Recruitment and grooming often happen online, but can also happen after someone has met in person.

Traffickers are experts at finding those moments when people are vulnerable, of working the angles, of manipulating reality, and leveraging fears. Once a trafficker has identified their victim, they need to also gain that person’s trust.

Then traffickers offer a solution to meet those needs—whether that’s physical or emotional—and then create isolation and dependency. The purpose of the grooming process is for a trafficker to be able to gain full control over their victim and manipulate them into cooperating in their own exploitation.