Tel Aviv - Radical Islamist groups are using Facebook and other Internet social networking sites to approach Israelis and try to abstract classified, sensitive information from them, Israel's internal security organization said Tuesday.

The Shin Bet recently received a complaint by an Israeli citizen, saying he had been contacted on Facebook by a man purporting to be a Lebanese merchant, who asked him to pass along classified information in return for payment, warned an Israeli government statement sent to the German Press Agency dpa overnight.

The Israeli broke off all contacts with his Lebanese interlocutor, said the statement, which noted the incident "joins many others."

The Shin Bet has warned Israelis "to be alert to suspicious Internet or telephone appeals by unfamiliar persons."

The militant groups include Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement.

Shin Bet said that the groups are not only trying to obtain information - sometimes in exchange for payment - on security targets in Israel, they also make tempting job offers abroad in a bid to abduct Israelis, eventually to hostile Arab countries.

Those Israeli Facebook and other social network members approached include veterans of classified Israeli army units, it said.

The militant groups' operatives are actively scanning social networking sites to seek out Israeli subscribers, said the statement. The agency called the contacts part of a "new trend."(dpa)