Girls Catfish ISIS On Social Media For Travel Money

MarkWhittington writes: Yahoo Travel reported that three women in Chechnya took ISIS for $3,300 before getting caught. They are now under investigation for Internet fraud, which seems to be illegal even when committed against the most fearsome terrorist army in modern times. The scam seems to be a combination of the Nigerian Prince con, in which a mark is fooled into giving the con artist large sums of money and catfishing, in which the mark strikes up an online romance with someone he thinks is an attractive woman (or man depending on the gender and preference of the mark.)

Comments

Nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is hilarious. I wonder why more people haven't tried it.

Re:Nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Who is going to press charges? Will the ISIS rep come forth to an international court for the damages? The article doesn't say who is investigating.

2. They used fake photos and the like, so I'm under the impression they did a good enough job covering their tracks. Hopefully they did. I can only hope that with what ever account they used to funnel the money didn't have their real name on it (don't know about foreign bank regulations) or that their names are so common they'd be impossible to search for. For example, mine is Christopher Smith. Good luck finding me with that alone.

Re: Nice.

[Threni]

Illegal? Perhaps. Do you care? Is it immoral? That's all I care about.

Re: Nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah I'm really all for defrauding a terrorist organization or sex trade suckers lol.

IF this court case really doors come down against these enterprising young women we need to think about prosecuting that government for collusion w ISIS.

Re:Nice.

[sjames]

Considering that ISIS was trying to scam them, it seems more like a situation where they managed to take the bait without springing the trap. It's just like the pool hustler. He lets you win one for chump change to get you hooked. If you see it coming and say that's enough for you, he's out the money fair and square.

Re: Nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

IF this court case really doors come down against these enterprising young women we need to think [sic] about prosecuting that government for collusion w ISIS.

You cannot prosecute the government, even outside Soviet Russia, the government prosecutes you. As far as suing the government for enforcing criminal law ... good luck with that.

Re: Nice.

[Adriax]

The target does not change the legalities of the action. The state is compelled to investigate and rule.
But the punishment is up to their discretion (barring horrid minimum sentencing laws like some jail obsessed countries have). So while they likely will be found guilty, a smart judge will punish them with a pinkie promise not to do it again.

Re: Nice.

[Mr. Shotgun]

The target does not change the legalities of the action. The state is compelled to investigate and rule. But the punishment is up to their discretion (barring horrid minimum sentencing laws like some jail obsessed countries have). So while they likely will be found guilty, a smart judge will punish them with a pinkie promise not to do it again.

See, when I first heard these girls are going to be charged I was thinking the state was playing the long game. Charge them, and when it comes to the trial have the victims come to testify and then arrest them. After all, it is a staple of a true justice system of being able to face your accuser.

Re:Nice.

[wonkey_monkey]

1. Who is going to press charges?

Same "person" who presses charges when a murder is committed. Hint: it's not the victim.

2. They used fake photos and the like, so I'm under the impression they did a good enough job covering their tracks. Hopefully they did

It's right there in the first sentence of the summary:

Yahoo Travel reported that three women in Chechnya took ISIS for $3,300 before getting caught.

Re:Nice.

[bloodhawk]

So you think somehow the gangs of LA are going to magically protect you from someone driving a garbage truck full of explosives into your neighbourhood or from a stranger walking up to you hacking at your head with a machete? man you must walk around with a 1 kilometer perimeter where the only people you ever see are LA Gang members.

If someone wants to kill you bad enough then they CAN, embarrassing organisations like ISIS is a good way to not only get yourself killed but others around you. ISIS are a bunch of sadistic pricks with seriously warped moral compasses and they have a bunch of blind followers who will happily sacrifice their lives just to make a point that you can't fuck with them should they choose to do so, or are you really so niave that you think ISIS members don't exist in just about every country of the world?

Re:Nice.

[bloodhawk]

There are organisations that individuals simply aren't equipped to deal with. ISIS, Al Qaeda, The Mexican Drug cartels, various other crime families and some gangs. You can speak out against most of them without repercussion most of the time. But if you are a dumb enough to act out alone against any of them then you either need to hope to be very lucky or should they so choose to make a point they will swat you like a fly without a second thought, the likelihood of the swatting only increases with how much publicity they will get from using you as an example.

Re: Nice.

[houghi]

I hope not. I hope they will be judges on their actions. Not more. Not less.

Re: Nice.

[Jason Levine]

I'm half wondering if they'll be offered a plea bargain. All charges dropped in exchange for helping to run a covert department designed to further scam ISIS to drain as much of their money as possible.

Re:Nice.

[Eunuchswear]

Oh really? I guess things like 9/11 were a conspiracy?

ISIS didn't exist in 2001 you idiot. ISIS only exists because the US overthrew Sadam, leading to the remains of the Iraqi Ba'ath party to pretend it was the new caliphate.

Re:Nice.

[ultranova]

But if you are a dumb enough to act out alone against any of them then you either need to hope to be very lucky or should they so choose to make a point they will swat you like a fly without a second thought, the likelihood of the swatting only increases with how much publicity they will get from using you as an example.

