In This Issue
Training: Applied OSINT for Investigations, Multidisciplinary Teams in Human Trafficking, and Statewide Solutions to Human Trafficking
Operations: Alabama Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Operation
Leadership Profile: Joe Scaramucci
OSINT Basics: Quantifying What We Do
Who We Are
The Skull Games Task Force employs Open Source Intelligence to IDENTIFY sexual predators and their victims, enabling law enforcement to INTERDICT the cycle of abuse. Our mission is to liberate survivors and EMPOWER them with the opportunity for a life of hope, healing, and freedom. The Task Force provides direct support to law enforcement through small teams or as a massive expedition, bringing together the collective capability of more than 400 elite volunteers. This counter-sexual exploitation offensive leverages considerable expertise and resources to fight human trafficking and sexual exploitation. With us as the HUNTERS, we get into the heads of predators, in our own “SKULL GAME”…
Operations Summary – June 2025
by Olinda Cardenas
- Active Law Enforcement cases supported: 5
- People trained in Counter-Trafficking: 214
- Hours of Law Enforcement Support: 600
Recent Operation Summary:
In northern Alabama, Skull Games Task Force members provided real-time support during a multi-day Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) operation. Their OSINT-driven intelligence contributed to the identification of four suspects and the safe deconfliction of ten individuals who had engaged with undercover decoys. This operation not only disrupted potential child exploitation networks but also ensured that innocent individuals were swiftly ruled out, underscoring the precision and professionalism of the Task Force’s operational support.
Training Provided – June 2025
by Olinda Cardenas
With 2025 already at its halfway point, the Skull Games Task Force continued building momentum in June, delivering critical training to law enforcement across multiple states. Liz Bradt, Director of Operations, and Michal Block, Director of Intelligence, led two half-day sessions of Applied OSINT for Investigations trainings in Oklahoma. Their sessions equipped officers with the tools and techniques needed to transform digital clues into actionable leads, enhancing local agencies’ abilities to identify suspects, locate victims, and build cases using OSINT.
Joe Scaramucci, Director of Law Enforcement Training and Operations, facilitated a focused training on Multidisciplinary Teams in Human Trafficking in Idabel, Oklahoma, emphasizing collaboration between law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim service providers. He later joined Jeff Tiegs, our Founder and a former Delta Force Commander, to co-present Statewide Solutions to Human Trafficking at a regional law enforcement conference in Tulsa. Together, they laid out a model for statewide anti-trafficking strategies that integrate intelligence-led policing, community partnerships, and survivor-centered practices.
Skull Games Leadership Profile: Joe Scaramucci
by Tom Phelan
If you’ve been around the anti-trafficking space long enough, especially on the law enforcement side, the name Joe Scaramucci probably rings a bell, and alarm bells for traffickers. For the OSINT community, he’s an invaluable boots-on-the-ground expert who understands both sides of the fight: intelligence collection and real-world takedowns. But who is he, really? And why does law enforcement and intelligence professionals nationwide hang on his every word?
His Story
Joe Scaramucci has a long, celebrated career as a detective with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office in Texas. He built a reputation as one of the most effective human trafficking investigators in the U.S., especially when it comes to illicit massage businesses (IMBs), pimp-controlled trafficking, and organized criminal networks. Starting out in narcotics and vice, Scaramucci saw early on how exploitation intersected with drugs, gangs, and organized crime. That’s when he shifted focus. Over a decade later, he’s now known not just for arrest stats, but for shaping how trafficking is fought—with intelligence, strategy, and humanity.
What Sets Him Apart
Scaramucci isn’t just knocking down doors. He emphasizes the non-glamorous but vital parts of the job: proactive, intelligence-driven investigations that go after the entire criminal structure, not just the low-hanging fruit. That includes:
- Following financial trails to seize assets
- Leveraging undercover ops to identify networks
- Building victim-centered cases that prioritize safety and recovery
- Targeting traffickers and buyers, not just victims
One of the clearest markers of Joe’s impact is his focus on demand-side accountability. As he put it in our interview:
“Buyers are often overlooked as a small problem in the HT space. Buyers create trafficking, and often times are more violent to the victims than traffickers are. So, I think buyer accountability is important and often overlooked.”
Joe also stands out because he doesn’t isolate law enforcement operations from OSINT. He’s one of the few in the LE world who speaks candidly about working with civilian analysts, volunteers, and NGOs—provided the work is methodical, documented, and court-ready.
