OSINT Training Log: Immediate Anti-Trafficking Impact at OSINT Industries x OUR Rescue

Specialised OSINT training leads to instant real-world impact when information uncovered in-session leads to Romanian authorities making anti-trafficking arrests.

Training Objective: OSINT Industries x Our Rescue 

17th November. Bucharest, Romania. OSINT Industries delivered an advanced OSINT training program in collaboration with anti-trafficking and exploitation organization Our Rescue. 

By joining forces, OSINT Industries and Our Rescue empowered Romania’s Organized Crime Department’s Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Teams with targeted techniques for cutting-edge investigations, combining theoretical foundations with real case analysis and hands-on exercises. This course was designed with one overriding objective: equip trainees with the digital investigation skills needed to identify, track, and disrupt trafficking and exploitation networks operating online. 

Best of all, during an exercise, this objective became reality. What these trainees learned on-course has since led to an arrest.

Challenge: Romania’s Trafficking Reality

“Women and girls across the globe are disproportionately affected by these crimes…  “I’m proud to lead a team of women and men who are actively working in the fight.” – Tammy Lee, Our Rescue CEO. [Source: Our Rescue]

Still, with more than ten thousand registered trafficking victims in the EU in 2025, the scale of the challenge remains immense. Nowhere is this more true than in Romania. Primarily a ‘source country’ for victims of trafficking, Europe’s twelfth-largest country is increasingly popular as a dual-role destination for criminal networks. 

Between 2020 and 2024, authorities identified 2,662 human trafficking victims in Romania, nearly half of whom were children; sexual exploitation was the predominant form of abuse, with the remainder suffering forced labour, forced begging, and other involvement in criminal activity. 

Especially vulnerable, up to 79% of Romania’s trafficking victims are women and girls. For sex trafficking crimes, this rises to 90%.

This is a deeply gendered crisis. Those from certain backgrounds are at greater risk - Roma communities, survivors of previous neglect and abuse, or those with experience of institutional care and homelessness - but female bodies bear the brunt of the worst forms of exploitation. 

Most victims are recruited through interpersonal relationships, through the “lover boy” method or false promises. Romanian authorities report increased use of online platforms for recruiting and exploitation. It’s a testament to the reach of Europe’s trafficking networks that borders, to an extent, no longer matter. In Romania’s isolated rural counties like Dolj, Bacău, and Iași, unmonitored social media use has catalysed with poverty and limited education to create a “persistent and insufficiently documented phenomenon”. Trafficking has claimed over 300 identified victims since 2020, in the former two counties alone. 

"Often, trafficking does not begin with abduction but with a promise of work, education, or a romantic relationship. Families are either uninformed or complicit, and the absence of local protection mechanisms makes victims almost invisible…” – Mădălina Turza, Country Director of Justice and Care Romania. [Source: Romania Insider]

Even so, official figures represent only a fraction of reality. Many (if not most) women and girls never come forward due to social stigma, fear of retaliation, or distrust of authorities that historically devalue and disbelieve. With one school counselor to an estimated 900 young people in an average rural school, finding somebody to report to can be a challenge in itself for a terrified girl.

The UN, EU and Romanian government are trying to help. However, survivors often rely on NGOs to step in. Somebody has to bridge gaps in protection services, including once a victim has been removed from exploitation; Romania offers limited access to trauma-informed healthcare, safe housing, and long-term reintegration support. 

Our Rescue is a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking around the world, including in Romania. They work hand-in-hand with law enforcement, local communities, and global partners to confront exploitation head-on. So far, they have supported the arrest of over 4000 predators. Furthermore, they’re proud to be a “women-led organization”, empowering female leaders and survivors.

“I grew up watching superhero movies and wanted to save people as a kid. My current job has fulfilled that dream.” – Dream Hansakunathai, Digital Forensics Lab Analyst for Our Rescue Thailand. [Source: Our Rescue]

They also know that when criminal gangs go digital, experience-based advanced OSINT capabilities are a key weapon against the systematic sexual exploitation of women and girls. With OSINT, law enforcement are able to detect recruitment patterns, identify exploitative networks online, and intervene early. 

Training the OSINT capabilities of Romania’s officers aligns perfectly with Our Rescue’s mission to help local law enforcement work harder, better, faster and stronger against trafficking. For this reason, we did our part. Our organizations teamed up to deliver OSINT Industries’ top-class OSINT training for Romania’s frontline law enforcement.