And the reason they bother making an example out of you is because they have no power aside from fear. As you demonstrate, it's quite effective, especially once the victim starts rationalizing their perfectly natural fear of death out of misplaced shame, because at that point they'll start attacking anyone who overcomes theirs.

Re:Nice.

[LWATCDR]

"So you think somehow the gangs of LA are going to magically protect you from someone driving a garbage truck full of explosives into your neighbourhood"
Don't you think that if they could get a garbage truck full of explosives they would have already blown up a bunch folks waiting at a bus stop.

Re:Nice.

[cyberchondriac]

True.. but that description doesn't sound that unlike the gangs of LA too. If AC is a gang member (?) , such a threat to himself or anyone he might care about is nothing new to him.

Re:Nice.

[mobby_6kl]

So you think somehow the gangs of LA are going to magically protect you from someone driving a garbage truck full of explosives into your neighbourhood or from a stranger walking up to you hacking at your head with a machete?

The OP was probably referring to LAPD. But your point still stands, admittedly.

Re:Nice.

[TsuruchiBrian]

I'll bet your fantasy includes you fighting alongside your favorite rappers, and them making you an honorary rapper like them because of how good at fighting you are.

Re:Nice.

[bloodhawk]

You are mistaking healthy caution and understanding of dangers for fear. plenty of people have idiotic fears where they change and live there lives around those fears. I also don't poke king brown snakes and funnel web spiders in my garden when I find them there (some times do), I am not afraid of them, I just know I don't have the skill to deal with them personally if they decide to become grumpy.

As for they don't attack, that is bullshit, they have and do attack and many have been caught with failed plots to attack even in my country, I am not afraid of them as I don't think I have any reason to be, I live in a country that is relatively low priority on most anyones hitlist and even within that country I live somewhere that would be one of the last places to be targeted by anyone but that doesn't mean I go out of my way to make myself a target.

Catfish

[ArchieBunker]

Can we stop using catfish as a verb? Its fucking dumb.

Re:Catfish

[Culture20]

Catfishing is a specific type of fishing where you stick your hand in a hole that probably has a giant alligator snapping turtle, but you hope has a catfish, and you hope that the catfish tries to eat your hand, then you pull your hand out and you have a ctafish for dinner. But if you find that snapping turtle, then you won't be using the word "catfishing".

Re:Catfish

[thegarbz]

Too late. It's in the Oxford dictionary now and part of the correct use of the English language. It's actually not the only definition of catfish in verb form.

Re:Catfish

[Mashiki]

I thought that was called noodling? That's what it's called here in Canada(Ontario specifically) and in the southern US.

Re:Catfish

[aliquis]

I know about the fishing but I didn't thought about the name in this case. I don't see how it make sense either.

I assumed it nothing more than:
cat - girl

and hence catfishing being fishing by acting / being a girl.

Which it's also described as in the article text.

Re:Catfish

[Sqr(twg)]

Yes, verbing wierds language, as Watterson wrote, but on the other hand; What word do you propose we use to mean "to swindle by assuming a false identity online"?

Language evolves as new words are needed, and just because a word is already a noun, there's no rule saying it can't become a verb. (To "fish" is a verb.)

Re:Catfish

[circletimessquare]

no

language evolves. deal with it. no one cares about your strange mentally brittle sensitivities. adapt or die

http://www.oxforddictionaries....

verb

(often as noun catfishing) Back to top
1 [NO OBJECT] Fish for catfish:
with the Mississippi River far below its normal level, the catfishing kept getting better and better
MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES
Some friends and I were catfishing the Minnesota River until well past midnight on a cloudy, moonless night.
I hooked a carp that was yellow as a goldfish while I was catfishing.
He'd spent more than a few cheery nights with them as they catfished on the Clinch River.

2 [WITH OBJECT] US informal Lure (someone) into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona:
he was being catfished by a cruel prankster
a victim of catfishing
[Originally with reference to the 2010 documentary film Catfish, which concerns such a relationship]
MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES
While there isn't much data at this point, catfishing is becoming more common anecdotally.
His words are instead funneled through Nick, who has been catfishing his best friend.
He said the athletic department catfished several athletes to teach them the dangers of social networking.

Re:Catfish

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Dictionary people used to just categorize definitions for eternity. They recognized the slow change, but now it seems they've gone overboard in the other direction, being too quick to recognize new words that may be faddish and need the lens of time to know if they're gonna stick around.

Re:Catfish

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"I will make you catfishers of men." -- Jesus, when appearing in the New World in the Book of Mormon

Re:Catfish

[bickerdyke]

This happens when business models without steady revenue streams aren't good enough. You somehow have to increase the frequency how often people are forced to buy updates.

Re:Catfish

[ihtoit]

interesting... I've never heard the word used in this way, ya learn something new every day...

Re:Catfish

[circletimessquare]

when i say "language evolves," that does not evoke random douchebags on the in the internet, it evokes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Catfish

[Hognoxious]

Batman aside, I don't see the link between "cat" and "girl".

