Who We Are
Skull Games operates on a global scale to identify predators, working tirelessly to protect the vulnerable and break the cycle of abuse for future generations. The Skull Games Task Force utilizes Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) to identify sexual predators and their victims, creating actionable leads that law enforcement can use to interdict the cycle of abuse. Our mission empowers survivors, providing them with the opportunity for a life of hope, healing, and freedom.
Throughout the year, the Task Force offers direct support to law enforcement through small, specialized teams. During periodic events, the Task Force surges, bringing together the collective expertise of vetted volunteers from across the United States. This comprehensive counter-sexual exploitation offensive leverages the experience, capabilities, and resources of our team, working in collaboration with our trusted partners to fight back against human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Task Force Operations in March 2025
- Total Investigative hours supporting LE: 389 hours
- Predators Arrested: 5
- Victims Recovered: 1
Recent Operation Summary:
In late March, you may have been enjoying a fine St. Patrick’s Day pint of beer at your local Irish pub. Here at Skull Games, from March 20th through 23rd, we were at work, making gains in the fight against human sex trafficking. A team of Skull Games best and brightest hit the road to train one of our esteemed law enforcement partners and to hunt sexual predators.
We joined forces with Oklahoma’s District 27 Drug and Violent Crime Task Force to deliver hands-on counter-human trafficking training and provide operational support to law enforcement across northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas. The collaborative effort led to not only a better trained LE partner, but the arrest of four predators: including a registered sex offender, a church worship pastor, a former Tahlequah police officer, and a military contractor.
Those who prey on our most vulnerable will often seek a position of trust or power over their victims and in our society. This can give them access to victims and they believe it will obscure their activity from the public. The experts of Skull Games and Oklahoma PD; however, were able to see the predators for what they were.
The operation leveraged targeted OSINT to confirm offender identities through expert analysis and pattern of life tracking of online footprints, demonstrating how OSINT solutions can expose predators hiding in plain sight. One trafficking victim was recovered and connected with support services. We at Skull Games are honored to support local agencies and deeply grateful to the District 27 Task Force, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Response Unit, and all involved for their commitment and hospitality.
News & Events
The Road to Expedition XV
In March, momentum is building, gears are in motion, you can feel anticipation in the air. We are one month away from the main event, Task Force Expedition XV in Tampa, FL. Expeditions are when we mass the full force of Skull Games, in one place, one time, one mission: to cut out human sex trafficking at its root. There is much to do: planning, recruiting, and training. Skull Games Solutions staff are busy planning and coordinating with our Expedition’s sponsor NexTech Solutions (NTS) LLC who will host us for the event.
In March, Skull Games recruited a full new cohort of Task Force analysts from across the nation. They have a wide array of backgrounds including recruits in the top of their fields in law enforcement, military, technology, and the intelligence community. Most will be fully qualified through their fusion cells by Expedition XV, adding to the fight with their fresh training and perspective.
Whether they are new blood or black belts, Skull Games Task Force are always training, studying, and improving their craft. OSINT is a perishable skill that we at SGTF maintain with our Skully University program, organized exercises, and community sharing. Expedition XV will begin with an in-person exam to receive their Open Source Certification (OSC) from OSMOSIS Institute. If you are training for OSC, another certification, or just keeping your skills up, SGTF have a few training recommendations. You can get over 90 hours of OSINT training through the Intel Techniques platform https://inteltechniques.com/training.html. OSINT Academy by Hetherington Group is also a great resource that provides a full catalog of OSINT trainings for all levels of experience.
OSINT Academy Catalog at https://osintacademy.com/courses
Many of us did OSINT Capture the Flags in March, to sharpen our skills. Even if Skull Games isn’t running a great CTF like at SANS OSINT Summit, there are plenty of other opportunities out there. In April you can take A Walk on the Wild Side, with an OSINT Combine Capture the Flag. The CTF provides 20 environment-themed challenges (hence the name) designed to test your skills in social media intelligence, open source environmental research, and geolocation. And hey, we should all be experts on geolocation, because we read last month’s Skullery Blog, right?
To get in the game go to https://osintcombine.ctfd.io/, so you can get better at your intelligence discipline and knock Antidote off the top of the scoreboard, whoever that is (it’s not me). Don’t expect to see screen shots and tips of the actual CTF here. We don’t want to get in trouble with our friends at OSINT Combine. Ok, one hint. The first challenge gives you a name and asks you to find the URL of a wild website which they have registered. In the January Skullery we covered a great way to conduct a WHOIS domain search. But we aren’t searching for the domain, we are searching for the domain’s registrant. That makes this a reverse WHOIS search. I recommend searching for some free reverse WHOIS providers or getting creative with domain-themed google dorks. Remember, the theme is environmental, so you may see that in the URL you seek.
OSINT Tradecraft:
Paid OSINT Tools, What is Worth It in 2025?
As someone who navigates the internet professionally, you become aware of the maze you are in. Behind every click, around every corner you see something like this:
Committing to a subscription service feels like getting in debt with the mafia. Modern subscription service applications have variable rates, subscriptions in subscriptions, price hikes for what should be basic functionality. In a world where every website, streaming service, and application is trying to reach for your wallet, what is worth paying for? Knowing what’s worth your money matters, especially when you’re doing mission-critical, time-sensitive work like tracking traffickers or identifying at-risk individuals. This month, I asked the experts of the Skull Games Task Force community, what OSINT tools are you paying for and why?
