Greg's Corner

Human Trafficking Scam threatens victims

By Greg Collier

Human trafficking is something that affects all communities around the country, regardless of ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Many more people have become aware of the human trafficking problem over the past few years. So, it should come as no surprise that scammers are using the scourge of trafficking in their scams.

Police in Wichita, Kansas, have been reporting about a new phone scam that uses human trafficking to try to extort money out of local residents. The scammers are calling their victims and claiming that the victims are being investigated by the National Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit for child trafficking crimes. The scam victims are then asked for $5000, or they’ll be arrested and taken to court.

There are many layers to this scam about how someone can tell it’s a scam. The first is that there is no such organization as the National Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit. However, there is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. As much great work as the NCMEC does when it comes to missing children, they are not an arm of any law enforcement agency. They do assist law enforcement in their investigations by passing on tips that they receive, but they do not arrest people.

Secondly, if someone is being investigated for a major crime let alone one that involved children, no law enforcement agency is going to announce that to the person being investigated, especially over the phone.

Lastly, no law enforcement agency will demand money over the phone and threaten arrest if it’s not paid. If someone does need to pay some kind of legal fine, they’ll be notified through the mail. Even then, it doesn’t hurt to call the courthouse who issued the fine to make sure the fine is on the up and up.

If you receive one of these phone calls threatening you with arrest, hang up and contact your local police department.

If you’d like to learn more about how human trafficking really happens in America, please read our previous posts discussing the matter.