Three women from Chechnya, a Russian republic in southeastern Europe, got away with the ultimate swindle recently. They allegedly scammed ISIS members online into sending them money on the pretense they would use the funds to travel to Syria to join the group.
ISIS members reached out to the women through their social media accounts, asking them to join their militant cause. The girls strung the recruiters along, replying to the emails, and even sending fake pictures to them. According to Mediaite.com, the women pretended to be eager and willing to join up but didn’t have the travel money, and ISIS was willing to provide the funds.
The girls apparently had made it a business of meeting ISIS recruiters online with the pretext of wanting to join but needing travel money. The same scheme has been used by men who create fake accounts, pretending to be females, allegedly for the purpose of traveling to Syria, but actually with the intention of swindling ISIS.
“Catfishing,” pretending to be someone you’re not on social media, is a dangerous game to play. The three girls were caught only because the Chechen police E unit monitors online activities for evidence of crimes, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported.
Officer Valery Zolotaryov told local media, “I don’t recall any precedent like this one in Chechnya, probably because nobody digs deep enough in that direction. I don’t advise anyone to communicate with dangerous criminals, especially for grabbing quick money.”
ISIS has been targeting Eastern Europe countries with large Muslim populations, and their messaging has become more difficult to detect because of the encrypted “dark space” on the Internet they are using to communicate. But it is doubtful the ISIS members who were “catfished” are going to press charges, right? So kudos to the women, and let’s hope they have one heck of a vacation.