How OSINT Industries Empowers Skull Games to Fight Sex Trafficking

Written by

OSINT Industries Team

Published on

January 14, 2025

Oppressors beware. Skull Games is using OSINT to help law enforcement hunt predators.

‘This is the work I love.
This is my battle cry.
And this journey is my healing...' - A Skull Games Survivor-Hunter [Source: Skull Games]

Skull Games is a non-profit using OSINT to save lives. [Source: Skull Games]

There was a time when law enforcement criminalized victims of sex trafficking, not the predators who stole their lives. This is changing.

The traditional ‘vice enforcement’ approach treats a victim as a nuisance offender; arrested and repeatedly passed through the criminal justice system while the true offenders - pimps, predators and oppressors - are free to continue their cycle of control. Perpetuating this cycle has done nothing for survivors. Trafficking remains a worldwide criminal empire worth $150 billion, second only to the illegal drug trade. However, to approach this crime in terms of financial gain obscures a painful reality. A trafficker doesn’t deal in money; he deals in minds.

Some call it ‘brainwashing’, others call it ‘mind control’ or ‘thought reform’. Several models have been developed that characterize the complex and oppressive psychological processes abusers and pimps use to keep the exploitation going. Some will cite the BITE (Behavior, Information, Thoughts, and Emotions) Model to explain areas of control: why a pimp would manipulate and narrow a victim’s range of feelings, choose a victim’s clothes, or dictate where, how, and with whom a victim lives.

An overview of the BITE Model for Human Trafficking [Source: Freedom of Mind Resource Center/OSINT Industries]

Today, organizations that fight the trafficking of the most vulnerable for sex must take a victim-focused approach to achieving justice. The first step of this process is acknowledging the psychological impact of these crimes on those left traumatized by what they’ve experienced. In short, to remember who the real victims are.

‘Pimping ain’t a sex game, it’s a skull game.’ - Iceberg Slim, American Author and Pimp [Source: Skull Games]

A 100% veteran founded and operated 501 (c)(3) non-profit, Skull Games is a counter-sex-trafficking organization with a difference.

Named for the way traffickers use psychological manipulation to ‘get in victims’ heads’, Skull Games operates with the awareness that trafficking and exploitation have nothing to do with sex - and everything to do with the ‘games’ predators play to usurp control of their victims' lives. For this reason, they’ve developed a unique model, and a unique approach that utilizes OSINT to empower survivors to help bring down their exploiters.

Skull Games is clear about the victim-focused view of sex trafficking that helps them bring the fight to exploiters. Central to their work is the understanding that sex work incorporates trauma; they bring to the contemporary debate about sex work a recognition of the ‘physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma’ it creates. For the purposes of this debate, this outlook brings a vital reminder that choice is often not a factor in sex work. For law enforcement, it means trafficking survivors need to be treated without judgement, but with an understanding of concepts like trauma bonding, retraumatization and the multiple ways trauma can express itself.

Skull Games is a groundbreaking OSINT-powered organization. [Source: Skull Games]

Skull Games is dismantling the myth of the ‘perfect victim’ with nonjudgement and battling the force, control and coercion in this criminal industry head-on - with OSINT as their secret weapon. With their vow to ‘protect victims from criminal prosecution’, and groundbreaking Survivor-to-Hunter program, Skull Games represents an OSINT-powered future where survivors fight back. OSINT Industries is proud to lend support to an organization that should leave oppressors quaking in fear.

Meet Michal, Director of Intelligence at Skull Games.

‘Anyone in the U.S. with the internet and a phone can order a girl just like they would a pizza… Victims of sex trafficking deserve nothing short of our undivided attention.’ - ‘Who We Are and What We Do’, Skull Games [Source: Skull Games]

Born from its founder’s wish to crowdsource analysis, Skull Games operates by providing investigative, analytical and operational support to law enforcement; something OSINT plays a clear and significant role in. Skull Games is composed of full-time and volunteer staff: their Task Force, Survivor-Hunters, affiliate law enforcement, private investigators and analysts, each with specific roles. All these groups make use of OSINT in investigations.

OSINT analysts work together at a Skull Games Task Force event. [Source: Skull Games]

The first of these, the Skull Games Task Force, are professional hunters. A highly coordinated unit of volunteer military and private OSINT analysts, the Task Force uses OSINT tools – like OSINT Industries – to ‘interrupt the cycle of abuse and restore survivors of trauma to a life of hope, healing, and freedom.’ The Task Force identifies both predators and victims with OSINT, creating leads that enable law enforcement to do its work. These elite analysts work year round, but meet quarterly from all corners of the United States; at the conclusion of these meetings, all hunt findings are sent as a detailed report to partnered law enforcement agencies. From here, these officers obtain warrants and action the leads.

