Girls Catfish ISIS On Social Media For Travel Money 238
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.)
Nice. (Score:3, Funny)
This is hilarious. I wonder why more people haven't tried it.
Where's the CIA on this? (Score:2)
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
Re: Nice. (Score:2, Interesting)
Illegal? Perhaps. Do you care? Is it immoral? That's all I care about.
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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.
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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. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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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.
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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.
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British police only investigate from a complaint (Score:2)
Re:Nice. (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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"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.
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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.
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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 rationaliz
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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.
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Catfish (Score:5, Insightful)
Can we stop using catfish as a verb? Its fucking dumb.
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Re:Catfish (Score:5, Informative)
I thought that was called noodling? That's what it's called here in Canada(Ontario specifically) and in the southern US.
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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.
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AKA Hillbilly Hand Fishing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]'
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Batman aside, I don't see the link between "cat" and "girl".
Re:Catfish (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
Based on the film's usage in 2010 (Score:2)
Re:Catfish (Score:5, Insightful)
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.)
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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.)
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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.
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no
language evolves. deal with it. no one cares about your strange mentally brittle sensitivities. adapt or die
http://www.oxforddictionaries.... [oxforddictionaries.com]
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interesting... I've never heard the word used in this way, ya learn something new every day...
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when i say "language evolves," that does not evoke random douchebags on the in the internet, it evokes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Why is that illegal? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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? (Score:5, Informative)
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 [youtube.com]
News about him apologizing for telling them out [cnn.com]
Old Wikileaks leak [wikileaks.org] 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.
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Re:Why is that illegal? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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Illegal things are illegal.
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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? (Score:4, Insightful)
"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.
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Not only that, but who would provide the FUD politicians need to distract the people?
Re:Why is that illegal? (Score:5, Insightful)
... 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.
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Indeed. And spam their communications into the ground.
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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
Re: Why is that illegal? (Score:2)
It ought to be legal to scam ISIS (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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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
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Must be very long ago last time you looked. Chechenia has belonged to Russia for what, 150 years?
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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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.
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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?
I heard this days ago..and (Score:3)
LET THEM GO! Come on, really going to charge some women with cheating ISIS out of a few grand?
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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 w
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The government reserves that right to itself. Not individuals.
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So the government should issue letters of marque against terrorist groups.
The realistic problem here is one of security (Score:5, Interesting)
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."
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Yeah, because nobody in the history of warfare ever misused a letter of marque.
The "Religion of Peace" (Score:2, Insightful)
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
A nation at war... (Score:2)
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.
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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. (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [theatlantic.com]
Doesn't matter what they want (Score:2)
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Rather convenient to not have a high priority to do something you cannot actually do isn't it?
Home grown terror not ISIS/Daash.
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Letters of Marque (Score:2)
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.
give them an award (Score:3)
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
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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?
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good!
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well, to collect the reward they have to show up at the govt office and submit to a little background examination, so...
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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
two wrongs don't make a right (Score:2)
...and that out of the way, when are the US Government going to publish their ISIS/ISIL/al Qaeda/Daesh funding accounts?
Can this be used to trace the money back further? (Score:2)
Catphishing (Score:2)
Surely slashdot should known that is is Catphishing not catfishing
Robbing a drug dealer is still robberty... (Score:2)
Hello McFly! (Score:2)
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?!?
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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" (Score:2)
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:This is a crap propaganda post (Score:4, Insightful)
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
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
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:This is a crap propaganda post (Score:5, Funny)
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?
Re: This is a crap propaganda post (Score:4, Insightful)
Social engineering is strongly related to computer hacking?
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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.
Re:"...most fearsome terrorist army in modern time (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:They should legalize fraud against terrorists (Score:5, Interesting)
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!"
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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.