Special to WorldTribune.com

A group of Chechen women has turned the tables on Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), using social media to pose as caliphate brides and scamming the terrorists out of thousands of dollars.

The women allegedly set up accounts on social media sites, drew ISIL terrorists into conversations by claiming to be sympathetic to the cause, sent photographs and persuaded the jihadists to send them cash to travel to Syria.

It is believed that hundreds of Chechen women have been lured to join ISIL over social media with promises of homes and marriage.

Chechen police said that, after the “brides “were sent money by ISIL, they deleted the social media accounts, set up new ones, and conned more money out of the clueless jihadists. Police said more than 200,000 rubles ($3,300) was scammed from ISIL recruiters.

The women could now face fraud charges and sentences ranging from fines to six months in jail, Russian media reports said.

“I don’t recall any precedent like this one in Chechnya, probably because nobody digs deep enough in that direction,” Valery Zolotaryov of the Chechen police told Moskovskii Komsomolets. “Anyhow, I don’t advise anyone to communicate with dangerous criminals, especially for grabbing quick money.”

A report by Radio Free Europe in April said senior Chechen ISIL commander Abdulmalik Magomadov told Chechen women in a social media posting that if they did not stop wasting the terrorists’ time by pretending to be interested in becoming jihadi brides, the terrorists would marry Syrian women in instead.

“What is it that you see in yourself that you think you can judge the brothers so harshly and be so smug about yourselves!?” Magomadov asked.

Asu Dudurkaev, head of the Chechen Federal Migration Service, was fired in 2013 after his 20-year-old daughter traveled to marry an ISIL militant in Syria.

  Abdulmalik Magomadov, Chechen women posing as jihadist brides conned ISIL, social media, WorldTribune.com