‘Any efforts to end human trafficking… will be bound by the degree to which they embrace meaningful lived experience leadership.’ - Chris Ash, National Survivor Network [Source: GFEMS]

The second (and most groundbreaking) group are Survivor-Hunters: former prey turning the tables on predators. These ten survivors of trafficking leverage their lived experience to become mentors and advisors for analysts and Task Force operatives. With their special insight, Survivor-Hunters can decode in-group language, know things only a victim could know, and use this survivor knowledge to catch the criminals that once enslaved them - protecting others from the trauma they know well. The real-world context and meaning these operatives bring to OSINT data analysis bridges the gap between technical intelligence and emotional truth. Sex trafficking may be a ‘skull game’, but they know how it's played.

Michal, Skull Games’ Director of Intelligence, is a member of a third group: analysts, or as she describes, “the geeks”. Honing her intelligence skills as a former Canadian Armed Forces Intelligence Operator, Michal is an international investigator who does good work with OSINT every single day. Named Osmosis Institute’s 2023 Open-Source Diversity Trailblazer of the Year, this “geek” and Brazilian jiu-jitsu master is the epitome of #OSINT4Good. She reached out to OSINT Industries to describe the role our tool plays in Skull Games’ incredible tripartite ‘I2E’ mission: identify predators and their prey, interdict predators ‘for pleasure and... for profit’, and empower communities with purpose.

Interdict: Hunting Predators with OSINT

‘Skull Games IX fell on the weekend of my freedom date from the man who trafficked me… to go after these oppressors and hold them accountable so they can’t harm others is something I can’t put into words.’ - A Skull Games Survivor-Hunter & Iconologist [Source: Skull Games]

At Skull Games, an analyst’s goal is to support law enforcement by providing crucial intelligence. This is how Skull Games disrupts the traffickers’ criminal cycle.

Usually open-source and in support of Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC), the vital data analysts submit pinpoints key connections, locations, and persons of interest to target for investigation. Skull Games’ OSINT revelations can be used as Probable Cause against pedophiles, pimps, traffickers, buyers and facilitators.

OSINT supports the work of law enforcement in catching oppressors. [Source: Skull Games]

OSINT Industries comes into play because, as Michal says, ‘the more accounts we have, the more warrants law enforcement can submit’. Intelligence uncovered with our tool can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful warrant application when information is submitted to ICAC; analysts can build up a package of aggregated information to pave the way to an exploiter, using leads that would be no use in the past. For example, Michal described an Indiana investigation where just two usernames could convert into sufficient collateral for a warrant via OSINT Industries investigation. A username search could uncover accounts, and accounts contain exactly the personal details and contextual evidence a hunter needs.

At time of writing, Skull Games have assisted over 40 law enforcement agencies, and helped with the identification and arrest of 91 sex predators, including a final sentence of 249 years to one convicted trafficker.

Identify: Victims Become Survivors

‘A 17-year-old girl was lured by someone she thought was an older boyfriend… the girl was told to use her body... Her body was sold on the Internet and in classified ads, at strip clubs and private parties, and on the streets, sometimes as often as 20 times per day.... Over time, she even forgot her name… instead, she bore tattoos of her pimp’s name so she would know that she forever was his property…’ - A case recounted by Larry Alvarez, M.S., and Jocelyn Cañas-Moreira [Source: FBI/LEB]

Identifying predators, however, is only half the story. Skull Games also makes use of OSINT to identify and locate victims of trafficking and abuse. This is not to seek warrants against them, unless doing so would help to preserve their safety. As Michal says, ‘we’re not prosecuting victims’, but those who victimize.

The term ‘victim’, although not universally accepted, recognizes the violence done to those currently experiencing sex trafficking and its attendant trauma. An individual working toward healing the pain of being a victim is a survivor; once Skull Games have located a victim, work begins to support their journey. OSINT can serve as an advocacy tool, and can sometimes provide a beginning to this process.

OSINT analysts can connect survivors to their loved ones. [Source: Skull Games]

Survivor-Hunters, analysts, officers and victim advocates working with victims can use OSINT to reassure victims to the point of accepting help. OSINT can show connections to family, community ties and support networks that exist waiting for their loved one to return home. Victims can be provided with OSINT proof that somebody out there never stopped looking for them.

‘We can give the advocates the same information to show the scared to death victim… This is your real name, and your grandmother still talks about you…’ - Michal B., Director of Intelligence at Skull Games [Source: OSINT Industries]

This is more than just data; it’s a powerful tool that can counteract traffickers’ isolation tactics. When this OSINT is shared with them, a victim can see they have more reason to trust law enforcement - and their fellow survivors - than the pimp or other exploiter who deceived them. Michal describes drawing from OSINT these human stories: ‘they’re on the basketball team, they have a community and a church.’ The end goal is to ensure victims are aware that they are not alone on their survivorship journey, chipping away at traffickers’ control, or even cracking it wide open.

Skull Games’ Survivor-Hunters play an active role in guiding victims towards survival. These operatives are shining examples of #OSINT4Good, and how open-source techniques can deliver power back into the hands of those who deserve it. Michal works with a Survivor-Hunter, Julie*, who epitomizes these principles. Having survived decades ‘working the streets’ as a victim of trafficking, Julie got out of ‘the life’ through law enforcement, and turned to victim advocacy.

