Europol hackathon flags 51 potential human trafficking victims online

Europol announced on 22 October 2026 the results of the fifth EMPACT Hackathon against the digital aspects of human trafficking, held in Amsterdam from 23 to 25 September. Some 40 specialists and investigators from 20 countries, with the Netherlands in the lead and Germany, Romania and the United Kingdom as co-leads, searched publicly available online information for signs of trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation and forced criminality.

The action identified 51 potential victims, all female, six potential criminal networks and five suspected traffickers, after checking 26 online platforms, 77 social network accounts and 166 entities such as usernames, locations and phone numbers. One lead concerned profiles advertising travel packages for women recruited in Russia, promising USD 10,000 in two weeks; on adult service websites, a single phone number was linked to 109 profiles and another to 74.

Participants also found a messaging group with apparent recruitment offers for organ donors, which was passed to Europol for assessment. Europol sent specialists to Amsterdam and provided remote cross-checking, and workshops brought trafficking investigators together with open-source intelligence specialists.

Why it matters Most of these leads came from linking identifiers, a phone number reused across ads, recruitment profiles and accounts, which is the core of OSINT work. The same correlation techniques that expose trafficking networks apply to fraud and extortion rings that recruit and advertise in the open.