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Amid the seemingly increasing number of unproven reports of trafficking in various localities, a Michigan man's account of a possible sex traffic operation was shared hundreds of times. Jacob Courtad's 5 June 2017 Facebook post detailed his experience with a strange man at the Grand Traverse Mall in Traverse City: Courtad posted a follow-up statement on 8 June 2017: We were unable to find much information about this specific incident. The mall did make reference to an incident it called a complete fabrication on its own Facebook page two days after Courtad's initial post, but did not specifically reference it: Local police told us they did not speak to Courtad regarding his post. So while there is no way to refute Courtad's account of the encounter, there also is not enough information to definitively classify it as a trafficking attempt. Cathy Knauf, founder of the Southwest Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force, told us that trafficking itself has to have force, fraud, or coercion taking place and this incident does not qualify: She also said that misconceptions abound surrounding the nature of trafficking itself: Local officials have expressed concern in the past, however, that Grand Traverse County is seeing more trafficking activity. County Prosecutor Bob Cooney said in 2015: The National Human Trafficking Hotline, which services victims and survivors and is funded in part by the federal Health and Human Services Department, reported 246 trafficking cases out of Michigan in 2016, ranking it seventh in the nation for that type of crime. It also calls the idea that trafficking is invariably tied to physical restraint, physical force, or physical bondage a misconception:
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