His Impact
- Hundreds of arrests tied to trafficking cases
- Dozens of victims identified and supported
- Millions in criminal assets seized
And sometimes, that impact hits home in ways he never expected. He shared one moment that still resonates:
“I had completely forgotten about one case, where the victim was a college basketball player. Years later, I was at a conference bar with a colleague. The bartender asked what we did, and I told her. A few minutes later she came out of the back sobbing and said ‘You’re the one who rescued me from human trafficking. I knew when I saw your eyes who you were.’”
They’ve remained friends for over a decade. This is the type of experience that makes Joe so valuable to Skull Games and the community overall. Intelligence Analysts are vital to the fight but are removed from the front line. Joe brings the front-line understanding of the criminal world as well as a profound understanding and humanity toward the victims we fight to liberate.
For the OSINT Community
Here’s another reason why Skull Games should care: Joe deeply understands the evidence requirements for building a case, but he’s also quick to remind us that OSINT tools and big data analysis don’t solve cases. People do.
“Human trafficking is literally a human thing. Human brain, human emotions, human feelings. We spend too much time trying to quantify it with tech and data. You can’t fight emotion with math—you have to meet it with emotion, and care.”
It’s no secret that Joe can be critical of anyone or anything that can get in the way of his and Skull Games mission. He is openly critical of law enforcement and courts that just make the easy collar by arresting those who are being trafficked and other laziness in the justice process like overreliance on tech. This passion and integrity are another thing that sets him apart. So, I asked him, what gets in the way of real results?
“Ego. Plain and simple. That, and pretending someone has ‘figured it all out’ with tech. That false sense of certainty kills real progress.”
I wanted to know what Joe believes is sage advice for those already in the fight against human trafficking and those who want to dive in and make difference. His advice is to understand the harsh reality of what we are getting into. OSINTers need to take care of themselves while dealing with the dark nature of the counter-trafficking field.
“You can be the best OSINTer in the world, but if you burn out, none of it matters. Understand that people won’t always appreciate what you do—victims, traffickers, even the public. And you won’t always get to know the outcome of your work. But stay grounded.”
He had some more advice for the next generation of Skull Games: stay humble and remember who we are trying to protect.
“Listen more, speak less. The field doesn’t need a ‘chosen one’ who thinks they’ve solved the problem. Listen to survivors. I once wrote, ‘I do what’s best for the victim,’ and someone asked, ‘What does a cop know about what’s best for a victim?’ My answer? I ask. These people are human—just like us.”
Joe recently retired from law enforcement—but don’t mistake that for stepping away. When asked what’s next, he laughed:
“Ahhh, the million-dollar question. I’ll go where I feel God is pushing me. Whether it’s full-time, part-time, volunteer, or organizer—one thing’s for sure: the Skull Games crew is stuck with me. I’ve never met a better, more humble, giving group of humans in my life.”
Final Thoughts
In a field full of noise, Joe Scaramucci is a rare voice that cuts through with hard-earned wisdom, tactical experience, and a relentless focus on justice—real justice. His legacy in law enforcement is already solid, but his ongoing role in shaping OSINT collaboration is just beginning. Skull Games is incredibly lucky to have his long-term support. And to traffickers still out there? Joe may be out of the badge and the squad room, but he’s not out of the fight.
OSINT Basics: Quantifying What We Do
by Tom Phelan
Skull Games has another new cohort of recruits, with backgrounds in military, law enforcement, tech, and varied other expert fields. As our numbers grow so does our strength in the fight against human trafficking. Since we have new recruits and new readers, this month let’s take it back to basics: what is Skull Games and why is this OSINT Task Force so effective in the fight against sexual predators?
“Ninety percent of intelligence is open source.” It’s a quote you’ll hear in both war rooms and classrooms. Analysts from the CIA to NATO have echoed it for decades. The number is arbitrary and shifts depending on who’s collecting intelligence. A better quote might be:
“Ninety percent of intelligence requirements can be answered with OSINT.”
The point is unshakable: most intelligence doesn’t (or shouldn’t) come from spies or wiretaps, it should come from what’s already out there. That’s Open Source Intelligence, and in the fight against human trafficking, it’s become one of the most important weapons we have.
