Social media report was not human trafficking
ABC-7.com WZVN News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida
TAMPA, Fla. – A Florida woman’s Facebook post went viral after she accused her Uber driver of being a sex trafficker.
The Tampa woman said she got into the wrong Uber at the airport. The driver barely spoke English, but the woman was soon convinced she was a human trafficker.
It is essential to understand that human trafficking is an extremely prevalent issue in our society, especially since Florida is the third largest state in the nation for it.
But experts said before you claim you were a potential victim, you need to know the facts.
“I just think members of the community are misinformed about how human trafficking does happen,” said Linda Oberhaus. She is the C.E.O. at the Shelter for Abused Women and Children.
Oberhaus said getting snatched by a stranger is likely not tied to trafficking.
“Disproportionately the victims that we see, the large majority, have not been kidnapped,” Oberhaus said.
We even got a second opinion, who agrees.
“The amount of abductions is lower than the actual grooming process,” Lowell Senitz said. He is the co-founder of Wings of Shelter, an organization dedicated to preventing trafficking.
Senitz said people need to understand that human traffickers typically form a long term relationship with their victims.
“There’s a difference between human trafficking a raping a woman. Kidnapping her, using her for other things, so that’s still crimes, but not necessarily human trafficking,” Senitz said.
Both experts we talked to agree that posting about a situation like this on social media is only hurting the real victims.
“Facebook, online is really not the place to expose the person,” Senitz said.
Police said the driver who picked up that woman was a legitimate Uber driver, but apparently, there was a language barrier.