Re:Catfish

[Hognoxious]

I suspect it's also an arms race to have the most definitions. Oh noes, the OED has 20,000 more than us - better add all the wrong ones too!

Re:Catfish

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you haven't watched enough anime.

Re:Catfish

[CSHARP123]

That's exactly I thought. Noodling is the word we use here in south.

Re:Catfish

[Sqr(twg)]

Maybe you're making a joke; but that's actually four more examples of using a noun in place of a verb.
(The last one would have been correct if it weren't for the hyphen.)

Re:Catfish

[Ian A. Shill]

pussy?

Re:Catfish

[Wahakalaka]

German is exceptionally good at that.

Re:Catfish

[ShaunC]

What word do you propose we use to mean "to swindle by assuming a false identity online"?

Scam, defraud, or even just swindle; we have plenty of words to use for that already.

Re:Catfish

[ThatsDrDangerToYou]

I thought that was called noodling? That's what it's called here in Canada(Ontario specifically) and in the southern US.

I thought that was called noodling? That's what it's called here in Canada(Ontario specifically) and in the southern US.

Well, we used to call it that, but they made us stop. Too many lost their noodles.

Re:Catfish

[dcw3]

AKA Hillbilly Hand Fishing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...'

Re:Catfish

[Sqr(twg)]

Neither of those is as precise as "catfish". You can "defraud", "scam" or "swindle" someone in person or online, using your real identity or a fake one.

Re:Catfish

[Hognoxious]

So why don't they call it pussyfishing?

Re:Catfish

[Mashiki]

The upside with all those cheap imports from China, you can just buy more noodles right?

Re:This is a crap propaganda post

[Anonymous Coward]

The judge and my therapist said I shouldn't think of the children so much.

Why is that illegal?

[SuperKendall]

If the intelligence agencies were smart, they would offer to match anything you were able to con out of known terrorist groups. The scam artists of the world would de-fund ISIS in about a year, all without firing a shot.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[manu0601]

The scam artists of the world would de-fund ISIS in about a year

Don't forget ISIS now control some oil production. That makes their pockets quite big.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[zedaroca]

The scam artists of the world would de-fund ISIS in about a year

You forgot who is financing ISIS.
According to the vice-president (and a lot of other more credible places), it's the US allies, that their funds from the US.
The clip with Joe Biden
News about him apologizing for telling them out
Old Wikileaks leak about them financing anyone available to fight against Assad, and being interested in a big humanitarian disaster. Quotes from the e-mail:

One Air Force intel guy (US) said very carefully that there isn't much of a Free Syrian Army to train right now anyway

the idea 'hypothetically' is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within

They dont believe air intervention would happen unless there was enough media attention on a massacre, like the Ghadafi move against Benghazi. They think the US would have a high tolerance for killings as long as it doesn't reach that very public stage.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[SuperKendall]

You severely under-estimate the combined ability of the worlds scammers targeting a specific group... especially so with a group who have already shown they are prone to being manipulated.

No amount of stolen museum works or oil wells or side income from slave brothels/human trafficking would save them from total plunder.

Big pockets are all the better as lure the lure for more attacks.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[zedaroca]

*that get their funds from the US

Re:Why is that illegal?

[Culture20]

And if the cannibals ate known terrorists? AIDS spreaders purposefully had unprotected sex with known terrorists? Terrorists cut the heads off of known terrorists?
Illegal things are illegal.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[Pentium100]

Also, the ISIS would probably kill the jihadists who give too much money to a scammer, that way, not only their funds would be depleted, but their manpower as well.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[radarskiy]

"If the intelligence agencies were smart"

Your suggestion would be smart only to someone actually incentivized to end ISIS.

If ISIS went out of business, intelligence agencies would no longer be able to justify their expenditures in combating ISIS and would have to put in some actual work to find a replacement target.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[aliquis]

$3 million is the number I've seen.

Of course their \ equals Saudi-Arabia sell oil for more than that.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[SuperKendall]

Terrorists cut the heads off of known terrorists?

That strategy worked great in Doom. If you can figure out how to make it happen, I'm sure all will be forgiven.

Or are you saying former Doom players will be hunted down an jailed?

Re:Why is that illegal?

[ThomasBHardy]

While it's really great that you feel that the first time you hear a phrase is the first time it was ever uttered, and I'm sure that makes you feel like the epicenter of the social universe, most phrase usage these days are recycling of old phrases which capture an idea perfectly well, so why recreate them right?

Just a tidbit for thought:

"Origin of the phrase

One of the earliest standalone uses of the phrase "New World Order" was the title of the 1920 book The New World Order by Frederick C Hicks,[2] but is usually misattributed to H.G. Wells' 1940 book of the same name. The phrase had previously been used by Nicholas Murray Butler in his 1917 book A World in Ferment.[3] "New World Order" was also used in a 1940 essay by occultist writer Alice Bailey which was included in her posthumously published 1957 compilation The Externalisation of the Hierarchy. To Hicks, Wells, and Bailey, the term meant a benevolent social democracy that would soon emerge, whilst Butler used the term to describe the First World War as it was being waged. Conspiracy theorists, however, believe the term goes back earlier: to Cecil Rhodes and Lionel Curtis circa 1909. "

I'm pretty sure WWF/WWE wasn't behind these efforts and movements, but hey. you never know ;)

Re:Why is that illegal?

