What do traffickers look for in a victim?

• In most cases, the common vulnerabilities are that the child is desperate for unconditional love. – This especially happens to children because they seek out love and affection that they need and want. They seek out young people.
• Traffickers target specific schools and send a mass amount of friend requests to students, teachers, faculty, and coaches from that particular school. Most people add people because they have friends in common. Once they have been added, they patiently wait like a tiger for its prey to not be paying attention, relaxed, and not alert. They are waiting for vulnerabilities, first liking pictures, liking videos, then commenting on posts, next sliding into your DMs. They talked, joking like a “friend” until you feel comfortable, then asking for you to send pictures, next asking for nude pics. Before you know it, a nude or half nude pic has been sent. After that, the horror starts. They blackmail you; remember all the friends they had in common they will threaten to send those pics to the “mutual friends” unless you follow their instructions. Instructions will be to take this Uber to a particular hotel, meet a client of theirs and do whatever they ask.
• The Lover Boy Syndrome or Romeo Pimp is widespread tactic traffickers use. A trafficker can pose as their love interest for several months. Once the victim has fallen in love, he will ask them to go away with him on business or a romantic getaway. This is a ploy because he has planned to sell his victim to a potential buyer. With the lover boy tactic, they use pictures of the victim on the dark web to sell to the highest bidder.
• Women are also involved in kidnapping new victims. Some do this as a partnership with the traffickers to gain money, power, and control. Others are forced and have dealt with abuse just like the victims. These women are called Spotters, Fake Friends, and bottom girls. A lot of times, it is the girl that has been with the pimp the longest.
• Fake Jobs are another way traffickers lure victims into slavery. Jobs disguised as modeling jobs, acting jobs, dancing gigs, or marketing.
• Baby harvesting is another form of trafficking that is unfortunately on the rise; young mothers are forced or agree to sell their babies into a lifetime of slavery.