Human trafficking accompanies factors like unemployment and economic insecurity. In 2020, as funding has been diverted towards the COVID-19 crisis and struggling communities face even more financial hardship, the UN reports that millions of people are at risk of becoming human trafficking victims and have less resources than ever to escape. Now is the time in which criminal investigators must quickly uncover trafficking rings to save the most vulnerable.
Organized crime has unfortunately found trafficking a “new opportunity to profit” during COVID-19, and trafficking is both “on the move” and digitally-based more than ever before. Organizations have quickly embraced the pandemic by establishing “drive-thru” services and using the internet to exploit victims at an unprecedented rate. Moreover, victims are largely unable to find resources to escape due to worldwide shelter and refuge closures.
Trafficking organizations have historically been difficult to investigate: uncovering one or two traffickers usually is not enough to stop a ring’s activity. Traditional field methods of investigation are also quickly becoming obsolete as more traffickers exploit children digitally. In efforts to comprehensively uncover both the identities and associations of traffickers, investigators must scour through suspected traffickers’ address and email history in addition to online social media content and connections.
Criminal investigators can use Pipl SEARCH to uncover the identities and associations of suspected traffickers. Pipl SEARCH’s rich identity profiles can be probed for public facing online and offline content (private content can be retrieved after a subpoena is issued), as well as for a person’s known associates. For further information on Pipl’s use as an investigative tool, click here to see our Government web page..