Are sex traffickers using interlocking zip ties to distract victims? Fact Check

A warning spreading on social media claims that sex traffickers are now using a “contraption” of several zip ties interlocked with each other to connect two parked card together with the aim of distracting female motorists, making them vulnerable to being kidnapped.

FALSE

The warning is fear mongering nonsense, and yet another example of a scarelore story that fails to provide any evidence, sources or information pertaining to where or when this alleged crime is occurring, nor does it provide any reasoning to backup it’s illogical claims.

Note that we have previously discussed an equally spurious yet very similar hoax claiming sex traffickers are using zip ties to lure female motorists from their cars.

An example is below.

Sex Traffickers are using this contraption to trick females into looking down and digging for something in their purse to cut with after returning to their vehicle and seeing this. Once they’re distracted, boom! They are quickly forced into another vehicle never to be seen again by their people. #stayalert

Messages that purport to describe the latest “innovate” ways sex traffickers (and their ilk) try to lure and kidnap victims are a dime a dozen on the Internet, yet in nearly every case we’ve seen, such messages are embellished, exaggerated, misleading or, in most cases, just false.

From the decades old urban legends that claim human night monsters would slip into your backseat while you chatted to the gas station attendant, to more modern accounts such as the plastic bottle in the wheelwell ploy. These stories all circulate the Internet prolifically, but come up short when pressed on documentation, evidence and specific details. Where did it happen? When did it happen? Is it trending? Where are the media reports? Where are the police reports? Who originally penned this warning? Were they the victim of an abduction or attempted abduction?

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Or perhaps, taking a different angle, why would sex traffickers waste their time playing with zip ties in the first place? Such a modus operandi doesn’t make any sense. Placing the zip ties on the cars exposes them to passersby, and it also means they would have to sit around waiting for their victim to return to their vehicle.

In 2019, warnings similar to this claimed sex traffickers were tying zip ties to doors or mirrors to lure female motorists from their vehicles (that variant omitted the interlocking of zip ties like we have here.) That warning did manage to provide an alleged location; Texas. But it was soon dismissed by a local police force.

The San Angelo Police Department has not received any reports of human trafficking, kidnappings or attempted kidnappings relating to human trafficking nor have we received any reports of black zip ties being used as a means to mark a target of any type of crime.

Even if locations are provided, it also doesn’t mean a warning has any merit. And it comes as no surprise that any search for abductions or attempted abductions involving interlocking zip ties comes up short with actual accounts.

Our advice with warnings of this ilk is always the same. Be wary of your surroundings at all times, and follow practical, common sense advice to help yourself avoid potentially perilous situations. But don’t spread unfounded, fear mongering nonsense like this. It only detracts from serious issues. Generic, catch-all common sense advice will always be more useful than amplifying unfounded specifics. That is to say, would-be victims shouldn’t be focussed on looking for interlocking zip ties when this could mean overlooking something else.