At least a dozen Russian spies regularly use LeBonCoin to contact their would-be moles. They pretend to be people looking for private lessons, targeting people with a high level of education. Once contact has been established, they seek to extract sensitive information from them on the various French strategies.
If Russia seems to concentrate all its forces on its conflict against Ukraine, the country does not forget to take care of international affairs. Ironically, she who does not hesitate to qualify Facebook as a terrorist organization, she does not hesitate to divert certain traditional web platforms to make them a formidable spy tool. This is particularly the case of the Leboncoin site, according to a report by the French authorities.
To begin with, the Russian spies select their target: generally a young graduate, having done a great education. Then, they contact the latter, claiming to want to obtain private lessons with them. Contact is created, a few meetings are organized then, once trust is established, the spies try to extract some sensitive information from their mole. For this, all means are good, even if it means adding a few tickets to the table.
Leboncoin, a new hub for Russian espionage
Political strategy, military technology, energy project: Russian agents have managed to obtain a lot of sensitive information, according to French counterintelligence. A total of 12 of them have been identified as Russian spy. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that a sanction will be pronounced against them. Indeed, many of them quickly erase their tracks once the coveted data has been obtained.
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What’s more, most of them work for the Russian Embassy and are untouchable through diplomatic immunity. For the DGSI, the challenge now is to monitor these spies very closely to ensure that their scheme does not cause more damage. If the authorities consider that a certain limit has been crossed, they can then possibly decide to expel them from the country, as was the case in particular last April.
