Reports that Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian-Israeli citizen, had been captured by ISIS militants in Syria were put to rest Monday after a post on her Facebook page telling friends she was safe.
“Guys, I’m totally safe and secure. I don’t have Internet access or any communication devices with me for my safety and security. I can’t reply regularly and only happened to have a chance to log in and see these buklshit (sic) news stories. Ignore the reports I’ve been captured.”
The post was made around 3:30 p.m. ET Monday afternoon and was in response to an Israeli newspaper report, Islamist websites claimed Sunday that extremists had kidnapped Rosenberg, who had joined Kurdish fighters overseas.
The former member of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), was reported Sunday to have been captured by ISIS in Syria.
The 31-year-old was, according to her Facebook page, born in White Rock, B.C. and studied aviation at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Posts on Rosenberg’s Facebook timeline indicate she arrived in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, on Nov. 2 and then travelled through Turkey and into northern Syria sometime before Nov. 9.
Israel’s Haaretz reported Rosenberg gave an interview to Israel Radio, explaining why she wanted to join the Kurdish fight against ISIS.
“They are our brothers. They are good people. They love life, a lot like us, really,” she reportedly said.
Rosenberg indicated she was a member of the IDF from 2006 to 2008 and posted several photos of herself in uniform.
What’s not on her Facebook timeline are details of an apparent incarceration for fraud.
Hebrew-language Walla News reported Rosenberg was arrested and later convicted for her involvement in a lottery fraud ring that targeted elderly Americans.
According to a post from the FBI, which worked with Israeli police to arrest 11 people in 2009 and later extradite them to the United States, a woman named Gillian Rosenberg pleaded guilty to her involvement in the scam in which “victims were ultimately bilked out of millions of dollars.”
Israel’s Channel 10 reported (in Hebrew) she was sentenced to a four-year prison term, but later had her sentence reduced before being deported to Israel.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons lists a Gillian Chealsea (sic) Rosenberg as having been released from prison on Nov. 27, 2013 at the age of 30.
The Jerusalem Post reported in 2009 it was Gillian Rosenberg who helped blow the scheme’s cover, by contacting an undercover police officer and telling the agent she had won $500,000, but had to transfer $4,200 “in fees to Israel.”
A post from a friend on Rosenberg’s Facebook timeline in August referred to her as Gillian Chelsea Clarissa Rosenberg.
Rosenberg indicated on her Facebook account that her birth date is Nov. 12, 1983.
There was little to no activity on the account between 2009 and Dec. 30 2013. Prior to going back to Israel in July of this year, she posted several photos from New York City and wrote that she was returning to Israel after five years.
With files from The Associated Press
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