Three young Chechen women are in trouble after being caught scamming Islamic State (IS) fighters out of thousands of dollars by posing as wannabe jihadi brides, according to reports in Russian Federation.
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ISIS uses social media to recruit new members as well as brides. They believe the trio are just the tip of the iceberg, and that there could be hundreds of cases across the country. The girls would even send photos to the Jihadists to make a point about how much they wanted to be apart of the group. As one of the women said, “Many people I know did go, but I know no one for whom it turned out well”.
One investigator said that Isil recruiters often use electronic cash transfers to their “victims”, so they do not have to take the risk of buying tickets themselves. The same scheme has been used by men who create fake accounts, pretending to be females, allegedly for the goal of traveling to Syria, but actually with the intention of swindling ISIS.
Maryam said that at one stage she did honestly consider making the journey to IS territory, but the stories coming back from friends who had done it about the way women were treated in IS territory forced her to reconsider.
Maryam says the Syrian militant told to her: ‘Would you not want to come to Syria? They would then repeat the process with another recruiter. They arrested the women on charges of fraud-an offense, that carries a maximum penalty of six years in jail.
The young women had apparently been contacted over the Internet by jihadis, and decided to play along.
Explaining the modus operandi of IS recruiters, Valery Zolotaryov from the Centre for Combating Extremism government agency told Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets that “IS recruiters never buy the ticket personally for their targets because they would be easily spotted, instead they send money through e-wallets”.
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A spokesman said: ‘There needs to be a complaint from the other side and it doesn’t seem as though this is going to be likely.’.
