In a blog post, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp described the attempt as a “small cluster of likely social engineering activity on WhatsApp” involving accounts posing as technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

It blocked the accounts after users reported the activity as suspicious and had not seen any evidence suggesting the targeted WhatsApp accounts had been compromised, it said.

Meta attributed the activity to APT42, a hacking group widely believed to be associated with an intelligence division inside Iran’s military that is known for placing surveillance software on the mobile phones of its victims. The software enables the team to record calls, steal text messages and silently turn on cameras and microphones, according to researchers who follow the group.

It linked the group’s activity to efforts to breach US presidential campaigns reported by Microsoft and Google earlier this month, ahead of the US presidential election in November.

The company’s blog post did not name the individuals targeted, saying only that the hackers “appeared to have focused on political and diplomatic officials, business and other public figures, including some associated with administrations of President Biden and former President Trump.”

Those figures were based in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Iran, the US and the UK, it added.