[dbIII]

The old situation of managing a problem (eg. hiring more telephone switchboard operators) to providing a solution to a problem (eg. automatic phone exchange). With a vast majority of management from the ranks of accountants, economists etc instead of a technical background it's really obvious that the former is what is usually going to happen.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[goodmanj]

... Okay, so I get a friend in Saudi Arabia to send me a money order, marked: "for travel to the Islamic State, Allahu akbar". I show it to the US government, they pay me a reward, I split it with my friend.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure a real con artist could do better. The problem with doing business with con artists is that they're con artists.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[Xest]

Yeah if Turkey's latest actions where it's killed 260 kurds are anything to go by it's pretty obvious which side Turkey is on.

Turkey is the new Pakistan, pretending to be pro-West on one hand to get nice military funding, whilst supporting the likes of the Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIS on the other.

All thanks to Erdogan.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[mvdwege]

Utter fucking bullshit. Turkey has always had a problem with the Kurds, it's a nationalism issue. Erdogan is as much a Turkish nationalist as the army that used to make noises about him better not getting out of line. But hey, why would you interest yourself in what actually motivates those brown people over there, as long as you can play on the Islamophobia to give your bigotry the semblance of respect?

Re:Why is that illegal?

[gmack]

The reality is much more complicated than that. The funds they used weren't American and the US pretty much asked them not to go off fund and and arm Jihadist groups but they went ahead and did it anyways because they wanted to hurt Iran's allies. (The current Iraqi government and Syria). The result was predictable: ISIS turned on their former benefactors now that they are self financing using local tax revenue and captured oil wells.

Re: Why is that illegal?

[jmac_the_man]

nWo was a late 90s WCW thing, not WWF.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[gweihir]

Indeed. And spam their communications into the ground.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[Xest]

Erdogan has turned a blind eye to ISIS fighters and weapons using his country as a transit point into Syria whilst blocking Kurdish fighters from doing the same and has put far more effort into bombing Kurds.

It's got nothing to do with skin colour or religion, Turkey and the Kurds are both secular, ISIS is an Islamist group, and Erdogan is an Islamist leader, that's about it. Calling out a bad leader for doing more to oppress a group that has been in peace talks for 2 years and has been attacked by Erdogan's troops more than they've attacked Erdogans troops doesn't make me an Islamaphobe by any measure, particularly as there are more than enough muslim Kurds. Stop being so ignorant.

Your post really couldn't be more useless, "it's a nationalism issue", what's a nationalism issue exactly? bombing the Kurds? great, but how does that justify implicitly supporting ISIS by letting them transit fighters and weapons through Turkey? how does that make it okay to attack the Kurds more so than ISIS? It doesn't matter what the motivation issue is, it's wrong all the same. Erdogan has long held the belief that ISIS are more of a benefit than a problem, and that's really not good for the West. Only now that they've attacked Turkey proper in a slightly more brutal way has his calculus changed somewhat and even then his instinct is not to obliterate ISIS, but instead to use it as an excuse to hammer the shit out of the PKK, and hit the YPG too.

It's kind of sad how you had to see the problem as an issue of race and religion, I'm astounded that you'd then cry bigot - you obviously are wrestling with your own inability to keep religion and race out of a discussion it's wholly irrelevant to. Crying "Islamaphobe", talking about skin colour and shouting bigot wont detract from your own apparent bigotry where you jump to conclusions that bear no relevance to anything that was said.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[jrumney]

The intelligence agencies used to be that smart. They armed the Taliban against the Soviets, and they armed Iraq against Iran. For some reason they stopped the strategy of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Go figure.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[The-Ixian]

Not only that, but who would provide the FUD politicians need to distract the people?

Re:Why is that illegal?

[mvdwege]

Erdogan has turned a blind eye to ISIS fighters and weapons using his country as a transit point into Syria

Yes, what people actually live on that border? Oh golly, the Kurds.

The rest of your post is a case of 'the lady doth protest too much'. It's the usual PVV/Front National/Vlaams Belang/BNP apologia, so fuck off and die in a fire please, you racist shit.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[steelfood]

The problem with doing business with con artists is that you're tyring to do business.

FTFY

Re:Why is that illegal?

[Xest]

You really are not mentally mature enough to be having this discussion, you're still desperately crying racism in a topic that has literally nothing to do with race. When you've got two groups fighting that are the same fucking race, then how exactly do you think racism even remotely factors in? Do you really think that just shouting racism at people somehow makes a legitimate argument even when it makes absolutely no sense?

And no, the Kurds don't control anything even approaching the entirety Turkish/Syrian border, and those that do live on that border aren't the ones Erdogan has been primarily targeting (though he has been targeting them). Most of those he has killed have been killed in Iraq.

