Human traffickers more prevalent on social media – NAPTIP

The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has mentioned that there has been a shift in human trafficking from physical to virtual recruitment through virtual assessment of victims and proxy negotiations.

The Director General, Fatima Waziri-Azi said that while technology has come as a great relief and a major boost in the way of life of people, there are some concerns because human traffickers have also caught on to digital transformation.

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“The internet provides easy access to a larger pool of potential victims because geographical limitations no longer exist, thereby increasing the ease with which traffickers can locate and recruit their victims; control and organize transportation for victims, communicate amongst perpetrators, and hide criminal proceeds.

“At NAPTIP, we have seen an increase in fake job advertorials and fake scholarships via social media as traffickers use it to recruit and catfish unsuspecting victims. Traffickers also use technology to control their victims. For instance, besides oath taking, they make nude videos of their victims and threaten to share the explicit images online” she added