Becky Mackenzie was just a teenager when she started “hooking” in Buffalo, N.Y. Adopted by a family in Allentown, she started living on the street and couch surfing after her adoptive father died.

She told her story Thursday night at a Sex Trafficking in Western Pennsylvania community awareness event hosted by Refuge for Women at Dutilh Church in Cranberry Township.

It was a friend, she told the audience, who got her into “hooking,” a slang term for prostitution. Annoyed by the teen constantly “mooching” off of her friends, her friend drove her to a spot to make “five dollars in 10 minutes.” There she, only 15 years old, met a man who said he’d take care of her. When times got tough, though, the man abused her and forced her to go back to sex work, she said.

“If I didn’t bring enough money home for him to eat, I got another physical education lesson,” Mackenzie said. “So I was motivated to go out there and hook.”

Mackenzie’s story, participants learned, is all too familiar for many young women and children across the country who fall victim to sex trafficking. The key difference between now and then: Social media and the internet present many more paths for victims to be lured into what experts estimate to be a $150 billion industry.

“That’s what you’re dealing with here,” said panelist Joe Ryczaj, a Pittsburgh Police Task Force officer in the Narcotics and Vice Unit, after relating social media’s role in grooming victims for sex trafficking. “The manipulation. They think these people care for them and that they love them. And they get coerced into this lifestyle.”

Protecting young women and children from manipulation was a significant part of the message delivered by a panel of experts, including Mackenzie.

Mackenzie was joined on the panel by Danielle Ossman, Pittsburgh Police Task Force officer in the Narcotics and Vice Unit; Theresa Golden, Refuge for Women Pittsburgh executive director; Michele Margittai, Refuge for Women development director; and Rocco Mandelli, Allegheny County Commercially Sexually Exploited Children case manager.

Mackenzie is a survivor. Despite long-suffering physical ailments and mental battles from her time in Buffalo, she’s been married to an a former police officer for the past 30 years and they share grandchildren. She’s now an outspoken advocate against sex trafficking in addition to being just six months away from earning her doctorate in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

But many women forced into sex trafficking do not get the chance to share their story like Mackenzie. According to a statistic given at the event, 92% of women who were involved in prostitution said that they wanted to leave but couldn’t because they lacked basic services.

A common point made among the panelists was that women who enter sex trafficking do so because they feel they have no other choice. Financial difficulties, addiction issues and homelessness are just a few of the problems that lead women into viewing their trafficker — typically a friend or family member of the victim — as a provider, and they stay despite the abuse that comes with that relationship.

It’s a feeling echoed by Mackenzie, who said she did run away from her abuser once — only for him to find her a few days later and physically assault her for leaving. She said she blamed herself for leaving a man she was manipulated into thinking was taking care of and providing for her. She was eventually rescued by her sister.

“These traffickers don’t look at these kids and young women as human beings,” Ryczaj said. “They’re a commodity and they just make money for them.”

Refuge for Women is set up to help those who are facing a similar situation to that of Mackenzie’s. Recently the group purchased a building in Pittsburgh for use as an “emergency home,” at a location that won’t be disclosed due to the sensitivity of its purpose.

The emergency home hasn’t opened yet, but officials say the plan is to provide a home to victims of sex trafficking in order to help them leave. After contacting Refuge for Women, a representative from the organization will reach out to provide the next steps to be relocated to the facility.

The phone number currently isn’t live, but the group’s website — refugeforwomen.org — contains information about the organization itself including events, ways to get involved and donate if interested.

Sex abuse or human trafficking victims can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 or call 911 to get help.