The links between Cybercrime, Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants

1. E4J University Module Series on Trafficking in Persons & Smuggling of MigrantsModule 14 The links between Cybercrime, Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this module, students should be able to: • Identify the links between cybercrime, TIP and SOM; • Assess current cyber-enabled TIP and SOM facilities; • Critically evaluate frameworks to counteract Cybercrime, TIP and SOM; and • Identify potential cyber innovation, challenges and future trends.

3. Key components of the Module • Basic terms • TIP and SOM • Differences between TIP and SOM • Cybercrime • How technology facilitates TIP and SOM • Technology used in TIP • Recruitment • Control • Exploitation • Profits • Technology used in SOM • Using technology to prevent and combat TIP and SOM • Privacy and data concerns • Emerging Trends

4. Basic terms • What is Trafficking in Persons (TIP)? • Trafficking in persons is the recruitment, transportation or confinement of people for exploiting them through the use or threat of violence, other form of coercion, deception or abuse of vulnerability. • What is Smuggling of Migrants (SOM)? • Smuggling of migrants is the organised unlawful movement of people across borders, under a payment-for-service basis. • What are the differences between TIP and SOM? • SOM generally does not involve intention of harm • In SOM profits are derived from payment of smuggling fees, rather than exploitation • SOM is always transnational, whereas TIP can occur domestically or transnationally

5. Basic terms • What is Cybercrime? • Cybercrime is a term used to describe crimes committed through the use of information and communication technology (ICT).

6. THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TIP Technology increases the ease with which traffickers can locate, recruit, coerce and control their victims. It also provides a way for criminal enterprises to finance their operations. RECRUITMENT EXPLOITATION CONTROL PROFITS

7. RECRUITMENT THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TIP The Internet provides traffickers with access to a greater number of potential victims (of the direct crime or as a victim of TIP) through phones, emails, instant messaging, websites, and phone applications (or Apps). • At the recruitment stage, traffickers are far more likely to use ‘clearnet’ websites to establish initial contact with victims. • These websites can facilitate text and video chat, image exchange, dating, and other interpersonal activities. • On social networking websites and applications traffickers can research their victim and readily monitor their likes and dislikes. • In the context of labour trafficking, victims can be recruited through offers of work, usually through sham employment websites, online advertisements or recruitment agencies, and through social networking sites. • Online platforms could provide traffickers with access to a range of useful information that could be used to target and groom victims, including: • Location data • Identity details and information about lifestyle, routines, and habits • Images • Contacts

8. Source: Ryan Kunz, Meredith Baughman, Rebecca Yarnell and Celia Williamson, ‘Social Media and Sex Trafficking Process’, University of Toledo

9. CONTROL THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TIP Control can take several forms, among them coercion, controlling finances, blackmail or them physically luring and transporting the victim away from their home. Technology can assist with both physical and virtual control. • Monitoring victims through manual examination of phone records or accessing phone data through cloud-based applications and spyware. • Tracking victims through location tracking applications on mobile phones • Fraud, threats and deception may be used by traffickers who obtain compromising information about the victim (e.g. images or moving images) as a mean to gain control. • Hijacking the social media of victims and adding content suggestive of consent to exploitation, coupled with sexually graphic content to damage the victim’s reputation and credibility as a complainant. • Sending threatening communications to victims who manage to escape, in attempt to maintain or regain control

10. EXPLOITATION THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TIP • Human beings are considered a commodity offline and online. • Traffickers advertise on clearnet (the visible web) and the Deep Web. • The Deep (or ‘Dark’) Web is part of the World Wide Web that is not discoverable by open search engines. • However, trafficking victims are primarily sold on easily accessible websites because traffickers want to ensure that their ads are accessible to the greatest number clients who may not be technologically proficient • In the United States, for example, websites such as Craigslist, Reddit, adultsearch.com, meet4fun.com, and backpage.com have all been used by traffickers to advertise victims. • On these and other classified advertisement, escort, and dating websites, traffickers advertise their victims’ services under the guise of legitimate work. • Child exploitation can occur through the use of live-streaming child sexual abuse.

