Recognizing My Vulnerability Factors:
As a 19 year old college student living in downtown Houston, Texas, I paid my own way through school and I was always looking for legitimate ways to make extra money. I already worked 3 part-time jobs but I could always use a side hustle to pay for unexpected bills and textbooks! My parents were in the middle of a divorce and it was my first year living away from home on the University of Houston college campus, which sits smack dab in the middle of the inner city. In 2009, Craigslist was gaining momentum and I started searching for jobs online from my dorm room, specifically modeling jobs. I had done a modeling gig with my friend who had an agent a year before so I figured I would try to find another modeling job for the summer when I was taking fewer classes to make some extra money. I came across an ad for a company called Pretty Face Modeling and applied for the position, which was listed as magazine cover modeling and runway fashion. I checked into Pretty Face Modeling and they seemed legitimate from the email address, website and phone numbers that were listed so I booked an interview with the company through Craigslist and my friend came along with me, who was much shorter than me by the way (this is important for later).
Environmental Signs & Somatic Signals:
My girlfriend and I were feeling ecstatic about the opportunity to be models, as many 19 year old women would. It definitely seemed better than working multiple jobs in retail at the mall! We pulled up to an office space on the side of the highway that I had driven past hundreds if not thousands of times, which always has a sign out front that says “For Lease.” My friend and I went inside full of excitement and expectation to discover an eerily quiet and empty office building with no security. This is the moment, when I look back, that I think we definitely should have kicked it into high gear and ran out of there, but our curious naivety overrode any uneasiness that I experienced as I entered the unattended office building. My friend and I followed the instructions given to us by the Pretty Face employees and used the elevators to go up to the second floor where we were greeted by a women with an Eastern European accent. She was middle aged, petite, pretty and seemed calm and collected as she brought us into an office with a waiting room. It had a few cheap folding chairs set up and one iPad on a small table with a slideshow of poorly edited photographs playing on it. The photos were poor quality and even if they were legitimate, I decided did not want them taking my pictures anyways. Another oddity I noticed was that there were no pictures hanging on the walls and only one tripod with one camera with nothing and nobody else in the room. The emptiness of the office building and the bareness of the room disturbed me. because It was clear in that moment to me, that this was NOT their office and they had just come into utilize this building specifically for this meeting with my friend and me.
We were alone.
All evidence pointed to this being some kind of financial scam at best and at worst-well I could not think about that because I had to figure out how to get out how to get out of there safely and as fast as possible.
PTSD Responses: Fight, Flight or Freeze... or Divine Wisdom?
Now, after we stepped into the waiting room, the woman gave us forms to fill out wherein they captured an uneasy amount of personal information but I knew that I had to give it to them in order to get us out of there. While we were filling out forms, the woman went to go get her boss. Once he entered the room, the woman’s face turned pale as a ghost and she began shaking with fear and intimidation. Not only did I listen to the man’s words but I attuned to this woman’s somatic communication. She was shaking like a leaf and went silent. Her body instantly reacted to his presence and it was undeniable. At that moment, I knew for sure this was not just a scam, that it was some kind of dangerous situation like human trafficking that I did not want to be in; and this man was in charge and capable of physically overpowering all of us in the room. Although I do not have hard evidence, I believe that this man who towered over us in stature was some sort of trafficker. Although I was only 19 years old, I knew that we had to go along with whatever he asked, so I lied and made another appointment to meet with him and set up a time and location to begin our modeling careers. The man told an elaborate lie to us where all of the details seemed legitimate; for instance he mentioned that Pretty Face Modeling had a collaboration with the fashion school at the local community college, which was a real program at the time. He also asked us to bring hundreds of dollars in cash, which we did not have, next time to pay for our first photo shoot to make our portfolio. It is hard for me to remember the exact amount but I think he asked us, two 19 year old women, to bring between $600-800 each to our next meeting. In cash people! I knew for certain that this was at least some kind of financial scam and I wanted out!
Escaping the Craigslist Interview
Once Pretty Face Modeling captured all of our personal information and we set up a follow up time and location, my friend and I booked it out of the office building as fast as we could. We promised the man and woman that we would bring the money the next time we saw them. I did not experience any violence or aggression from the man, but I knew it was possible because the woman was silently shaking like a leaf the entire meeting while the man was in the room. What a gigantic relief it was that my friend and I escaped unscathed from this situation and I knew I would never go back again or get on Craigslist for that matter. I never reported them and I never called law enforcement. At the time I do not even think that the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) was in existence yet. I emailed Pretty Face Modeling and told them that we were not coming to the follow-up meeting and I did not hear from them again until a woman came into the Victoria’s Secret mall store that I worked; one of my jobs, to pass out their recruitment business cards. Surprisingly, it took me a few years to realize how dangerous of a scenario my friend and I had been involved in and escaped on that day.
For some victims, they do not realize that they are being exploited until it is too late. They feel trapped or they have been coerced into thinking that they owe their trafficker something. In some instances, traffickers use multiple meetings over time like in my situation to groom victims because this meeting appeared safe and nothing explicitly bad happened. A crime was not committed except for trespassing. Even if I did call the police, what would I even tell them, especially calling a large department like Houston Police Department (HPD)? This gives you an idea of how traffickers fly under the radar undetected, preying on vulnerable people. For people who desperately need jobs or who have even more and/or different vulnerability factors than I did, there is a possibility that people would go back for follow-up meetings in hopes to make money and launch into the promised career. I was able to escape this situation but not everyone does. As a family member, friend and concerned citizen it is crucial for you to become knowledgeable about the common recruitment tactics that traffickers utilize and the common settings they frequent. For more information, please visit the Resources page of our website. .
Common Settings Traffickers Use to Recruit
1. Internet & Applications
2. Malls & Shopping Strip Centers
3. Homeless Shelters
4. Correctional/Detention Facilities
5. After-School Programs
6. Group Homes
7. Public Transportation Stations (Bus & Train)
8. Clubs
Common [Relational] Recruitment Tactics Used By Traffickers
1. Intimate/Marriage Proposal
2. Family Members and Friends of family members
3. Current Victims recruiting others
Resources:
Presentation Drug Endangered Children and Human Trafficking Intersectionality, at Champions for Children’s Conference, October 2019 (https://www.championsforchildrenconference.com/)
https://polarisproject.org/victims-traffickers
https://pact.city/5-common-trafficking-recruitment-methods/
https://www.nhhumantraffickingtaskforce.com/
Lauren Lisembee, MA
Task Force Member
Founder/Director-Written On Your Heart (http://www.woyh.org)
Clinical Mental Health Counselor & Dance/Movement Therapist