OSINT for Good: Online Sleuths Fight Sex Trafficking
This November, I had the privilege of using my online sleuthing skills for good during one of a series of events called Skull Games, where volunteers work to counter sex-trafficking. The next Skull Games event is later this month.
All Things Possible—a nonprofit that helps people affected by trauma—has partnered with Echo Analytics Group to bring together groups of vetted volunteers to identify potential victims of sex trafficking and their traffickers using open-source intelligence. These open sources can include public records, press reports, social media accounts and other publicly available information. The term “Skull Games” refers to the mental manipulation predators use on their victims.
As my colleague David Heinzmann wrote in his January 2022 blog on human trafficking, the U.S. Department of State estimates there are about 25 million people worldwide subjected to some kind of human trafficking. An estimated 4.8 million adults and children were victims of forced sexual exploitation in 2016, according to a 2017 report by the International Labour Organization and Walk Free Foundation. The vast majority of victims were women and girls.
Jeff Tiegs of All Things Possible said in an August 2022 press release that predators’ ability to recruit and groom sex trafficking victims is “at an all-time high.” “Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are riddled with predators,” Tiegs said. “They are all over Minecraft and Roblox. They use mediums where you can share photos and videos. They are on Whisper and Scout, and they are on all the dating sites.”
So far there have been five in-person Skull Games events. In November, I participated in the first fully remote event. In preparation, Skull Games organizers sent new volunteers study materials to review and gave volunteers a test case to investigate. Organizers also held two training sessions educating us on some of the key signs that a person is being trafficked, such as certain tattoos or slang used.
On the weekend of the event, online investigators of varying backgrounds and skill levels from across the country logged onto their computers and got to work identifying potential victims and people of interest. Volunteers included people with military, law enforcement intelligence and private investigations backgrounds—as well as sex trafficking survivors. Multiple sex trafficking survivors participated in this last event and were available via video to answer any questions other volunteers may have.
At the end of each Skull Games event, reports detailing volunteers’ findings—and their path of discovery, or how they got to those findings—are sent to law enforcement agencies. Skull Games only targets areas of the United States where law enforcement partners will accept these lead reports.
“So many children go missing and are trafficked here in America. … Law enforcement sometimes don’t have the resources to track down some of these cold cases or identify some of these missing children,” Buddy Jericho of Echo Analytics Group told WFLA News in Tampa. “So, efforts like this, nonprofit efforts to support them, have really started to grow.”
For me, it was a rewarding experience to use the skills I’ve developed and use every day as a professional investigator for such an important cause.
All Things Possible and Echo Analytics Group are gearing up for their next Skull Games event, to be held January 28 and 29 in Tampa, Florida. The event will be held in person, with remote access available via video and chat. If this work interests you, I highly recommend getting involved. You can learn more and apply to volunteer here.