Revenge on Isis: Chechen women con Islamic State out of thousands of dollars posing as jihadi brides online

Chechen police have detained three women who conned Islamic State (Isis) after posing as supporters of the jihadist group and persuading militants to send them money to travel to Syria.

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

Turning the tables on the jihadist group the women allegedly set up social media accounts and entered into conversations with militants, claiming to be sympathetic to Isis, sending photographs and saying that the only obstacle preventing them travelling to IS-controlled territory was a lack of money.

After they had been sent money deleted the accounts and set up new ones, managing to con more than 200,000 rubles ($3,300; £2,100, €2,977) from Isis recruiters. The women were tracked down by a specialist Chechen police unit set up to tackle the group's online propaganda and recruitment campaign.

However, having outwitted members of the world's most feared terrorist group, the women could now face fraud charges, with sentences ranging from fines to six months in jail, Russian media reports.

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

In April Radio Free Europe reported that senior Chechen IS commander Abdulmalik Magomadov told Chechen women in a social media posting that if they did not stop wasting the time of militants and pretending to be interested in becoming jihadi brides, they 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.

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

Hundreds of women from the semi-autonomous Muslim region have travelled to join IS, and the group has released propaganda magazines and films targeting potential Chechen recruits.

One of the women arrested told Russian tabloid Life News that acquaintances were among those who had accepted offers to travel to join Isis, and she was even tempted at one point to accept the militants' offer.

"Many people I know did go, but I know no one for whom it turned out well," she said.

Specialist officers told Life News that it was impossible to monitor to number the number of social media accounts created by Isis supporters to communicate with Chechens.