A company doesn't hire people at all, but constantly receives a resume of defense experts: the FBI unveils new ways of "false recruitment" of Chinese intelligence

Initially, it was just a few emails that seemed to be sent to the wrong place.

Horizzen, a small consultancy company in Brisbane, Australia, has been constantly receiving resumes and calls from strangers since mid-2025. Job seekers talk about working experience in the fields of U.S. defense, security, international politics, but real Horizzen has not recruited or opened these positions in the U.S.

The company later discovered that another “Horizzen” appeared on the Internet.

The website uses its name, company address, telephone number and even part of the company’s content, but changes the page design and recruits experts in the fields of defense, politics and security as an “international consulting firm.”

In June of this year, the mystery finally emerged.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI have seized 13 similar websites, including thehorizzen.com, which allegedly uses the name Horizzen.Federal investigation documents show that from 2023, these sites will start using fictitious companies, stealing real identities, AI generating headlines and hiring ads to find current and former U.S. government officials, military personnel and people with security licenses.

The recruitment process is designed very similar to normal business activities. Job titles include “Senior Analyst” and “International Affairs Advisor”, and applicants are first asked to write a general research report, then gradually asked to provide “exclusive” “internal” information.

The FBI anti-intelligence agency has made it clear that these fake consulting firms represent the way Chinese intelligence agencies use AI, professional social platforms and online payment systems to search for the holders of sensitive information in the United States.The Justice Department also stressed that the people behind the scenes deny being controlled by any foreign government, so the role of the Chinese government remains under the investigation documents and the US law enforcement agency's recognition.

The most dangerous part of this pattern is that it does not have the secret connector in traditional spy films.

The target may just be to receive a LinkedIn recruitment message, and then a high-paying part-time.When questions like "help me analyze public information" gradually turned to "do you have internal information?" the intelligence recruitment actually started.

The Chinese intelligence system is moving recruitment sites from hotels and secret conference rooms to job search websites.

A seemingly ordinary job invitation may be the first step in getting in touch with a sensitive person.