Skull Games Top 5 Approved Pay-to-Play OSINT Tools
Disclosure: Skull Games receives no compensation for these reviews. These assessments represent the opinion of the authors only.
1. PimEyes (Reverse Facial Search)
PimEyes has one of the largest, fastest facial recognition engines available to the public. It doesn’t just match photos; it scours the web for similar faces, across blogs, adult sites, obscure corners of the internet, and more. Free tools like Google Images or Yandex only catch exact or near-exact matches. PimEyes can catch different angles, lighting, and older images. The paid tier allows for alerts on new matches, deep result filtering, and no watermarked previews, which is crucial when working with victim imagery or burner profiles.
1. FaceCheck.id (Tied for First)
Widely used in the SGTF community for matching face images from escort ads or social media to other platforms or public databases. FaceCheck’s engine is well-tuned for OSINT use cases. It often catches matches that PimEyes misses, especially in fringe or adult content. Unlike free image search, it maintains a tighter focus on human faces, not just general image similarity. And yes, it hurt when it became pay-to-play (~$0.30/search), and the transition hit the community hard. But several members confirmed: it still delivers unique hits that justify the price.
2. Lookify (Reverse Phone Lookup)
A great phone number lookup tool that gives names, addresses, and alias history. Reverse phone number searches are one of the most common searches we do in OSINT, so you will likely have to pick one of the many reverse phone search subscription services to get the full details required, and Lookify is our recommendation.
Why, if free searches provide some results? Free tools like TrueCaller or Whitepages are great too, but they often hit dead ends with VoIP or burner numbers. Lookify reaches into data broker networks and returns connected identities, even from limited-use or prepaid numbers. Furthermore, it’s fast. When working with big data, a reliable service will cut hours off building out a lead from just a phone number.
3. TruthFinder
One of the best tools for financial background, addresses, associates, and even potential motives. TruthFinder often outperforms BeenVerified or Instant Checkmate with more complete financial data, like liens, bankruptcies, and judgments. Manual searching through court or county databases takes hours, TruthFinder does it in 10 seconds.
4. Maltego (Analytics)
Maltego is more of an analytics platform than a singular tool, that helps investigators mine and visualize connections between data points from various sources, like social media, websites, and databases, to uncover hidden relationships and patterns, aiding in investigations and threat intelligence. Maltego is a graphical link analysis tool that allows users to visualize connections within complex datasets, displaying interconnected links. It integrates with a variety of OSINT, social intelligence, and identity data sources to quickly obtain and analyze the digital presence of a person or organization. Maltego transforms raw data into actionable knowledge by providing structured and easy-to-read graphs that link people, organizations, websites, domains, IP addresses, and more.
Maltego helps discover hidden connections and patterns that might not be apparent when analyzing data in isolation and can be used to map out the relationships between a person of interest and other people, organizations, or online entities. It can help map out the network infrastructure of websites or organizations, identifying related IP addresses and phone numbers. The main tools are:
- Maltego Graph: The core tool for visualizing connections and relationships (Free to the community).
- Maltego Search: A one-click solution for finding surface-level information.
- Maltego Monitor: A real-time monitoring tool for identifying changes in the digital landscape.
- Maltego Evidence: A solution for collecting, preserving, and analyzing social media data.
Maltego can significantly reduce the time and effort required for complex investigations. The ability to visualize connections and relationships leads to more accurate and comprehensive investigations. By providing a clear and comprehensive view of the data, Maltego helps investigators make better-informed decisions.
Maltego YouTube Training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXktQ3epQvw
5. Shodan (Network Reconnaissance)
Shodan is typically seen as a cybersecurity tool, but our most techy SGTF members use it creatively for people-finding. Paid access allows geo-targeted and API-enhanced searches, so you can filter by city, ISP, device type, and more. You can uncover webcams, printers, and exposed servers with embedded usernames, location metadata, or even security footage. Especially valuable when an IP address, hostname, or device trail is your starting point.
Honorable Mention. UserSearch.ai
A developing platform that bundles username, email, and image search tools from various vendors into one spot. Think of it as a search aggregator, it gives you alias, domain, and social trail results across dozens of sources without switching tabs. It’s currently offering a free month, and SGTF members report the reverse image module works decently alongside Pimeyes or FaceCheck.
Conclusions
The right tool can cut hours off your workflow, reveal things free tools miss, or give you a critical lead that manual searching would never surface. We all maintain huge toolkits for an array of different use cases. Most of us cannot afford to pay for all of them, only the best. To make your dollar go farther you can pool resources, look for seasonal deals/lifetime memberships, or play around with free trials/demos. Do not try to violate Terms of Service by getting past paywalls using a multiplicity of methods and tools, obviously. We will come back to this list as it changes because, we aren’t getting any endorsements for these articles, so the best tool wins.
Upcoming Events
- TF Expedition XV, NTS Ybor City, Tampa, FL: May 2025
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