You obviously have a hatred for the far right, and that's a good thing, but when you don't even understand the sorts of policies those groups have (I'll give you a hint: they don't care about brown people as you call them fighting other brown people) and make nonsensical arguments against them it doesn't exactly put you in a position of strength. People like you do more harm than good, because they can legitimately hold you up as an example of someone that throws terms like "racist" around when it doesn't make any sense and as such you devalue the term removing it's potency when it's necessary to call out real actual racists.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[SuperKendall]

Nice try but the NSA has to verify the communications (which they were of course monitoring) were with a real terrorist.

So either (A) you get no money, or they believe you an (B) whisk your friend off to an"unsafe house" for questioning.

You try to find out later what happened to him and you get to visit him in person!

Re:Why is that illegal?

[Pentium100]

Not "kill your boss and take his job", but "give too much money away to a scammer and your boss will kill you".

Re:Why is that illegal?

[goodmanj]

If the NSA really were monitoring that closely, they'd have identified every ISIS sympathizer and rounded 'em all up long before they got to my friend, and the con artist reward would be unnecessary.

Likewise if they were able to find my friend through the financial system based on his money order, ISIS would respond by doing business strictly in untraceable cash, and so there'd be no way for me to prove that I'd conned ISIS, and so the con artist reward would be useless.

So whichever way you slice it, this scam artist reward scheme is either useless or open to abuse.

Re: Why is that illegal?

[radarskiy]

"There will always be a boogeyman"

Which I already mentioned. The point is that it takes time and effort to switch boogeymen which you could be devoting to hookers and blow.

Re:Why is that illegal?

[paazin]

If ISIS went out of business, intelligence agencies would no longer be able to justify their expenditures in combating ISIS and would have to put in some actual work to find a replacement target.

Damn where would we find one of those... Maybe China? Or Russia?

It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[rahvin112]

If it was legal to scam them they would be flooded with offers from so many girls it would either bankrupt them or they would stop recruiting because of all the scams. It would seriously disrupt their recruiting.

It's just like banning people from joining them. We should be lining those people up and flying them over there right after they sign papers saying they aren't citizens anymore. Let them go, fight and die as long as they never return. They won't be in our country anymore. And on the flip side it should be perfectly legal to scam them. They are a criminal organization and I personally like the old world idea that someone that's breaking the law and fighting prosecution is then outside the law including it's protections. There aren't innocents in groups like ISIS, everyone should be free to target them with any action that would normally be deemed criminal.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[mysidia]

If it was legal to scam them they would be flooded with offers from so many girls it would either bankrupt them or they would stop recruiting because of all the scams.

I would suggest the prosecutors exercise their prosecutorial discretion to not prosecute against people for non-violent crimes committed against overseas violent enemies/lawless violent groups.

At some point the noise of all the scammers/fakers could drown out those whom terrorist orgs could "legitimately" recruit, therefore interfering with those groups' ability to recruit.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[Forever Wondering]

Perhaps one or more governments have already been doing this in various forms. While quasi-legal for a government to do it [some have done far worse], this might be a case of the private sector cutting into the margin ... Last time I looked, wasn't the Chechnyan government hard up for cash [as are a lot of former Soviet Bloc countries, notably Russia]? Just sayin' ...

In all seriousness, this ISIS catfishing could easily be subverted along the lines of the Nigerian oil minister scam: "Hi, you don't know us, but we'd like to scam ISIS and fight terrorism. Would you like to help? If so, just send us some money so we can bait them into sending us some money ..."

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[houghi]

Stealing is illegal. Simple as that. I think it is GOOD that it is illegal. That way there is no line that you can cross.

What you are promoting is that people take justice into their own hands. That will end badly.

And placing people outside the lwa and their protection is a good idea for you? To me that means you are no better than those who you are trying to fight.

If you want them ded so badly, join the people who fight them. Does not even have to be the US Army.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[dunkelfalke]

Last time I looked, wasn't the Chechnyan government hard up for cash [as are a lot of former Soviet Bloc countries, notably Russia]? Just sayin' ..

Must be very long ago last time you looked. Chechenia has belonged to Russia for what, 150 years?

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[dargaud]

You mean like burning houses with babies in them ?

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[ImprovOmega]

Okay see, but killing people is illegal as well. Yet when we declare war on someone we declare that it is okay to kill them to further some grander strategic goal. The government could certainly do something similar here - declare war economically on ISIS and say it's okay to scam them out of whatever money you can, just report your scammed income here on this form and it's all well and good.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[Thelasko]

It's just like banning people from joining them. We should be lining those people up and flying them over there right after they sign papers saying they aren't citizens anymore. Let them go, fight and die as long as they never return.

Banning them from joining does effectively the same thing. It's not like someone is standing there physically preventing people from joining. If people go and join, they get put on a list. If they try to reenter their home country they are arrested and rot in jail.

