Spotting the Signs: How Social Media and the Dark Web can Reveal Human Trafficking Activity

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By: Amanda Blake and David Cook

From 2012 to 2022, human trafficking convictions doubled, according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics. While this most likely indicates an increase in the effectiveness of law enforcement tactics rather than a surge in human trafficking activity, the fact that 1,912 persons were referred to US attorneys for human trafficking offenses in fiscal year 2022 is staggering. This is particularly true, considering that those brought to trial likely represent only a fraction of those actually engaged in this horrific crime.

Although it is impossible to know with certainty the true number of victims who have been trafficking, what is known is that annual profits from forced labor have surged to an estimated US$ 236 billion worldwide—an alarming 37 percent increase since 2014, according to a recent International Labor Organization (ILO) study. Behind these staggering figures are the hidden victims of human trafficking, often lured by false promises or coerced into exploitative conditions. The internet has unfortunately made it easier for traffickers to remain one step ahead of law enforcement, providing criminals with tools to disguise their operations and recruit victims in plain sight. Any effort to quantify the number of victims is complicated by the difficulty of determining whether victims have been forcibly ‘trafficked’ or have made the decision to sell their bodies for pennies on the dollar in the sex trade or as mules to ferry drugs and other illicit material from one place to another.

Often, human trafficking investigators, advocates, and analysts focus on identifying the trafficking victims as the best avenue for finding traffickers and bringing them to justice. However, what often gets overlooked is the potential wealth of publicly available information related to the practice of marketing victims as products online. Such marketing is a double-edged sword for the illicit support, or ‘auxiliary’ network. Trafficking victims must be able to be marketed to buyers, but doing so risks exposure.

Digital breadcrumbs from such advertising can be traced to a much wider network of illicit actors supporting the monumental task of moving humans around a geographic region, laundering money, and taking and receiving payments. Most of these transactions, communications, recruiting efforts, and marketing happen online in open and dark web marketplaces, in online cash app payments, hobby boards, and so much more. Because of this, online marketplaces on the open and dark web offer a way for analysts, investigators, and advocates to find victims and track those complicit in supporting human trafficking and likely other illegal activities.

Utilizing publicly available information, that includes the dark web, and open source intelligence (OSINT) techniques can uncover hidden links. In its February 2022 report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) notes that “the anonymity offered by online marketplaces and the complexities of virtual currencies create significant challenges for law enforcement.” With the right OSINT approach, those challenges become more manageable, giving agencies a better chance at detecting and disrupting trafficking organizations—and protecting vulnerable individuals from forced labor and other forms of exploitation.

CACI’s DarkBlue Intelligence Suite® offers a dark web monitoring capability that, when integrated into ShadowDragon’s Horizon® link analysis platform and used with our collection software, SocialNet®, can visualize otherwise hidden connections between social media accounts, online payment apps, and dark web forums and marketplaces, enabling analysts and investigators to pivot to any entities that reveal themselves interacting with trafficked individuals.


1. Why OSINT Matters for Human Trafficking Investigations

OSINT encompasses anything publicly or commercially accessible, whether it’s social media posts, dark web forums, online ads, third-party commercial data, or leaked documents. Traffickers, however, aren’t limited to surface platforms. They often hide on the dark web and use specialized apps to obscure their communications. By expanding OSINT tothe dark web, using CACI’s DarkBlue Intelligence Suite as well, investigators get a chance to see the entire spectrum of criminal activity—from bogus job ads on mainstream sites to secret dealings in otherwise hidden marketplaces.

The GAO’s 2022 report highlighted a “lack of comprehensive data” about traffickers’ online activities. This is precisely where OSINT excels. By combining signals from numerous sources, OSINT analysts can spot patterns, piece together criminal networks, and build a clearer understanding of how traffickers coordinate globally. When used ethically and in compliance with privacy laws, OSINT can help close the data gap the GAO identified.


2. Uncovering Recruitment Schemes and Coercive Tactics

One of the most painful realities of human trafficking is that many victims are recruited in plain sight. They might see a promising work opportunity on a legitimate-looking website or Facebook page. Over time, these lures turn into deceptive contracts or outright abductions.

Fortunately, there are methods to help mitigate such underhanded tactics:

  • Monitoring Public Platforms:
    Automated OSINT tools can scan social media, job boards, and classified ads for suspicious keywords—like “no experience needed,” “immediate travel,” or “quick cash.” While not every questionable ad implies trafficking, these keywords can serve as red flags prompting deeper investigation.
  • Tracking Conversations in Dark Web Forums:
    Traffickers often discuss recruitment successes or share tips for coercion on hidden forums. By scraping these sites and matching user aliases to surface-web profiles, investigators can piece together how a single trafficker might operate across different platforms.
  • Early Intervention:
    When suspicious activity is identified, law enforcement can intervene early by contacting potential victims or conducting an operation. This proactive approach saves time and resources, while also preventing more people from becoming victims.

3. Following the Money: Disrupting Illicit Profits

The ILO’s finding that profits from forced labor have grown 37 percent since 2014 underscores a grim reality: human trafficking is enormously lucrative. However, much like online marketing, having a large financial footprint is also a liability. These profits don’t just appear and disappear in a vacuum; traffickers need ways to store, move, and launder their earnings—all problems that can be a boon to law enforcement.

