January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. This year, National Human Trafficking Awareness Day was on January 11. Blue is the awareness color for human trafficking.
National Human Trafficking Prevention Month is an opportunity to educate others about identifying human trafficking, prevention and supporting victims. It is important to spread awareness and as a financial institution be aware of “Red Flags” that are indicators that someone you know such as a customer or member could be engaging in money laundering due to human trafficking or being trafficked themselves.
First thing, What is Human Trafficking?
According to U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide including right here in the United States. It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality.” Traffickers might use the following methods to lure victims into trafficking situations:
- Violence
- Manipulation
- False promises of well-paying jobs
- Romantic relationships
Traffickers look for people who are easy targets for a variety of reasons, including:
- Psychological or emotional vulnerability
- Economic hardship
- Lack of a social safety net
- Natural disasters
- Political instability
In the United States, some of the most vulnerable populations include American Indian/Alaska Native communities, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning individuals, individuals with disabilities, undocumented immigrants, runaway and homeless youth, and low-income individuals.
FinCEN collaborates with law enforcement agencies to share information with financial institutions on “red flags” for trafficking, which institutions can use to identify and report suspicious transactions. FinCEN also coordinates a voluntary program that allows financial institutions to share information with one another to better identify and report suspicious activities that may be related to money laundering or other illicit financing.
What can you do to help?
As a professional working at a financial institution, the following “red flag” indicators could assist you when reviewing client’s profile and seeing if there’s anything unusual with their account activity. Whether you are a teller at a bank or a back-office employee reviewing transactions, these indicators could potentially help you save a life from being trafficked!
Here are a few examples of Human Trafficking “Red Flag” Indicators Provided to Financial Institutions:
- Involvement of a third party who speaks for the customer, insists on being present for transactions, or acts aggressively toward the customer.
- Frequent customer transactions from different U.S. geographical regions.
- Transactions that are inconsistent with a customer's expected activity.
- Customer accounts that share a telephone number or other identifiers with escort agency websites or commercial sex advertisements.
- Frequent sending or receipt of funds via cryptocurrency to or from internet addresses associated with illicit activity.
If you have noticed these red flags at your financial institution, please contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline (888-373-7888) or Text INFO to 233733 or chat online at https://humantraffickinghotline.org.
