Chechen women cheat Islamic State out of $3,300, but get arrested for fraud

There are plenty of stories of young men and women being radicalised and recruited by Islamic State (IS) operatives over social media. And then there is this group of three Chechen women who conned the terror outfit out of over $3,000. The usual modus operandi of IS operatives involves using a mix of Twitter, Facebook and Skype, over time to coax, charm and convince potential recruits to enter Turkey undetected and be smuggled across the border into Syria or Iraq. [caption id=“attachment_2371540” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] One of the Chechen women being interviewed by Russian channel Lifenews. Twitter @lifenews_ru[/caption] These Chechen women were also contacted through social media, and as International Business Times reports out, the girls claimed to identify with the IS, sent what were most likely fake photographs of themselves and expressed their desire to join the cause. A paucity of funds, they claimed, prevented their foray into IS-controlled territory. According to Russia Today, the prospect of eager new recruits led a series of recruiters to use anonymous electronic transfers to send the women funds amounting to $3,300. As soon as each wire transfer was complete, the women would cash the funds and delete the social media account used to communicate with that particular recruiter. It’s not clear how long the women carried out the operation, or how many recruiters they swindled, but what’s clear is that they never left their homes. The Daily Beast reports that while one of the women did briefly consider actually making the trip to Syria, the terrible experiences of her friends who had made the journey put her off the idea entirely. The sums of cash involved however, were enough to pique the interest of a Chechen police e-unit tasked with monitoring online activities for evidence of crime. They arrested the women on charges of fraud—an offence that carries a maximum penalty of six years in jail. While this is not the first such case, most involve men posing as women to hoodwink IS recruiters. Accordingly, Russia Today quotes Valery Zolotaryov of the police e-unit as saying, “I don’t recall any precedent like this one in Chechnya, probably because nobody digs deep enough in that direction.” The promises of money, marriage, respect and being an instrument for ‘God’s work’ (in no particular order) have seen numerous Europeans and North Africans persuaded to leave their homes and travel to Syria and join the IS. In fact, Chechnya is an important source of IS recruits, as Russia Beyond the Headlines reported. Which is what makes this case of fraud even more notable.