Hello, my name is Michael and I work as the data collection and technology development manager at Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative. My job is to find and collect data on illicit sites dealing in trafficking, money laundering, and child exploitation on both the clear and dark web. I also compete in OSINT competitions.

In one of the world’s biggest growing crimes that has many facets, it can be difficult for law enforcement to stay on top of methodologies and techniques used by criminals. We will go over some techniques and methods to help you narrow down possible areas of interest to help detect human trafficking and help victims. One of the best tools you can use, believe it or not, is Google. However, we will not be using it the normal way.
One main area no matter where you are is massage parlors, they tend to be a big facilitator of a lot of trafficking. But just searching for example Seattle Massage Parlors, will yield way too many results to go through. Searching like that means any of those keywords if it’s present on the page will show up in the results. If we wrap that in quotes such as “Seattle Massage Parlors” then only results with those three keywords exactly in that order will show. Try it for your locality by replacing Seattle with your City or County name, did the number of results drop a great deal? Awesome!
Now, let’s narrow it down even more, this is where you pick the needle out of the haystack with ease. Instead of just using keywords with quotes we will break these up and use what’s called a Google Dork, there are many different Google Dorks because there are many different operators you can use. For this one we will be using the intext dork. In your Google search type this in but using your own locality.
intext:”asian massage” AND “cash only” AND “Seattle”
How do your results look now? Too many to go through or will you be done by lunchtime? This type of search works wonders for not only massage parlors, but for any kind of pivot point you can find from the information on those profiles. Use it on business names, usernames, phone numbers, emoji sequences, wording in titles, the possibilities are endless.

Key things to look for in the results would be, if the massage parlor was advertising on an escort site,
- do they have reviews
- do they advertise sex on the escort sites
- do they have nude images on the escort site
- do they advertise new girls
- do they have a WhatsApp or Telegram
that reverse searching in google would reveal other locations of connected massage parlors using the same links, reverse search the images in Google and find if those women shown have been advertised in other places, reverse search the email is it also listed in other locations as a contact on escort sites.
Let’s say you found one that advertises new young girls weekly or monthly using that previous search. OpenCorporates.com is a great source to search for that business name, along as using a dork like previously that would be formatted like this.
intext:”example massage parlor LLC”
When using OpenCorporates.com searching for the business name and owner can reveal a lot, especially if that owner has other massage parlors with the same or similar name in other locations. Finding one that has multiple locations by the same owner gives you a whole new locality to search. How would you adjust your dork for this type of scenario? Simple, just like this.
intext:”matching massage parlor name” AND “jacksonville”
Using this type of method, you could find if women posted in one area were also posted in another area. If you can find enough historical posts, you can even plot out when they rotate women. Let’s say you found one that has posted on escort sites and multiple women are using the same phone number, but maybe you don’t have a way to search that phone number on that site, or maybe you do. For this Google dork we will be using a different search operator instead of the intext dork we previously used. So, let’s find it using the site operator like this.
site:exampleescortsite.com “555-555-5555”
Using these search methods can yield targeted results quickly and shorten the time to finding these sites and where they are linked to. But what happens when you hit a dead end? There are other tools you can use, some of which are free to law enforcement and can help uncover things you normally wouldn’t have easily. The first one of these tools is Epieos.com which is an amazing tool for gathering information about a Gmail account or places it may be registered. They have a free search account, which is sufficient for your needs.
Let’s say you search a Gmail account and get a hit. The results could show you things maybe you would not have seen so easily before such as a name on the account, where that account is registered, is it attached to a skype account that has another name and location, and it gives you a link to their reviews on Google. Seeing when and there they gave reviews can help aid your investigation especially if their reviews, locations, and dates line up with when the women are rotated at those massage parlors.

The next tool is WhatsMyName.app. It is also free and requires no signup. This allows you to search a username across over 600 social media and payment platforms. Keep in mind that the more common of a username the more false positives you will have, for example the username “Jordan” would have more false positives than “Jordan022779” since it would be more common for someone else to also have that exact username. But this tool is also handy when looking into other types of trafficking such as labor trafficking.
Telegram groups and WhatsApp groups advertising internships in places where there is poverty with monthly salaries like $10,000 a month to be a nanny in Africa or some other place. If you live where there is a college located, they may be advertising to those students in some way and feeding to the Telegram or WhatsApp groups. If WhatsApp or Telegram group uses a certain name, then WhatsMyName.app will come in handy once again by revealing other social networks they are also registered. Some may comply with a subpoena more promptly than others, so it’s great to have choices.
Job ads are also a place to look, especially in high-risk industries such as agricultural, construction, mining work. Do these companies advertising these offer high salaries, relocation bonuses, and benefits that would make a celebrity consider taking the job? Are they offering free room and board to work? Finding exploits in people that could be taken advantage of, that traffickers also look for. Because if someone has nothing, and someone takes you in, gives you work, gives you food, and makes you feel like they wouldn’t survive without you, then the trafficker owns you.
But how on earth could you find out that was happening unless someone reported it right? Maybe, but maybe that person or business posting that job ad has a history of job ads, maybe they are persistently 6 months apart. Maybe that person or business has no history of any employees and no employees ever claiming they have worked there. You can find a lot of red flags in job ads, while not all are human trafficking, there are quite a few.
We have gone over some new techniques and tools, but what happens when you hit a dead end, or do you need that one connecting piece of evidence? An amazing tool that is paid but they offer it free to law enforcement is DeHashed.com which is a data breach search engine. The same kind of breach data criminals use from the dark web to target everyday people for scams and spam or hacking. But for you it will reveal connections you would have never seen such as if they used their email on a site with a different username that also reveals the IP they used.
Now you have another alias attached to their email and the IP to find information about. Maybe that alias or IP is that connecting piece and you can subpoena the site the breach was through for information on that account since now you know they have an account there that you didn’t see before because they used a different username.
Hopefully you found this useful, and it enables you to help recognize signs and dig in deeper to discover human trafficking and rescue victims of this heinous criminal industry. This is a tough fight for many, but I know standing together to battle this issue we will be victorious in the end. Especially as technology evolves and gives us more capabilities. I hope using some or all of these tools and techniques helps you rescue victims and discover the links in human trafficking.
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