11. PROFITS THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TIP Digital currencies, or ‘cryptocurrencies’, such as Bitcoin, are virtual or electronic currencies that are traded online. • These currencies have created a means by which criminals can receive payment and hide or move proceeds of crime. • Europol estimates that 40% of infra-criminal traffic takes place in Bitcoins. • Advantages to used digital currencies: • Removes the need to launder cash • Can be moved across international borders with ease • Can use multiple online ‘wallets’ to make it more difficult for authorities to track • Relative anonymity • Reduced risk of a counterparty reneging

12. THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SOM There is a paucity of available data and research on the use of cyber-technology to facilitate SOM crimes. However, according to the European Commission (2016), ‘the use of social media in migrant smuggling has witnessed an exponential growth in recent years.’ From the available sources we can see that ICT is used in SOM in the following ways: • Advertising – Smugglers marketing their services online through social media sites • Communication – Smartphones, emails, social media platforms, and apps are used by smugglers to communicate with migrants • Reviews – Online social media review sites by which intending migrants can learn of the experiences of others with smugglers • GPS – Electronic cartography has reduced the reliance that migrants have historically had on those smuggling them across borders, by allowing migrants to navigate routes more easily and independently • Information – ICT is used to conduct research on migration routes • Logistics – Smugglers utilize ICT to provide information and/or communicate logistical services

13. THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SOM • Financing – Payments to smugglers are primarily made through cash in hand, the use of third party guarantors (family members) or through instalments on online payment systems such as ‘Hawala’. Source: Europol and Interpol (2016) Joint Report on Migrant Smuggling Networks

14. THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SOM The following trends in SOM have also emerged from a technology driven shift: • Less dependence on smugglers • Class/digital divide • Blurring of lines between smuggler and migrant

15. USING TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT AND COMBAT TIP AND SOM Law enforcement authorities use technology to identify traffickers and smugglers, and data mining to identify suspicious transactions. • Covert operations • The use of fake profiles can allow digital evidence to be gathered as part of investigations, allowing authorities to track large networks of traffickers • The knowledge of the use of sting operations may also act as a deterrent • Web crawlers and data mining tools • Programs that comb internet sites and advertisements for data that might be related to TIP or SOM. • These programs can download content, identify links between downloaded items and add to information databases. • The information in these databases is then mined to identify trends and patterns.

16. USING TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT AND COMBAT TIP AND SOM

17. USING TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT AND COMBAT TIP AND SOM • Image data • Metadata, or Exif data attached to images can assist in providing the dates on which crimes were committed, the location of criminal activity and which devices the images were captured on. • GPS data • Tracking location and device history • Cooperation with the private sector • The private sector can assist with developing software and sharing data and information. • In 2018 the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime announced the Tech Against Trafficking (TAT) initiative, a new collaboration between global technology companies, civil society organizations, and the UN to support the eradication of forced labour and human trafficking through the use of technology. • In 2009 Microsoft developed a tool (PhotoDNA) to analyse images of child sexual abuse, which can be used (without charge) both by law enforcement agencies and businesses to locate and remove child sexual abuse images

18. USING TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT AND COMBAT TIP AND SOM • Social Media • Communicating information about TIP and SOM and posting opportunities for civil involvement. • Education about TIP and SOM. • Reporting mechanisms. • Crowdsourcing • For example, TraffickCam, invites members of the public to upload photographs of the hotel rooms they stay in, so that a crowdsourced database can be built with the images and the features of the rooms can be used to locate where trafficked victims are being held and/or abuse. (https://www.traffickcam.com).

19. USING TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT AND COMBAT TIP AND SOM The use of this digital evidence also allows for far stronger cases to be constructed, and for tangible evidence to support the accounts of victims, when they give evidence. Sources of digital evidence that may be used against traffickers include: • Phone data • GPS data • Social media postings • Digital footprints, including browser history on personal computers and IP addresses • Bank records

20. PRIVACY CONCERNS The harnessing of technology for tackling TIP and SOM crimes needs to be vigorously pursued with determination, but without undermining the fundamental rights of both the victims and the public. Issues may arise with: • Location tracking • Data collection • The use of drones

21. EMERGING TRENDS Emerging trends in the use of technologywillshape the future of TIP and SOM, as well as the waytechnologyisused to combat these crimes. Someemerging trends in technologyinclude: • Machine Learning • Digital Applications • Technological tools, sensors and digital twins • Distributed ledgers and mesh systems • Digital architecture • Digital ecosystems, virtual and augmented reality

22. Education for Justice

23. More information @DohaDeclaration e4j@unodc.org unodc.org/dohadeclaration unodc.org/e4J