Remember, making something illegal doesn't prevent it from occurring. It just provides a means to prosecute those that commit that act.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[babybird]

The problem is you're still catering to criminals. If scamming them is legal, then law abiding people will scam them, sure. But scammers are scammers because they game systems for profit. If it's legal to scam ISIS, then scammers will scam ISIS but they will also scam the system of scamming ISIS, making even MORE money in the process, and costing everyone else at the same time.

It's never good to cater to criminals, and it's never good to blur lines-- we have enough problems caused by this as it is, and adding more of them isn't going to make things better.

Besides that, doing something like this in any kind of official, broad spectrum capacity is also going to provide evolutionary pressure on ISIS to get smarter, and they're already quite smart for a terrorist organization, so it's probably best that we let them be as stupid as they are rather than influencing them to become even smarter, because that only makes our job even harder, decreasing the odds that we'll succeed by some small measure, or at least pushing out success that much further. Spam was just spam when it was small, but then it grew and everybody started spamming, and then legitimate email users created smart spam filtering to counteract it-- but by that time, we were already wasting tons of resources fighting an enemy that we empowered in the first place, creating a permanent enemy and an endless war.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[stdarg]

Exactly, but the Islamic terrorists are already doing that. The question is, why does it serve our interests for OUR government to protect ISIS by stopping OUR people from attacking or defrauding them?

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[Forever Wondering]

Must be a very long time since you looked at a grammar book. Saying "as are" does not link or imply that Chechnya is [or is not] a former Soviet Bloc country.

Examples:
- The city of Anytown, USA is having financial difficulties, as are state governments and many corporations.
- The Australian government is having financial difficulties, as are European governments, notably France, Belgium, and Spain.

For your correction to be valid there would have to be something like:
- The city of Anytown, USA is having financial difficulties, as are OTHER state governments and many corporations.
- The Australian government is having financial difficulties, as are OTHER European governments, notably France, Belgium, and Spain.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[dunkelfalke]

English is my fourth foreign language, thank you very much. Still, even while your point might be valid generally, you have explicitly mentioned "notably Russia". Since Chechenia is a part of Russia, the more correct analogy would be "the city of Anytown, USA is having financial difficulties, as, notably, USA." Well, duh.

My guess is, you didn't know that Chechenia is not a country, and now you are just trying to cover that up by trying to sound condescending.

Re:It ought to be legal to scam ISIS

[Forever Wondering]

Because English is your 4th language, I'd be more circumspect about interpreting it. Your whole "must be a long time since ..." is condescending. I only added "must be a long time since ..." because you did. I would still have given the explanation about the grammar, but it might have seemed to be instructive and beneficial.

And the history is quite murky.

Chechnya declared independence in 1917. Was invaded by Russia in 1921 and reabsorbed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Chechnya declared independence in 1991. Russia killed the Chechen president in 1996. Yeltzin withdrew Russian troops in 1996. So, it wasn't 150 years. At best, 94 years (from 1921).

But, the modern interpretation is from 1991/1996 going forward where Chechnya is an independent state. Except ... for those Russian assassinations of Chechen presidents, invasions, border skirmishes ...

The cycle seems to go like this: Chechnya wants independence and Russia invades. So, are you condoning/supporting Russia's invasion by force policies?

The mention of Russia in my original post was more of a direct dig at Russia, Putin's failed policies, and his attempts to divert attention from that with the militarism.

Re:This is a crap propaganda post

[Culture20]

This is a crap propaganda post. How much the state department is paying you?

*ahem* the politically correct word is poop. Please, think of the children!

Okay,
This is a crap propaganda post. How much the poop is paying you?
Better?

I heard this days ago..and

[Rick in China]

LET THEM GO! Come on, really going to charge some women with cheating ISIS out of a few grand?

Re:I heard this days ago..and

[Rick in China]

Nobody, other than maybe ISIS, is complaining about the NSA monitoring ISIS communications. They're complaining about the NSA illegally monitoring innocent civilians communications and strapping it under the "stop terrorism" banners.

Since ISIS is a stated enemy of many governments around the world - and many governments around the world are actively fighting against them, it's hardly an apples to apples comparison you're making. What would be an apples to apples comparison - if some hackers took down ISIS websites, do you think their respective governments would put any effort into charging them with computer crimes? I'd sure as hell hope not. The fact the victim is an enemy of your state sworn to destruction, death, and chaos - displaying beheadings and shit on the internet hoping to strike fear in civilian lives - absolutely changes the fact that they 'broke the law', and if it doesn't, it should.

Re:I heard this days ago..and

[Anonymous Coward]

The laws for wars are different. It is ok to kill them, for example. We don't execute our soldiers for "murder". Similiar for any lesser grabs against the enemy - as long as the enemy is the only one to suffer.

Re:I heard this days ago..and

[amiga3D]

The government reserves that right to itself. Not individuals.

Re:I heard this days ago..and

[stdarg]

So the government should issue letters of marque against terrorist groups.

Re:I heard this days ago..and

[amiga3D]

I don't say should, simply that it has that right.