At Skull Games, we’ve built an entire task force on this reality. We dig through the noise of the internet to find the traces traffickers leave behind—digital fingerprints that can lead to rescue, arrests, and justice. We ran some numbers to help explain what OSINT really is, why it matters, and how we’re using it to shift the balance in the fight.
328 Million Terabytes: The Daily Firehose
The internet now produces an estimated 328.77 million terabytes of data every day (Cybersecurity Ventures, 2024). Photos, videos, ads, forums, records, and posts—everything you do online leaves a trail. That volume of data may seem overwhelming, but it’s where we do our best work. Every trafficking network, recruiter, or predator using digital tools creates evidence—often unknowingly. And with the right focus, that evidence can save lives. Skull Games volunteers are largely technical experts who know how to sort the firehose of data programmatically. Others are analytical experts who can piece together the collected information into a cohesive picture.
Social Media is the New Street Corner
There are 5.17 billion internet users, and 4.9 billion are active on social media (DataReportal, 2025). That’s nearly two-thirds of humanity. More than 3.5 billion photos and videos are uploaded daily—many geotagged, timestamped, and attached to public accounts. This is where traffickers operate and believe they are hidden:
- Posting ads
- Recruiting underage victims
- Communicating with buyers
- Bragging in comments and chatrooms
Law Enforcement Has the Tools, but Not Always the Time
- 73% of law enforcement agencies worldwide use OSINT tools (Bromium, 2024)
- But fewer than 30% have dedicated OSINT units or full-time analysts
- OSINT contributes to about 65% of initial leads in trafficking cases
- Yet only 22% of final convictions cite OSINT directly in evidence
That tells a clear story: open source clues are critical but underused. Law enforcement is stretched thin. And that’s where partners like Skull Games come in.
The Open Web Is Where It Happens
Forget the myths about the dark web. While it makes up 6% of online content, the surface/open web contains the vast majority of trafficking indicators: up to 89%, based on SGTF case experience.
That includes:
- Escort service ads
- Recruitment scams
- Fake modeling agencies
- Photos taken in hotel rooms
- Social media profiles used to target minors
Traffickers are hiding in plain sight. OSINT sees them.
Skull Games: Turning Public Clues into Real-World Action
Skull Games launched in 2021 with an operational goal: use what’s out in the open to find predators in the shadows. Since then, we’ve grown from a few volunteers to a nationwide network of contributors—from tech professionals and former military to human rights experts and humane Americans who just refuse to look away.
Here’s what we’ve accomplished with OSINT:
📍 2,300+ persons of interest identified
👮♀️ 700+ arrests supported
🛡️ 150+ confirmed victims rescued or safeguarded
🌐 Partnerships with 90+ law enforcement agencies
We’ve also invested in the people behind the screens:
- Over 2,000 analysts trained in OSINT methods
- Over 500 law enforcement officers trained through live sessions and tactical workshops
- Volunteer force expanded from 12 people in 2021 to almost 500 in 2025
Every one of those numbers represents someone who was found, someone who was stopped, or someone who got a second chance.
Why This Matters
The world needs to understand that OSINT isn’t just for intelligence agencies or data nerds. It’s not just a tool; it’s a way to make sense of a digital world that traffickers have learned to exploit. We’re using OSINT to take that power back. Every username, every IP address, every photo background can become a lead. And every lead is a chance to bring someone home. When people say “90% of intelligence is open source,” they’re not exaggerating. They’re calling us to pay attention.
Final Thought: We Make the Numbers Work for Victims
The data explosion isn’t slowing down. But that doesn’t mean we’re helpless. It means we have more to work with—and more reason to act. Skull Games is proving every day that public clues can lead to private victories. Arrests. Recoveries. Disruptions. Survivors.
The numbers used to be against the victims.
Now, they’re starting to work in their favor.
Upcoming Events
- Task Force Expedition XVI | August 1st – 3rd | Austin, TX
- Task Force Expedition XVII | October TBD | Dallas, TX (Updated Location)
Skull Games Links
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- Law Enforcement: Partner With Us
- Volunteer: Join Us
About the Author
Tom Phelan is an active-duty U.S. Army Intelligence Officer with over five years of experience in OSINT and a dedicated volunteer for Skull Games Task Force.
Olinda Cardenas is a former crime scene investigator turned cybercrime enthusiast. She specializes in OSINT and financial crime investigations and is a dedicated volunteer with Skull Games
