Modern technology is making modern slavery worse and the European Union is too slow to stop the traders and traffickers, both on and offline, according to a new report.
The Internet is increasingly being used by organized crime gangs to recruit and exploit men women and children. Perpetrators often operating deep down in cyber space, leading to what is fast becoming recognized as 'cyber slavery'.
The report: A Modern Response to Modern Slavery, published by UK think tank Centre for Social Justice, says that "the growing speed with which organized criminal gangs use cyber techniques should be of grave concern to law enforcement and governments all over the world."
"This Is Cyber Slavery"
Duped by online adverts for child care, cleaning or administrative jobs, cyber slaves are lured into the clutches of their controllers through the Internet on social media, and end up being exploited for sex.
Any potential victims of forced labor are specifically targeted though adverts for farming work, the construction and transportation sector and delivering charity bags.
The organized crime gangs then use stolen credit cards to pay online for travel tickets that can't be traced back to them — or their victim.
The cyber slavery continues and deepens with victims forced to communicate daily on email or social media and chat sites to prove they are still there. Victims are also monitored by live cameras and the blackmail and control takes hold.
In a situation similar to what's known as revenge porn, the report says "traffickers threaten victims by telling them that pictures of them engaged in some kind of criminal or sexual act will be exposed online."
The concept of shame appears to be used as another tool of control and exploitation. The victims, according to the report, do not want to bring embarrassment or shame upon their family or themselves, and remain complicit to what the controller wants in order to avoid being exposed online.
And it's not just the victims who are being blackmailed — the people paying for sex are as well.
The report continues to say that new, creative online tricks are being used by criminals in pursuit of profit at the expense of human life.
"Perpetrators can remain anonymous through the use of TOR (The Onion Router) which reroutes and encrypts an individual's Internet activities Virtual Private Network (VPN) which masks their location and the time at which any online post was made."
Report: http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/UserStorage/pdf/Pdf%20reports/CSJJ3202_Slavery_report_04.15_WEB.pdf
Source:
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150424/1021333319.html