Simple out

[Tablizer]

Just require ISIS show up at court.

The realistic problem here is one of security

[Shadow of Eternity]

People pissing off ISIL/ISIS or interfering with non-public operations are a problem for states that are doing their own things officially. When you've got private citizens scamming them like this you wind up with lots of little bullseyes antagonizing ISIL which might provoke a reprisal of some kind.

What we really need to do with all these non-state and semi-state actors like ISIL and Al Qaeda is start issuing letters of marque again. "You want to pick a fight with these guys? Go have it at. Follow these rules and understand you're on your own or we'll come after you ourselves."

Re:The realistic problem here is one of security

[goodmanj]

Yeah, because nobody in the history of warfare ever misused a letter of marque.

Re:The realistic problem here is one of security

[painandgreed]

What we really need to do with all these non-state and semi-state actors like ISIL and Al Qaeda is start issuing letters of marque again. "You want to pick a fight with these guys? Go have it at. Follow these rules and understand you're on your own or we'll come after you ourselves."

Well, that's sort of how we got where we are today. People encouraged to go fight Russia in Afganistan became the foundation of Al-Queda. People encouraged to go fight Syria became ISIS. Even back in the days of marque, there was a significant problem with such people turning full pirate and attacking everybody. There's no real way to keep those people receiving money, equipment, and training for a proxy war to go home and do nothing once the fighting you want done is over.

Re:"...most fearsome terrorist army in modern time

[Dutch Gun]

No one said US (or Russian, for that matter, where these women were from) citizens were afraid of ISIS. We have a few advantages, namely:

a) We're protected by a powerful military that would stomp ISIS in a head-to-head engagement, and
b) we are physical separated from them by vast distances.

No, I think "repulsed" is probably more accurate. Those in the direct line of fire probably feel a bit differently.

The "Religion of Peace"

[zapadnik]

Thank goodness Islam is "The Religion of Peace" and ISIS isn't following Sharia. I'm sure ISIS will "turn the other cheek" because Islam follows the "Golden Rule" and preaches "forgiveness", and the equality of men with women, and believers and unbelievers, and separation of mosque and State, right? right? /sarc

Too bad for these girls that Islam actually means "Submission" (supposedly to Dushara/Allah, but actually to the Arab Emperor the Caliph), and Sharia preaches no mercy, women are worth less than men and the absolute property of either he father or husband, and unbeliever/infidel "kufir" (which is a pejorative term similar to the Nazi "Untermenchen" or racist "n$gg3r") is subhuman and worthy of death for not accepting the Islamic political order across the globe (commanded by Koran 9:29 to be implemented over time by all Muslims).

Run girls! run! and be safe.

Re:The "Religion of Peace"

[babybird]

When someone abuses religion for their own ends, it is not the religion at fault, it is the individual or group abusing that religion for their own ends. ISIS might have a few tens of thousands of members (many of whom are more secondary sociopaths than the psychopaths who started/run it), but Islam has 1.2 billion members, the overwhelming vast majority of whom are in fact peaceful. Don't blind yourself to an ideology by ignoring facts, or else you become your own enemy, by becoming like your own enemy.

Re:The "Religion of Peace"

[david_thornley]

You're not saying ISIS is a good Muslim organization, you're saying that it goes along with certain teachings that are linked with Islam. In other words, you're confusing a religion with a culture that is a large chunk of that religion.

A nation at war...

[ThomasBHardy]

I'm curious how this would play out here in the states.

While Internet fraud is a crime, if the nation has an enemy we have declared war with or even a formal aggression stance such as a police action, etc, I wonder if scamming them wouldn't actually be a nationalist act and praised.

The whole thing as it stands is a farcical scenario of laws versus justice/morality. Something worthy of debate.

Re:A nation at war...

[ihtoit]

Eye for an eye does hold up under colour of fighting a righteous cause, like a war.

So, providing the vigilante has previously published a written declaration of war on burglars, well, anything goes including but not limited to random-drop air strikes on weddings and ambulance convoys, communications disruption, and targetted snatches of ranking enemy combatants - for example, regional kingpins.

Collateral Damage.

[westlake]

This looks like it is all in fun.

Until ISIS decides to set off a truck bomb on the street where these women live.

The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. The Islamic State is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people.

What ISIS Really Wants

Re:They should legalize fraud against terrorists

[ThatAblaze]

Man, I want to live in your world! Imagine if everyone legalized anything that was hilarious. I'd go around planting drugs on the police, and if I got caught my defense would be "sorry judge, it was just too hilarious to stop!"

Letters of Marque

[iamacat]

While these brave women are in Russia, we have a good constitutional tool to encourage citizens to fight our enemies. Drying up ISIS recruitment money and eliminating their online presence would deal a measurable blow to organization that prides itself in media savvy. And it would be done for free by young people who would never consider joining Army or NSA.

