Some women in Russia have been accused of tricking gullible men into sham marriages before sending them to be killed on the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Oddity Central reported on Friday.

When Russian soldiers get killed in the war, their spouses or closest relatives receive lump sums of money starting at five million rubles (about $64,000) and sometimes exceeding eight million rubles (about $100,000).

This is the government’s way of reassuring conscripts that if, or rather when, they lose their lives on the battlefield, their families are taken care of. It’s a straightforward system, and apparently easily exploited by ruthless profiteers.

Ever since the Russia-Ukraine war began, Russian media have been reporting about so-called ‘black widows,’ women who approach and trick men into marriage just so they can then send them off to war and cash their compensation check as soon as they get killed.

For example, Cable News Network (CNN) recently sat down with Maria, a 37-year-old woman from St. Petersburg whose father was recently shot on the front lines in Ukraine.

She didn’t even know that her father had enlisted in the Russian army, nor that he had married a woman 22 years his junior, who apparently had no problem seeing him off to war just two days into their marriage.

That same woman, whom Maria has never even met, conveniently cashed the compensation following the man’s death at the war front.

“I’m still in shock and still can’t accept what happened,” Maria said.

“At first, it felt like a dream. Even now, I sometimes wake up thinking I must have just dreamt it all. But it is really happening. I’ve never even spoken to this woman. I don’t know what to say to her because I immediately suspected it was a scam,” she added.

The black widow phenomenon is no secret in Russia. It is discussed openly online, even though the government frowns upon those making claims they can’t prove.

For example, in a viral clip, a female real estate agent talked about women who marry men going off to war just so they can cash in the compensation upon their deaths and buy a home.

“It’s simple,” real estate agent, Marina Orlova, said with a laugh. “Find a man who’s serving in the Special Military Operation, and when he gets killed, you get eight million rubles. Some women are buying cheap apartments like that these days. It’s business.”

•Servicemen of the 148th Separate Artillery Zhytomyr Brigade fire a self-propelled howitzer toward Russian troops at a position on the front line in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, on June 23. (Reuters)

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