Combating Human Trafficking at the Super Bowl

Major events like the Super Bowl often unfortunately see spikes in criminal activity such as human trafficking. As thousands of visitors, workers, and businesses flock to the host city, traffickers exploit the high demand, making it crucial for law enforcement and private organizations to work together in identifying and stopping these crimes.

For its third consecutive year, Cash App participated in “Operation Touchdown,” a proactive initiative working in person with the law enforcement Command Center at the Super Bowl. Cash App's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) conducted investigations, utilized financial intelligence, and leveraged interactions with law enforcement to detect and disrupt human trafficking in real time. Additionally, the team was able to quickly respond to inquiries related to missing or trafficked persons, and support identification of individuals actively engaging in predatory behaviors. The team was able to build upon prior engagements where we supported Super Bowl related activity virtually, and the in-person engagement this year maximized the team’s impact while continuing to build relationships with external groups who are focused on human trafficking and child exploitation.

Cash App prioritizes trust, security, and customer protection to not only maintain a safe platform, but to promote safety with our partners and the financial system more broadly. While our detections proactively monitor account activity, external partnerships, including supporting major events like the Super Bowl, are critical as they allow us to gain additional data intelligence to further detect and disrupt illicit financial gain and other criminal activity.

Here’s how our teams contribute:

• Collaborating with Law Enforcement: We work with local, state, and federal law enforcement at the locally set up operation centers to ingest leads from various investigations (which include real-time arrests) and cross-check against Cash App transactions. This intelligence sharing ensures that cases are thoroughly investigated and appropriately actioned to mitigate threats to customers and victims.
• Identifying Suspicious Transactions: Cash App’s Special Investigations Unit leverages data to identify anomalies, geolocation, and related activities connected to subjects of law enforcement investigations.
• Measuring and Reporting Impact: After the event, results of these investigations are used as a feedback loop to continually assess internal processes and controls. The insights gained help refine future efforts to proactively combat financial crimes linked to human trafficking. Ultimately, we leverage the output of initiatives with external parties to proactively and reactively detect, report, and manage risk on the platform.

We are proud of our efforts in partnering with law enforcement; not only do these efforts further the ability to quickly prevent and detect crimes, but we also believe it sets a precedent for financial institutions to play a larger role in tackling this global crisis.

Financial institutions play a vital role in combating all forms of exploitation by detecting and disrupting illicit financial gains, and Cash App is proud to support the crucial work being led by local, state, and federal law enforcement to deter criminals and safeguard victims and survivors.