August 4, 2026
What if the person committing the crime is also a victim?
That question was at the heart of LifeWay Network’s recent webinar, “Trapped Behind the Scam,” held in recognition of the United Nations’ World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Moderated by LifeWay Network Director of Education, Training and Advocacy Tori Curbelo, the conversation brought together law enforcement professionals and a lived-experience advocate to examine the intersection of human trafficking, forced criminality, cybercrime, financial fraud, money laundering and online exploitation.
The panel featured David Weiss, chief of the Kings County District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Unit and co-chair of the Brooklyn Human Trafficking Task Force; David Ryan, director of the Westchester County Anti-Trafficking Task Force; Michelle Lopez, chief of the Westchester County Sex Crimes and Human Trafficking Bureau, Special Prosecutions Division; and Moriah Beatrice, a lived-experience advocate.
While the panel covered a range of issues, one message emerged repeatedly: We have to look beyond the apparent crime.
When a job offer becomes a trafficking situation
Tori opened the discussion by asking how cyber-enabled scams are changing what human trafficking looks like.
David Weiss pointed out just how significantly technology has changed the landscape. Traffickers operating offline have traditionally needed physical locations, transportation and other infrastructure to exploit people. Today, much of that exploitation can be facilitated remotely. As Weiss explained, traffickers can increasingly operate from the comfort of their own living rooms, using technology to recruit, communicate with, monitor and exploit people.
The panel discussed how these crimes can play out through different types of online fraud, including romance or “love” scams, where perpetrators build relationships and establish trust with victims before exploiting that trust for financial gain.
But the people behind these schemes are not always operating independently or voluntarily. The panel also discussed situations in which individuals are recruited through fraudulent job offers and subsequently forced to participate in online scams.
That distinction became an important thread throughout the conversation: The person carrying out the apparent crime may also be experiencing exploitation.
David Ryan emphasized the importance of looking deeper into these cases. Someone participating in an online scam may have been deceived about the job they were accepting or later subjected to force, fraud or coercion. From the outside, they may look like a perpetrator. The circumstances behind their actions may tell a very different story.
The recruitment happens online. So does the exploitation.
The panel also explored who is being targeted by online recruitment and exploitation.
David Ryan and Michelle Lopez emphasized that Americans can become victims of these schemes as well. Many people have encountered suspicious texts or online messages, but exploiters can use these same digital spaces to identify and target people they perceive as vulnerable.
Michelle also raised the example of 764, a decentralized online network associated with the exploitation and abuse of vulnerable young people. The example highlighted how quickly online exploitation can evolve and how decentralized online communities can facilitate the targeting and manipulation of vulnerable individuals.
While 764 represents a different form of online exploitation than the scam recruitment discussed elsewhere in the panel, the broader lesson was similar: The internet has created new spaces for recruitment, manipulation and exploitation.
For those working to identify trafficking, that means the initial point of contact may no longer be a physical location, workplace or in-person recruiter. It may begin with a message on a screen.
When the apparent perpetrator is also a victim
The distinction between victim and perpetrator became particularly evident when Tori asked Moriah Beatrice about misconceptions surrounding trafficking and survivors.
Moriah shared that she was arrested for prostitution as a minor, despite the fact that she was experiencing trafficking at the time.
Her experience brought the panel’s discussion about forced criminality into sharp focus.
It illustrates why identifying only the apparent offense can obscure the larger situation. When someone is arrested or identified as participating in criminal activity, important questions may remain unanswered:
How did they get there? Who recruited them? Were they deceived? Were they threatened or controlled? Did they have a meaningful ability to leave?
These questions do not erase criminal conduct or eliminate the need for accountability. They help establish the circumstances in which that conduct occurred and whether someone may also be a victim of trafficking.
Moriah also spoke about the importance of positive support during her own experience, including the detectives involved in her case. She spoke about the importance of rebuilding her life, relearning how to survive, and understanding that she was not to blame for what happened to her.
Her experience also underscored that identifying a trafficking victim is only the beginning of the response.
What happens after someone leaves?
The conversation then moved beyond recruitment and investigation to a question that can receive less attention: What happens after someone leaves a trafficking situation?
For people exploited in scam compounds, leaving may mean returning home after being far from family, friends and familiar support systems. Someone may have escaped the immediate exploitation but still be dealing with trauma, financial instability, disrupted relationships or other consequences of what they experienced.
Moriah spoke about rebuilding her life and the importance of having support along the way. Her experience highlighted that recovery does not end when someone leaves a trafficking situation.
As Tori pointed out, survivors may also need long-term access to housing, employment, recovery services, mental health support and community. This includes people who have been forced to conduct cyber fraud, who may face additional challenges when they are removed from the situation and return home, sometimes far from their existing support systems.
What can communities do?
The panel also addressed the role communities can play when they encounter suspected trafficking.
David Weiss emphasized the importance of providing useful information to law enforcement rather than attempting to investigate a situation independently. Details about recruitment, communications, locations, threats, transportation, financial activity or online accounts may help investigators understand what is happening.
Just as importantly, taking action should not inadvertently put a potential victim at greater risk.
For community members, the takeaway is not that everyone needs to become an investigator. It is that recognizing something may be wrong, documenting relevant information and making an appropriate report can help connect a situation to people equipped to respond.
Look beyond the apparent crime
Throughout the hour, the panel covered a range of issues surrounding human trafficking and online scams, from how people are recruited to the challenges of identifying victims, investigating cases, and supporting survivors.
But the conversation kept coming back to one idea: Look beyond the apparent crime.
A person participating in an online scam may also be experiencing trafficking.
A fraudulent job offer may actually be a recruitment tactic.
A young person arrested for prostitution may actually be a trafficking survivor.
And someone released from a scam compound may still need significant support long after the immediate exploitation has ended.
Technology continues to change how people are recruited and exploited, but recognizing trafficking still requires us to look beyond what we see on the surface.
Sometimes the person committing the apparent crime is also the person who needs protection.
The crime may be what we see first. But it may not be the whole story.
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