Federal anti-money laundering authorities issued an alert Thursday detailing the latest financial intelligence on the sexual exploitation of children online — with a view to recruiting financial industry firms to the fight against these kinds of crimes.
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) issued an operational alert that aims to help firms identify money laundering and other financial activity that’s connected with child exploitation.
“By following the money, FINTRAC is able to generate actionable financial intelligence that supports law enforcement in Canada and internationally in identifying and targeting the perpetrators of these terrible crimes,” the agency said in a release.
Among other things, the alert said the perpetrators in these cases are almost always male, often using electronic fund transfers that are sent though digital platforms, typically involving small, frequent payments. The most common destinations for these funds were recipients in the Philippines, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Mexico.
Additionally, some older perpetrators often “displayed a financial pattern consistent with travelling abroad to offend,” it said — incurring travel-related expenses in jurisdictions that are considered high risk for child sexual exploitation.
“… these purchases might be conducted in a region that is not a typical tourist destination, or the perpetrators’ stays may be longer or more frequent than expected for a typical Canadian traveller. Other suspicious activity includes excessive ATM cash withdrawals and gift-like purchases, such as jewellery, in the high-risk jurisdiction,” it noted.
Younger offenders increasingly used crypto assets to purchase child sexual exploitation material online, it also reported — detailing the patterns that it has observed in these kinds of transactions.
The updated alert reflects the analysis of financial intelligence that’s been collected in the past few years — a period when FINTRAC has seen an increase in child exploitation that’s financially motivated — including sexual extortion, which is often linked to organized crime.
It carried out the analysis in consultation with financial institutions and various federal agencies, including the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency, Public Safety Canada and Statistics Canada, along with other private-sector organizations and international financial intelligence units.
“The exploitation of children is one of the most appalling crimes imaginable and it’s enabled by financial payments,” said Sarah Paquet, director and CEO of FINTRAC, in the release.
“The enhanced indicators in our updated alert will help Canada’s financial sector detect and report transactions tied to online child sexual exploitation.”