There are several tools to help track transactions from human trafficking:

  • Cryptocurrency Wallet Analysis:
    The GAO’s report emphasizes how virtual currencies present unique obstacles for law enforcement. However, cryptocurrencies still leave digital footprints. By connecting wallet addresses found on dark web forums to transactions on public blockchains, OSINT analysts can spot suspicious patterns.
  • Front Companies and Job Ads:
    On the surface web, traffickers may pose as legitimate businesses—hotels, staffing agencies, or import/export companies. OSINT can reveal inconsistencies, such as a company’s claimed size or revenue versus its lack of any real digital footprint. Investigators can then dig deeper into public records or foreign registries to validate or disprove business legitimacy.
  • Spotting Emerging Laundering Tactics:
    Traffickers share new money-laundering strategies on hidden dark web forums, such as tools like “mixers” (also known as “tumblers”), which mix cryptocurrency between many wallets in an effort to obfuscate the origin of the transactions, or step-by-step guides for funneling money through offshore accounts. By scraping these discussions, OSINT teams can alert law enforcement, who can then watch for these tactics in real-world banking or blockchain patterns.

4. Generating Real-Time Warnings

A unique advantage of OSINT is its ability to provide rapid alerts. Rather than waiting for a victim to find help—or for a major bust to occur—OSINT can pick up on suspicious keywords, user handles, or financial transactions as they crop up.

Here are a few useful alerting functions:

  • Keyword Alerts on Popular Sites:
    Investigators can set up automated searches on social media and classifieds so that if someone posts an ad suspiciously similar to a known trafficking pattern, an alert is triggered. This leads to faster action—sometimes before a crime is fully carried out.
  • Getting Ahead of Dark Web Takedowns:
    The GAO report underscores how quickly criminal marketplaces rise and fall. In addition to regularly being seized by law enforcement, dark web sites are often taken down in attacks from rival sites, and dark web site administrators are infamous for exit scamming—stealing all the cryptocurrency from their customers and closing sites without warning. With continuous scraping and cataloging, law enforcement has a better chance of identifying these marketplaces early and coordinating takedowns or sting operations. Regular scraping also ensures that even if a site is taken down unexpectedly, the information remains available, and site closures don’t derail investigations.
  • Evidence Preservation:
    OSINT archives can automatically capture snapshots of suspicious posts or forum threads. If criminals later delete or alter them, investigators still have the original evidence for prosecution.

5. Collaborating Across Borders and Agencies

Human trafficking is an inherently transnational crime. Victims might be recruited in one country, transported through several others, and exploited in yet another region entirely. That’s why the GAO calls for “improved coordination” to address trafficking in the online realm:

  • International Collaboration:
    OSINT, being largely composed of publicly available data, is easier to share across jurisdictions than classified intelligence. This opens the door for broad collaboration with international law enforcement, NGOs, and even private tech companies.
  • Regional Insights:
    Tools capable of scraping local news sites or social media across multiple languages can alert agencies to regional patterns of trafficking or new trends in recruitment. This global scope is vital because criminals shift operations whenever they feel local pressure.
  • Collective Expertise:
    By collaborating on OSINT findings, agencies can pool their expertise—cybersecurity specialists, crypto analysts, human rights advocates—ensuring no single trafficker’s method slips through the cracks.

6. Challenges and Ethical Considerations

No investigative method is without its challenges, and OSINT is no exception:

  • Data Accuracy and Verification:
    Criminals often plant fake leads or exaggerate their operations to mislead investigators. Likewise, well-meaning activists can sometimes post unverified claims, and law enforcement agencies don’t always deconflict, meaning that investigators can sometimes spend weeks or even months trying to take down a dark web site, only to learn that the site is actually a honeypot run by another agency. For these reasons, rigorous cross-checking and corroboration are crucial.
  • Privacy Concerns:
    Collecting publicly available data can still pose ethical dilemmas. Investigators must respect local and international privacy regulations, ensuring they don’t sweep up innocent individuals in overly broad searches.
  • Resource Requirements:
    Many agencies need more training and better technology to keep pace with traffickers’ evolving tactics. The GAO highlights “data limitations and resource gaps” as key hurdles. Building a robust OSINT program requires both financial and human capital.

Conclusion

When we consider that forced labor generates US$ 236 billion in profits, per the ILO’s latest findings, the urgency of fighting human trafficking becomes clear. Criminals are capitalizing on the digital age, using the same tools we do—social media, messaging apps, online marketplaces—to recruit victims and conceal their profits. Yet, by leveraging OSINT across both the visible and hidden parts of the internet, investigators can make it far harder for traffickers to hide.

From monitoring suspicious job ads to tracing cryptocurrency wallets and scraping dark web forums, OSINT reveals patterns and connections that might otherwise remain invisible. The GAO’s 2022 report, which underscores the challenges of anonymity and cross-border operations, also suggests that effective data sharing and technical expertise can turn the tide. Indeed, with proactive OSINT efforts—done ethically, collaboratively, and backed by modern tools—law enforcement and anti-trafficking organizations can make a meaningful dent in this billion-dollar criminal industry.

Ultimately, fighting human trafficking online requires the same spirit of innovation that traffickers themselves have used to evade detection. By tapping the power of open source intelligence, we can bring transparency to the shadows, protect vulnerable people from being exploited, and disrupt the massive illegal profits fueling this global scourge.

Learn more about ShadowDragon here, or reach out for a demo or trial license of either Horizon®, SocialNet® or Horizon® Monitor, here.

Learn more about CACI’s DarkBlue Intelligence Suite, which empowers analysts and investigators to safely find the dark web information they need with searchable, scraped dark web data and a secure live access tool, here.

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