Re:This is a crap propaganda post

[circletimessquare]

prove it

the link goes to yahoo.com

which links to a story by RT.com, aka Russia Today

so...

yeah, pretty much, it's propaganda, you're right

How much the state department is paying you?

uh... you mean the Kremlin

although, the idea that Russia Today is actually run by the US State Dept is exactly the sort of low iq paranoid schizophrenic fantasy you sort of crackpots believe, so... carry on my wayward son

give them an award

[circletimessquare]

give anyone who repeats this feat 10x the amount of money they steal from ISIS

the CIA and FSB can trip over themselves encouraging this

Re:give them an award

[wonkey_monkey]

the CIA and FSB can trip over themselves encouraging this

What makes you think they're not doing it already, with considerably more success and efficiency?

Re:give them an award

[circletimessquare]

good!

Re:give them an award

[circletimessquare]

well, to collect the reward they have to show up at the govt office and submit to a little background examination, so...

Re:give them an award

[circletimessquare]

because the govt doesn't require you report to a govt building to get your cash and undergo a registration and a background check, genius

Re:This is a crap propaganda post

[circletimessquare]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

two wrongs don't make a right

[ihtoit]

...and that out of the way, when are the US Government going to publish their ISIS/ISIL/al Qaeda/Daesh funding accounts?

Doesn't matter what they want

[dbIII]

Yes and I want a pony. They are in no position to threaten anyone outside of Iraq and Syria at this point - even people in Jordan and Turkey are not currently in danger let alone Russia, Chechnya, USA, etc.

Re:Doesn't matter what they want

[dbIII]

It's just not a high priority to make martyrs out of Westerners in their home countries, yet.

Rather convenient to not have a high priority to do something you cannot actually do isn't it?

Paris massacre

Home grown terror not ISIS/Daash.

Re:Doesn't matter what they want

[donaggie03]

Please link to a reputable news site reporting on a beheading in the USA attributed to ISIS.

Re: This is a crap propaganda post

[LaurenCates]

Social engineering is strongly related to computer hacking?

Can this be used to trace the money back further?

[damn_registrars]

If they could identify the source of the money, could they work it back a little further to figure out where that source got its money from? That could be useful information. I rather doubt that ISIS is getting most of its funding through a kickstarter page or other such structure involving lots of small contributions.

Catphishing

[Martin Spamer]

Surely slashdot should known that is is Catphishing not catfishing

British police only investigate from a complaint

[Bruce66423]

So they appear to be unlucky in their choice of country. And of course there's no NEED to investigate - there are always other priorities. It is therefore surprising that the prosecutor has bothered, which raises some interesting questions.

Based on the film's usage in 2010

[Bruce66423]

Which does offer a reasonable excuse for including it in the dictionary

Re: This is a crap propaganda post

[bev_tech_rob]

How is this news anyway related to this site? Editors, please, if the long term future of this site is a priority, please make sure that the level of news don't go down like this. I can understand when you post serious or sometimes even funny news clippings which really doesn't align with the stated principles. That is fine, without some explorations around, we never really find our sweet spot. But this, this is going down a level. There are many sites which cater to these news items. I don't come here expecting to see this level of posts on Slashdot.

Modders, please...could you mod down the anonymous cowards bitching about an article being not worthy of posting on slashdot? The women used social engineering and the internet to scam ISIS out of some cash. Seems relevant to me and funny in a way.

Robbing a drug dealer is still robberty...

[mbeckman]

Unless you're the government.

Hello McFly!

[jriding]

How were these girls caught???
Did ISIS call up the FBI or Interpol and say they were scammed?
Did they present the emails and their location to help the investigation? Why were they not bombed once their location was defined (ISIS I mean not the girls).

I mean WTF?!?

Re:Hello McFly!

[amicusNYCL]

I'm sure that it's not all that unusual for intelligence agencies to look for communication to/from ISIS.

What you're looking for is "Privateers"

[karlandtanya]

Not Mercenaries--we have those; just call them "private contractors" e.g. Blackwater.
Just draw up a list of "enemies" and authorize anyone who asks to attack them.

Only difference now is you don't have to be on a ship to attack a foreign power--you don't even have to leave your house!
You keep the booty as compensation for your risk & expense.

There's certainly precedent for it.

Re:LOL at "gender and preference of the mark"

[neminem]

First of all, I dunno where you're getting that statistic from, I think that's slightly on the low side. More importantly, there are more than 7 billion people on the planet. If, say, only 1.5% of the population is gay, that's still more than a hundred million people. That is a lot of people.

Where's the CIA on this?

[backslashdot]

If we had an intelligence agency that was actually trying to win this war, they would be doing operations like this times 100. Unfortunately we don't. The CIA doesn't even bother to call and ask for information from people who were kidnapped by and escaped from ISIS. At a minimum the CIA should at least act like some of the people going over there are agents and spies, then there would be division within ISIS since they wouldn't be able to trust each other. Psychological operations like that cost no money and have no attached risk .. yet our agencies can't be bothered to do it.

Black helicopters in tinfoil!

[dbIII]

The naive person is the one that has connected all those local crimes with a group in Syria that is not in contact with those local criminals.

Drop all charges!

[iq145]

Let them go (and shake their hands).