and military personnel across member nations with bogus job offers.

In a statement, Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg urged anyone offered “easy income for vague ‘consulting’ work” to treat such offers “with extreme caution.”

China’s embassy in Washington rejected the espionage allegations outright, calling them “entirely fabricated” and “malicious slander.”