Four years after taking her freedom back, Julie had never owned a computer; now, four years later, she’s a Survivor-Hunter and OSINT professional saving victims just like her. A law enforcement partner sourcing her a laptop via a non-profit was a gateway to learning basic OSINT and OSINT Industries, a platform user-friendly enough for her to quickly master. She honed her craft sitting beside analysts, able to tell the ‘geeks’ how to decode a Facebook page or online listing with her lived experience.

The beauty of the Survivor-Hunter concept is that ‘she can see things [analysts] will never see’, spotting the most hidden victims and catching the most duplicitous criminals red-handed. It’s a testament to the power of OSINT that Julie is now a key mentor, backed by other Survivor-Hunters with their own stories, various levels of computer education and the passion that comes from wishing somebody had done the same for them. Revealing victims’ true names and stories with OSINT, and the thrill of the hunt for a predator, are tangible things at Skull Games: ‘they make it real for us.’

Empower: The Philosophy and Impact of #OSINT4Good

‘No one tool can solve a case, but a tool plus people…’ - Michal B., Director of Intelligence at Skull Games [Source: OSINT Industries]

Skull Games takes a community-focused approach to OSINT. [Source: Skull Games]

This shared belief in #OSINT4Good is what motivates us at OSINT Industries, and what put Michal on the board of Osmosis.

OSINT Industries became a central tool for Skull Games after our CEO, Nathaniel, offered free non-profit access to the platform. Today, organizations like Skull Games face scarce funding for law enforcement, and even scarcer for non-profits. Michal describes ‘a lot of pluses’ in an OSINT platform like ours, as a crucial time-saver that simplifies data privacy considerations in a manner that’s cost-effective.

The team uses various search methods - email, username and phone number lookups - and appreciates the ability to visualize information. When working to expose a crime that operates via networks and connections by essence, this is deeply necessary - as is the ability to establish current, real-time information. When LEOs and analysts have accounts, a tool like OSINT Industries helps to realise the foundational dream that took Skull Games down an OSINT-led path: a way to support law enforcement, with replicable research methods for data they can easily access too. Best of all, nobody needs to come to trial and risk retraumatization or a drawn-out process to get key information.

That a digital novice like Survivor-Hunter Julie can easily grasp our plug-and-play platform (and ‘even Detective S. can do it…’) emphasizes the vital need for our tool to remain user-friendly. This also underlines a key point. OSINT empowers because it incorporates a human factor. The license to use OSINT Industries only provides Skull Games workers from Julie to the Task Force with a tool; the combination of our tool with incredible skills - like analytical thinking and survivor knowledge - is what makes #OSINT4Good. OSINT Industries is key to finding an account, but finding an account without context is pointless.

‘Everybody does a little bit of OSINT, every day, we don’t even notice we’re doing it. If I’m interviewing for jobs and checking Facebooks, or looking for a good burger joint - that’s OSINT…’ - Michal B., Director of Intelligence at Skull Games [Source: OSINT Industries]

OSINT is ‘simple, quick’ and most importantly for the Skull Games team, ‘helps’ to identify victims and perpetrators. It empowers Skull Games to change the world, but it’s a part of our everyday lives. Michal finds the accessibility of OSINT means ‘everybody thinks they can do this job’, but being a great analyst takes a level of critical thinking that most lack. Analysts may still ‘love a Google dork’, but aggregated information must be converted into understandable intel. However, the key skill that turns OSINT to positivity is that human factor that these methodologies retain. As Michal emphasizes, ‘don’t rely on tech, rely on people… the people make the team, the technology with the team makes success’. A combination of powers is what saves lives. Skull Games finds that OSINT Industries facilitates this integration of top-class critical thinking with technology.

‘It’s about the OSINT community we’re all a part of…’ - Michal B., Director of Intelligence at Skull Games [Source: OSINT Industries]

For similar reasons, Skull Games is enmeshed in the OSINT community. Our community’s emphasis on collaboration - across analysts, law enforcement, advocates and freelancers - helps the team maintain vital connections for sharing new data, techniques, and tools as they circulate within the network. Without the OSINT community, Skull Games might never have found OSINT Industries.

Education is vital to Skull Games’ work - and their OSINT strategy. [Source: Skull Games]

Today, Skull Games are using OSINT’s community focus to spread empowerment. Integral to the OSINT community is education, and ‘education and training are a large part of the Empower focus area’ for these warriors against exploitation too. The team - including Michal - offer academic, family and law enforcement education sessions, teaching OSINT methodologies to people from all walks of life. These include workshops, sessions Michal leads as an analyst, and other Empower Courses including those with law enforcement partner Detective Joe Scaramucci. Here, trainees learn to leverage free and accessible tools, graduating to specialized tools like OSINT Industries. If communities are not educated, crimes like sex trafficking thrive in the darkness. It’s up to Skull Games’ heroes, like Michal, to ‘spark the flame’.