The warning highlights one of the potential risks associated with revealing too much private information online
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued a warning yesterday about the continued threat posed by human traffickers luring victims online. Using tactics such as coercion, fraud, force, and bogus job offers, the criminals scour social media sites and dating platforms in an attempt to exploit the personal situations of down on their luck individuals by promising to help them out.
“Offenders often exploit dating apps and websites to recruit – and later advertise – sex trafficking victims. In addition, offenders are increasingly recruiting labor trafficking victims through what appear to be legitimate job offers,” said the Bureau. The criminals usually pose as work recruiters, modeling agents or scouts, lulling potential victims with fake career prospects or offers of a helping hand.
To put the problem into context – according to data by the US National Human Trafficking Hotline, between 2015 and 2018 almost 1,000 potential sex trafficking victims were recruited using online services such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Craigslist, as well as online dating sites.
Per the FBI’s warning, the internet has been a boon for sex traffickers, who now have access to a vast pool of potential victims from all around the world. Online platforms make it simpler for human traffickers to find out more about their targets, often teenage girls, especially if they overshare about their financial woes or family problems. The offenders then leverage this information and feign romantic interest or offer fake prospects of a better life. They groom their victims, establish a false sense of trust, and ..
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