U.S. intelligence officials have reportedly determined that Chinese operatives helped spread messages that aimed to spark alarm about the coronavirus pandemic starting in mid-March.

The New York Times, citing six American officials across different intelligence agencies, reported Wednesday that the messages prompted the intelligence apparatus to examine the new techniques China, Russia and other nations are using to spread disinformation about the outbreak.

In particular, they were startled by the ability of the disinformation campaign to pop up in the form of text messages on many Americans’ cellphones, an amplification technique that some of the officials told the Times they had not seen before.

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Many of the messages shared a common theme in which the receivers were encouraged to share the warnings that President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden leads Trump by 36 points nationally among Latinos: poll Trump dismisses climate change role in fires, says Newsom needs to manage forest better Jimmy Kimmel hits Trump for rallies while hosting Emmy Awards MORE was poised to lock down the country in a mandatory quarantine. The spread of the messages became so far-reaching that the White House National Security Council (NSC) publicly denounced the rumors as “FAKE.”

"Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown," the NSC tweeted at the time.

The messages often claimed that they heard from a close friend or family member who works at the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon or some other government agency that the government was preparing for a full-scale lockdown.

“I received a call very late last night from a source that works for Homeland security. He said that they are preparing to mobilize the national guard. Preparing to dispatch them across the US along with military. Next they will call in 1st responders. He said they are preparing to announce a nationwide 1 week quarantine for all citizens," one of the messages read.

"All businesses closed. Everyone at home. They were told to pack and be prepared for up to 30 days deployment which he said means they may extend the quarantine up to 30 days. He told me to notify our family members and have them stock up and be prepared. They will announce this as soon as they have troops in place to help prevent looters and rioters," it continued, ending with a request for the reader to "forward to your network."

The officials declined to discuss the underlying intelligence that ties China to this disinformation campaign, citing the need to protect sources and methods, according to the Times.

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And two of them also told the newspaper that they did not believe Beijing crafted the messages, but rather sought to heighten those that were already in circulation. And through social media, operating like a well-oiled machine for spreading information — particularly information that inspires fear — the messages quickly became widespread.

The Times found that there was significant dissemination of such lockdown messages on Facebook, which came as they were also being shared via text messages.

Some of the techniques appear to be pulled from Russia's playbook during the 2016 election, in which Kremlin-backed trolls created fake social media accounts to peddle the disinformation by pushing messages towards sympathetic U.S. citizens, who then helped their efforts.

Officials told the Times they also appear to be utilizing encrypted messaging apps, which makes such communication far harder for law enforcement and outside researchers to track.