From the New York Post: A former Russian “sexpionage” trainee is warning Silicon Valley that foreign operatives are using romance scams and manufactured intimacy to pry loose trade secrets — and she’s laying out red flags she says engineers and tech executives should spot before they get burned.
Aliia Roza, a former Russian “sex spy” who defected from her native country after she fell in love with an intelligence target, told The Post in an exclusive interview that she was trained by authorities to seduce and manipulate her targets — and that she started studying the tactics as a teenager.
She says sex spies follow a sinister playbook designed to break down defenses before targets even realize they’re being hunted.
“They see the target, they need to get information,” Roza told The Post. “They need to manipulate the target, emotions, feelings, or whatever they can do, they will do it.”
Roza was responding to a recent report by the Times of London that said China and Russia were engaged in a sinister plot to deploy attractive female agents to ensnare tech executives. Russia and China have an “asymmetric advantage” since the US doesn’t use the same tactics, the report said.
In her interview with the New York Post, Roza explained that “the manipulation follows a predetermined script,” as the sex spies seek to build familiarity and a relationship with their target, then “reel them in.”
Roza noted tech workers are particularly weak and easy targets because many are isolated and overworked.
When she worked as a Russian intelligence agent, Rosa said her missions (less than 10 in all) were mostly in Europe and the United Kingdom, where she was sent to seduce human traffickers, drug dealers and oligarchs who ran afoul of the Russian government.
She said she never did any work in the US or against Americans, and is now making it her mission to educate people on how to prevent manipulation tactics.
Roza, now 40, reportedly left the spying career and went to Europe to get into the fashion and media industries. She then moved to the United States in 2020, and has since obtained her green card.
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