Chechen girls beat IS at their own game

Twins Salma and Zahra Halane, 17, are among a “cluster of British women” using social media to persuade others to travel to Syria and Iraq. So easy in fact, that apparently you can catfish one of the biggest terrorist organisations in the world into giving you money over social media.

The women have been detained by police, with the Chechen online crimes unit discovering the scam and arresting the women. New iPhone, anyone? Or maybe a holiday to Ibiza?

Dramatic and chilling, these episodes are hardly isolated but rather evidence of a concerted effort by the maturing Islamic State to use women as front-line recruiters for the next generation of terrorists, analysts warned a congressional committee Wednesday. The girls would even send photos to the Jihadists to make a point about how much they wanted to be apart of the group.

After the ISIS members wired the money, the girls closed down their accounts, stopped all communication, and kept the windfall.

The girls had made a business out of swindling ISIS recruiters by faking their intent to join the cause while pointing that the only obstacle was the lack of travel money, which the recruiters would often provide.

One of the girls told LifeNews she had previously seriously considered joining ISIS.

“I don’t recall any precedent like this one in Chechnya, probably because nobody digs deep enough in that direction”, officer Valery Zolotaryov told a local newspaper, according to Russian Federation Today. “Anyhow, I don’t advise anyone to communicate with risky criminals, especially for grabbing quick money”.

Hundreds of Chechen women are believed to have travelled to join IS, with many lured over social media with promises of homes and marriage.

One among the three girls said that, “Though I thought of moving to Syria in the beginning, but changed my mind later, as I came to know the situation from a friend”. They all carry guns and are put in the position of enforcing rules.’. The young women had apparently been contacted over the Internet by jihadis, and decided to play along.

At work? With your gran?