OSINT Training: OSINT Industries x Our Rescue

“Human trafficking is one of the most harmful crimes on earth. When investigators have the right skills, they can act faster, protect more people, and stop offenders who hide behind digital footprints. We are proud to support Romanian law enforcement and proud that this training led to a real arrest. That is the impact we aim for.” – Nathaniel Fried, OSINT Industries CEO. [Source: OSINT Industries]

Course: OSINT for Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation
Duration: Three days

Skills Developed:

In Romania, the pervasive trafficking of women and girls combines with increasing use of digital platforms by organised criminal groups. Trafficking networks now routinely exploit social media, online classified services, and encrypted communications to recruit, control, and monetise victims, often operating transnationally in violation of European anti-trafficking frameworks. This creates an urgent operational requirement for advanced OSINT capability within law enforcement.

In collaboration with Our Rescue, this OSINT Training program is designed to operationalise OSINT in direct support of Romania’s national anti-trafficking strategy and the EU’s coordinated approach to combating trafficking in human beings. Officers learned to detect online recruitment indicators, identify and map trafficking networks, and collect intelligence in a manner consistent with evidential and human-rights obligations to improve protection outcomes for women and girls.

• Fundamentals of OSINT for Organized Crime
  Officers refreshed core OSINT principles, including source evaluation, ethical collection, legal compliance, and evidentiary standards. Officers learned when and where OSINT will make the biggest difference in moving rapidly from intelligence to arrest.
• Digital Footprint Analysis
  Like footprints in the sand, cyber criminals leave tracks. Participants learned how traffickers and recruiters leave digital traces of their crimes across platforms. Training covered identity resolution or ‘stitching’, alias tracking, metadata analysis, and behavioural indicators associated with grooming, recruitment, coercion, and the “lover boy” method.
• Advanced SOCMINT
  Given the central role of social media in trafficking operations, this skill is vital. Officers developed advanced SOCMINT capabilities like monitoring, pattern recognition, platform-specific searching, and behavioural analysis across mainstream and fringe platforms, including ecommerce and classifieds.
• Encrypted and Anonymous Environments
  Officers were trained to safely investigate activity linked to encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, anonymization tools, and closed online communities.

Exercises: Results in Real-Time

This training was so practical that it produced results in real time.

Partway through the course, trainees began working on an active case as a hands-on exercise. Learning this way not only makes sure no time is wasted when victims are at stake, but also gives officers a controlled, supportive environment to perfect OSINT techniques they’re working on. 

As they worked, trainees uncovered credible leads - and these leads were pointing to an active suspect. Officers applied the investigative methods they had just learned, verified the information, and quickly advanced a live inquiry. 

The investigation culminated in an arrest, a clear demonstration of how high quality OSINT instruction directly supports the work of law enforcement, and helped Our Rescue to fulfil their mission to protect victims worldwide.

#OSINT4Good Means: Protecting Romania's Women and Girls

OSINT is making a difference against the sexual exploitation and trafficking of Romania’s women and girls. 

We’ve seen collaborations between open-source analysts and Europol use GeoINT and SOCMINT to accurately pinpoint where exploitation was taking place, enabling local authorities to locate victims and dismantle whole networks. OSINT helps create a world where Our Rescue personnel supported two major operations alongside the Romanian National Police, doing just the same. 

On September 30th, authorities carried out a targeted action in Southern Romania based on new intelligence. 5 arrests were made, and 9 survivors rescued - 2 of which were children.

On October 2nd, Romanian prosecutors and police launched a large-scale action across Bucharest, Giurgiu, and Ilfov counties. With 46 search warrants, the operation dismantled a major organized crime group responsible for “human trafficking, money laundering, pimping, and related offenses”. Again, 36 arrests were secured, and 10 survivors rescued. 

Our Rescue report that this 30-member-strong gang trafficked women to the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the UAE. They facilitated commercial sexual exploitation through “advertisements, travel arrangements, and housing”, and laundered their €3.5 profit through luxury purchases, real estate, and shell businesses.  

Evidence shows the group may have “financed cosmetic procedures” on women under their control. One suspect within the group was a police officer.

These actions are just an example of the successes achieved in Our Rescue’s Operation Global Impact 2025, a six-week surge operation across the world against the exploitation of our most vulnerable. 

OSINT Training Evaluation

Our OSINT training course in Bucharest was an overwhelming success, best summed up by one of our specialist trainers. 

‍“This course was designed to be practical and based on real investigative work. The officers were engaged from the very first exercise and applied the methods with precision. When the team identified a live target during the training, they showed exactly how powerful open source intelligence can be when used by skilled investigators.” – P, an OSINT Industries specialist trainer. [Source: OSINT Industries]

See immediate impact with OSINT Industries Training. 

OSINT saves time.

OSINT saves investigations.

OSINT saves lives.

Be part of the fightback against online exploitation, and give your department the tools they need to win.

Book a consultation today.

If your NGO wants the same operational edge - the same speed, accuracy, and real-world skills - get free access, just like Our Rescue.