National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Crime and Heartbreak

Courtesy of PxHere

There are few crimes out there more heinous than human trafficking. Rape, forced prostitution, slavery, and other horrifying fates await victims. At its surface, human trafficking is the illegal “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.” But it’s the exploitation that is heartbreaking, with people purchasing human beings—men, women, and yes, children—for anything from slave labor to sexual exploitation.

This week, the United States commemorated National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Victims of human trafficking aren’t limited to a specific race, color, age, or gender. Victims can be educated, they can be rich or poor, gay or straight, etc. Individuals who are impoverished or living in unsafe or unstable environments are, however, more vulnerable. Traffickers can prey on their victims’ search for a loving family or a stable relationship to lure them into exploitive situations. Individuals with disabilities, undocumented migrants, who may not trust the police because of fear of deportation, runaway and homeless youth, and other groups may also be more vulnerable.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has also exacerbated the problem, with traffickers preying upon desperate, frightened people trying to escape a war zone with their children. An aid worker last March described the human trafficking problem close to Ukraine’s borders as “rampant,” detailing suspicious individuals at border crossing points on the hunt for children they can sell to transnational criminal organizations and women and men they can force into sex slavery.

Many of the methodologies human traffickers use to disguise their illicit activities are similar to those used by other malign actors, such as the use of front companies, funnel accounts, and alternative payment methods. But these methodologies are more complex because of the licit and illicit proceeds that are comingled in seemingly legitimate businesses, such as restaurants, beauty salons, and bars that also act as front companies for prostitution. forced labor, and other abuses.

Exploitive employment practices, such as forcing a victim into slave labor, in which wealthy individuals will pay traffickers a fee for a nanny, cook, or maid for their homes, are also difficult to track. The victims’ movements are restricted, as are their communications with the outside world and their ability to escape. They may be paid nothing at all, other than receiving room, board, and clothing. They may not even be allowed to keep a bank account. And even if they are paid a nominal salary, traffickers will generally confiscate that money to pay “transport fees.”

Victims who are forced into prostitution or pornography may be transported all over the country to various events (think Olympics, World Cup, Super Bowl, US Open, New Year’s celebrations in big cities, etc.), where volumes of potential customers are significant and difficult to catch—like needles in a haystack. And customers will often pay in cash or gift cards, as well as virtual currencies, which makes detection even more difficult.

So how to recognize it? How to track it?

Red flags related to human trafficking do provide some indications of this criminal activity that financial professionals at banks and financial institutions should recognize as suspicious at the very least.

Is the account making regular hotel payments or conducing ATM transactions in various cities in a short amount of time?

Are there constant taxi or Uber payments?

Is the account being used for purchases at pharmacies on a daily basis?

Are transactions—especially round-dollar deposits—occurring outside of business hours, especially in the middle of the night?

In addition, there is no substitute for human instinct when it comes to detecting suspicious activity. There are times when women instinctually know that there’s something not right with the individual with whom they board an elevator, prompting them to quickly leave the enclosed space. Or the cute guy they meet at a bar, all of a sudden seems too insistent or otherwise sketchy.

Instinct will almost certainly allow financial professionals to detect suspicious behavior and transactions.

Is there a certain look in the eyes of a customer, who may not be allowed to reply to simple questions, and who is accompanied by an individual who seems to have full control of the person’s accounts and interactions?

How does a woman look at her companion? Is there terror in her eyes? Are there faded bruises or makeup covering contusions on her face? Does her companion have possession of her identity documents? Does the woman know where she lives and what city she’s currently in?

Does the customer regularly make cash deposits and avoid any transaction that requires identity documents?

Do answers to basic questions seem scripted or rehearsed?

Human trafficking is absolutely a global problem, and there’s not one solution that will resolve it. From war-torn regions to impoverished areas of the world, vulnerable victims are trafficked and abused, and financial professionals are on the front lines of detecting transactions and accounts linked to human traffickers and working with law enforcement to track and stop them.

Would one red flag indicate human trafficking—a predicate offense for money laundering? Likely not.

But a combination of indicators filed in a timely matter in a suspicious activity report (SAR) can help law enforcement address the problem.

The Knoble—an association of financial crime professionals who work together to discover and stop abuse of vulnerable people, including women, children, and the elderly—has the resources and partners who can help stem human trafficking.

Collaborative efforts are key, and a combination of effective filing of SARs, watchful financial professionals, and knowledgeable law enforcement officers, who know how to assemble the pieces of the puzzle, can provide training to identify risky accounts, access to subject matter experts, and best practices when it comes to filing SARs to stop human traffickers.

Watchful neighbors and bystanders can also become a critical tool to identify and stop human traffickers. This is not about being nosy. This is about following instincts and possibly saving lives.

A neighbor noticed something seemed “off” in a fight between two neighbors and called Scottsdale police, leading to the rescue of a human trafficking victim, Arizona cops say.

The neighbor overhead a man threatening to punch a woman, KNXV reported. Court documents obtained by the station say he had hired her as a housekeeper but then forced her to work as a prostitute, keeping her money and legal documents locked in his car.

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day was last week.

January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

Efforts to stop human trafficking should be ongoing and robust all year long.