Human trafficking

Traffickers may use messaging apps such as WhatsApp to advertise and coordinate sexual exploitation by sending photos and lists ('menus') of available individuals to potential clients.

Sex traffickers may coerce victims through threats of violence, including threats to kill, and by restricting victims' movement and ability to communicate with others.

Victims of sex trafficking are sometimes recruited through financial vulnerability and promised payment for sexual services but receive little or no pay, while traffickers retain the majority of client payments.

Sex traffickers may transport victims between locations, including to and from airports, as part of facilitating commercial sexual exploitation.

Illicit massage businesses often serve as hubs for human trafficking and are described by practitioners as among the fastest-growing forms of trafficking in the United States.

Transnational organized crime networks can exploit illicit commercial enterprises such as massage parlors to generate revenue that is moved internationally and to traffic victims from source countries.

Common coercive tactics used by traffickers include withholding victims' passports, threatening victims' families, using threats or force, and inducing dependency through drugs.