(JNi.media) Chechen police have detained three female con artists who managed to convince the Islamic State to send them travel money to enlist in the war in Syria, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.
The young women used ISIS’ most successful recruitment tool, social media, against it, to make some money for themselves.
The Muslim Chechen Republic is a prime target for ISIS’ recruitment efforts, urging faithful youths to travel to the Middle East and join the Jihadists’ ranks. So the three Chechen young women went into the business of meeting ISIS recruiters online, pretending to be devout Muslims eager to go to Syria. The only problem, they stressed, was that they didn’t have the travel money—which the recruiters were often only too happy to provide.
The funds were sent via anonymous electronic transfers, and the three enterprising ladies cashed it, then deleted whatever social media account they had used, and moved on to the next con.
Altogether they managed to collect $3,300 from ISIS recruiters, before they were caught by the Chechen police E unit.
“I don’t recall any case like this one in Chechnya, probably because nobody digs deep enough in that direction,” Valery Zolotaryov of the E unit told Moskovsky Komsomolets. “Anyhow, I don’t advise anyone to communicate with dangerous criminals, especially for grabbing quick money.”
One of the young con artists confessed to LifeNews that at one point she had considered taking up the ISIS offer and going to Syria.
“Many people I know did go, but I know no one for whom it turned out well,” she said.