How WhatsApp Provides Material Support to Human Traffickers, Scammers and Torturers
An explanation of how International Human Trafficking Rings use WhatsApp Connected Human Trafficking Victims to Steal Billions Globally via "Pig Butchering Scams".
You have probably been WhatsApp’d by a slave recently
Have you ever received a WhatsApp “sorry wrong number” message from an attractive Chinese woman? Let’s call her “Jenny”. Chances are, Jenny is a slave, forced to scam people using romance, financial and crypto scams.
This is how it all starts, the slaves are provided with scripted pretext message to groom hundreds, or even thousands of prospective scam victims by using social engineering techniques. Eventually, the slave will reveal that he or she is a professional cryptocurrency, bullion or stock exchange investor, and then direct the victim to fraudulent websites, that impersonate legitimate investment platforms. The grooming process fattens the victim up for the kill so to speak. This is where the Chinese phrase shāzhūpán (“butcher plate”) to describe the crime comes from. Yeah, sick in the head right?
Jenny’s Life of Terror and Abuse
If Jenny doesn’t meet her quota of successful scams each week, she will be beaten as punishment. If her traffickers determine that she simply doesn’t have natural “sales skills”, she will be repurposed as a sex-slave and transferred to the brothels and casinos on the lower floors of the multi-level secure compound; pure evil.
100,000 Slaves Forced to Scam in Cambodia Alone
It is estimated that up to up to 100,000 slaves are held captive by Chinese cybercriminals in Cambodia, we do not have figures for Laos. This multi-billion dollar a year industry has dedicated office complex construction contractors, money laundering agents and kidnapping rings to keep the rapidly expanding industry staffed. Each of the many compounds are guarded by corrupt government military and police.
The crime syndicate bosses are heartless sociopaths and are, for the most part, untouchable. This is due in part to the lack of mutual law enforcement treaties with the West, and corrupt governments in the region. This is precisely why these countries are chosen by the Chinese Mafia bosses.
Tortured on Video and Family Blackmail
If Jenny lacks the physical or vocational attributes that are considered desirable for the brothel or casino customers, who are often Thai citizens and tourists who cross the river into Cambodia because gambling is illegal in Thailand, then her own confiscated smart-phone will be used to record her being beaten and/or raped. This video will be sent to her family in China, Brazil, or wherever she was lured from, with payment instructions for cryptocurrency or cash that will secure her release.
BURN IT ALL DOWN! The “Black-Swan” event that will reduce the Pig Butchering Scam Profits to Pennies on the Dollar
See Also : Weaponizing RICO Laws To Disrupt Human Trafficking Operations:
“NOT MY JOB”: WhatsApp’s Willful Blindness in Providing Material Support in the Furtherance of Racketeering Crimes under RICO 18 U.S. Code § 1961
PICDO’s position is that, once Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta® (formerly the Facebook company) has been notified by PICDO, GASO, law enforcement, or any other credible source, that a specific WhatsApp number and all other WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram accounts that are associated via (1) a master WhatsApp business account, or (2) common IP address connections, then META becomes liable under 18 U.S. Code Chapter 96 - RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS. This is because WhatsApp continues to provide material support in furtherance of the RICO defined crimes, in conspiracy with the principals of the criminal organizations, specifically uninterrupted communications and social media account access.
These crimes include but not limited to “racketeering activity” for acts or threats involving:
Murder
Kidnapping
Gambling
Bribery
Extortion
Dealing in obscene matter
Embezzlement from pension and welfare funds
Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents
Fraud and related activity in connection with access devices
Mail fraud
Wire fraud
Obstruction of justice
Obstruction of criminal investigations
Forgery or false use of passport
Peonage, slavery, and trafficking in persons
Racketeering
Laundering of monetary instruments
Engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity
Illegal money transmitters
Sexual exploitation of children
White slave traffic
WhatsApp’s Furtherance of Criminal Activities.
If action is not immediately taken by Meta to disrupt the criminal activities after receiving repeated notifications about the criminal use of its platforms, and instructions based on the investigative work product from PICDO, GASO or Law Enforcement, then, knowing that such material support will be used in the furtherance of the conduct of the affairs of the criminal enterprise, then Meta’s liability is assumed under § 1961 because it requires only that the supplier of the material support or services have knowledge of its intended use. As such, once Meta has been notified of the criminal use of its platforms, then it is incumbent on Meta to disrupt the human trafficking, scamming and other criminal activities, by conducting a simple computer search of its proprietary records (which cannot be argued to be unduly burdensome), in order to identify connections between the specified criminal WhastApp accounts, and all other Meta accounts, across all its platforms, that are in use by the Criminal syndicate, and then suspending the accounts identified during the records search. Furthermore, Meta has a duty of care to provision filters, based on the internal investigation results, to alert administrators to any attempts made by the criminal syndicates to rebuild their Meta account infrastructure.
