A recent investigation by Newsweek reveals the alarming use of social media and cryptocurrency in the organ trafficking trade. Modern technology is being misused on platforms like Telegram, where human organs are sold in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Demand and desperation

The demand for organs is fueled by a global shortage, with about 90,000 people waiting for kidney transplants in the U.S. alone. This scarcity drives desperate individuals to sell their organs to escape poverty, or they are tricked into giving them up.

“[Organ harvesting is] primarily an activity of people preying on the desperate – migrants, refugees from war zones. They have no sort of financial wherewithal at all. The most valuable thing they may possess is their organs. Some people get so desperate, they’re willing to sell them.” – Tom Cardamone, President and CEO of Global Financial Integrity (GFI)

The World Health Organization estimates that 10,000 kidneys are traded on the black market annually. Newsweek’s investigation uncovered how traffickers exploit vulnerable people, offering organs from unwilling donors and victims of coercion. Advertisements for organs, like lungs for $10,800 and bone marrow for $1,500, are posted on social media, facilitating transactions through cryptocurrency.

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