What is Human Trafficking?
The act of detaining or transferring people against their will is known as human trafficking. By subjecting them to forced sex labor, forced menial labor, slavery, or organ harvesting, it seeks to exploit vulnerable individuals and can take place both domestically and beyond borders. Anyone can fall prey to human trafficking, though women and children are the most at risk. A human trafficker may work alone or as a member of an organized criminal gang.
Globally, human trafficking puts public safety and security at risk. Additionally, it undermines the rule of law. Human trafficking not only has a high human cost, but it is unfortunately also one of the most attractive crimes for gangs to indulge in as it generates high revenue worldwide. According to estimates, the annual revenue from forced labor exceeds $150 billion USD, at the cost of over 25 million victims.
The relation between Human Trafficking and Money Laundering
Victims of human trafficking are made to partake in forced labor, and criminals must then hide the true source of the money that they earn by exploiting them before it can be injected into the legal financial system in order to avoid investigation. In light of these considerations, human trafficking can be considered a money laundering predicate offense. Hence, it is extremely likely that in the case of human trafficking, money laundering is bound to happen. Hence, following money laundering often leads investigators to the source of more severe, extremely detrimental crimes.
Identifying instances of Human Trafficking through bank account activity
Keeping the relation between human trafficking and money laundering in mind, the following signs can help identify instances of human trafficking with respect to bank account activity-
- The withdrawal of money from the accounts of those who share a residence but are ultimately unrelated (by neither blood nor marriage).
- If transactions on foreign nationals’ accounts are made using the same phone number.
- If ATM usage, particularly by overseas clients, and transactions in the accounts of foreign nationals are made and registered with the same email address.
- If excessive deposits, especially for sums that are rounded off, such as $50, $150, and $200 are made into the same account.
- If deposits are made during odd hours, such as between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
- If deposits are made in large amounts, and usually made in bundles of notes with large denominations like $50, $20, and $100 notes. Illegal organizations believe banks don’t consider this as suspicious activity when conducting investigations, but branch-level records of deposits’ denominations show otherwise.
- Suppose if deposits are made over time in several cities, especially if they are adjacent to one another. When in metropolitan areas, traffickers often move their victims from one city to the next within short intervals of time. It denotes the use of more than one funnel account by the same user.
- If unusual sources of income are detected, which include, for example, virtual money, gift cards, and credit cards rather than traditional wire transfers. Since the source of the funds is illegal, the traffickers won’t receive regular wages, which can easily be caught when going through the account activity.
- If unusual activity and product usage is detected in the account: For instance, if a personal account receives wire transfers of money from locations all across the area , and a large amount of cash deposits are made into the account through ATMs.
- If an account holder cancels their credit card multiple times a year. This counts as suspicious activity and could be linked to traffickers not wanting to use the same credentials for long periods of time.
- If account holders spent an unusual amount of money on online advertisements. Many human traffickers lure their victims in by using online dating accounts, such as Tinder or Bumble. Using these accounts, they can meet up with women or men on the pretense of a date and abduct them. Similarly, they may also place paid ads on online marketplaces under the guise of meeting potential victims to sell products or buy from them.
- If customers show suspicious purchase history, for example, if a male account owner spends large amounts of money at a spa or nail salon at an unusual time like three in the morning.
- If purchases from pharmacies are made on a regular basis.
- If the account holder pays for transportation services like taxis on a regular basis and regularly spends on hotel stays, usually spanning one to two days.
- If ATM withdrawals from the bank account are made in various locations in very short intervals of time, which denotes that the person is traveling across the nation in a hurry and spending as little time as possible in each place, possibly transporting victims.
- If there are transfers from many third-person parties to the account, which are then all transferred to the same person.
- If the email address or contact number of the account holder is found on online escort sites, which may denote that the escort workers are victims of human trafficking and being held against their will.
Conclusion
Human trafficking is an extremely dangerous crime; it can impact society negatively and cause emotional and physical harm to all of the innocent victims involved. Human trafficking is dangerous as it can often go unnoticed and is quite prevalent due to the extremely profitable nature of the trade. The proceeds earned from human trafficking are laundered by criminal organizations to make them look legitimate, after which they are poured back into the criminal organizations, which can make them make powerful and a bigger danger to society and the country.
Due to the money-laundering aspect of human trafficking, it is extremely important for AML professionals to keep an eye out for any red flags that can denote human trafficking when investigating cases. Detecting possible human trafficking cases can help save innocent people from a life of slavery and abuse and help lock away dangerous criminals for good.