Legal Precedent: The Unspoken Meeting of the Minds between WhatsApp Admin and the Criminals
“… the supporters are as guilty as the perpetrators.”
“If the government can prove an agreement on an overall objective, it need not prove a defendant (Meta) personally agreed to commit two predicate acts.” United States v. Abbell, 271 F.3d 1286, 1299 (11th Cir. 2001); accord Cornell, 780 F.3d at 624; Delgado, 401 F.3d at 296; To, 144 F.3d at 744; Starrett, 55 F.3d at 1544; see also United States v. Cain, 671 F.3d 271, 285 (2d Cir. 2012) (holding that § 1962(d) requires proof that “the conspirators reached a meeting of the minds as to the operation of the affairs of the enterprise through a pattern racketeering conduct” (quoting United States v. Basciano, 599 F.3d 184, 199 (2d Cir. 2010)). To prove the conspiratorial agreement under the first method, the Government must prove that the defendant personally agreed to commit at least two racketeering acts in furtherance of the conduct of the affairs of the enterprise. See cases cited in n.174 above. In that regard, where “the evidence establishes that each defendant, over a period of years, committed several acts of racketeering activity in furtherance of the enterprise’s affairs, the inference of an agreement to do so is unmistakable.” Elliott, 571 F.2d 880, 903 (5th Cir. 1978); accord United States v. Perry, 2013 WL 6795021 (W.D. N.C. 2013); United States v. Perea, 625 F. Supp.2d 327, 335 (W.D. Texas 2009); United States v. Luong, 215 Fed.Appx. 639, 644(9th Cir. 2006); United States v. Ashman
Whereas, In Salinas, 522 U.S. at 63-66, the Supreme Court made clear that while evidence of such an agreement to commit two racketeering acts is sufficient to establish a RICO conspiracy, RICO does not require the plaintiff to prove that the defendant agreed to personally commit two predicate acts of racketeering. It bears repeating (see Section III(D)(1) above), that the Supreme Court explained a second alternative way to prove a RICO conspiracy, stating: A conspiracy may exist even if a conspirator does not agree to commit or facilitate each and every part of the substantive offense. See United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U.S. 150, 253-254 (1940). The partners in the criminal plan must agree to pursue the same criminal objective and may divide up the work, yet each is responsible for the acts of each other. See Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 646 (1946) (“And so long as the partnership in crime continues, the partners act for each other in carrying it forward”). If conspirators have a plan which calls for some conspirators to perpetrate the crime and others to provide support, the supporters are as guilty as the perpetrators. As Justice Holmes observed: “[P]lainly a person may conspire for the commission of a crime by a third person.” United States v. Holte, 236 U.S. 140, 144 (1915). . . . A conspirator must intend to further an endeavor which, if completed, would satisfy all of the elements of a substantive criminal offense, but it suffices that he adopt the goal of furthering or facilitating the criminal endeavor. He may do so in any number of ways short of agreeing to undertake all of the acts necessary for the crime’s completion. One can be a conspirator by agreeing to facilitate only some of the acts leading to the substantive offense. It is elementary that a conspiracy may exist and be punished whether or not the substantive crime ensues, for the conspiracy is a distinct evil, dangerous to the public, and so punishable in itself.
WhatsApp Statistics 2023
After its acquisition by Facebook, the user base of WhatsApp rapidly increased from 400 million in 2014 to 1.3 billion in 2017.
Over 2.24 billion people use WhatsApp monthly, making it one of the most popular global mobile messenger apps.
WhatsApp is the 8th most downloaded android app in the Google Play Store worldwide.
India has the most monthly active users of WhatsApp i.e. over 487 million people use WhatsApp in India.
WhatsApp processes 1 billion messages in a single day.
In 2021, WhatsApp lost millions of its users, causing a 17% downturn in downloads due to some user terms & privacy-related concerns.
More than 5 million businesses worldwide use WhatsApp as of 2019.
WhatsApp is available in more than 180 countries and 60 different languages.
73% of WhatsApp users access the app on Android, while 22% use iOS.
Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19.6 billion.
WhatsApp is banned in these 6 countries —
China,
Iran,
Syria,
United Arab Emirates,
North Korea, and
Cuba.
69% of internet users use WhatsApp. (Except China)
70% of WhatsApp users check the app daily.
WhatsApp has only 55 employees (engineers) working for its billions of users.
References:
LA Times: 100,000 slaves are held captive by Chinese cybercriminals in Cambodia
What should I do if someone posts something on Facebook related to human trafficking?