Be cautious! Cat fishers are taking the internet by storm, and they don’t have good intentions.
They’ve gotten skillful when it comes to scamming people not only financially, but romantically as well.
And meanwhile some are better than others at it, there’s only so much they can do to hide the fact they’re not who they say they are.
Let’s take their images as an example: catfisher’s social media posts hold a lot of clues!
But before we talk about how to spot a catfish, let me first tell you how to reverse image search a catfisher’s pictures.
– How to know if someone is a catfish after searching their picture?
Before I ramble on about the methods, let’s first talk about what a catfisher’s results look like.
First things first, after trying out the tools I’m going to talk about below, you’ll see that there are a lot of sources using the catfisher’s image.
I’m talking about other social media accounts or platforms such as Pinterest.
You might even find the person’s actual socials.
Catfishers typically use good-looking people’s pictures, so don’t be surprised if you come across a person with a large following.
And yeah, it could be that the person you’re talking to is having their pictures used by other people, but that’s most likely not the case if:
- Their account doesn’t have a lot of followers;
- Their behavior is odd;
- They don’t interact with other people;
- The picture they’re using is pixelated;
- Their account is new.
If you’re not on a dating app that offers a background check, here’s how you do a reverse image search to catch a catfish!
1. You can reverse image search catfishers on Google for free!
If you didn’t know, one of Google’s many functions is reverse image searching!
- To use that feature, go to Google Images, and on the search bar click the second icon (the little camera).
- When you click it, you’ll get the option to upload an image on Google Lens—do just that.
- Pick the image of your choice, and click on Open or Choose.
You’ll see all of the people (and other sources) using that image—based on what I was talking about, it’s up to you to assess if you’re dealing with a catfish or not!
2. Sort of similar, you can also try Bing Visual Search.
Bing is an adequate tool for reverse image searching! Give the Bing Visual Search a try:
- Visit Microsoft Bing, and click on the second icon on the search bar—pick the image of your choice!
- Or simply visit the Bing visual Search site, drag an image, or pick one from your file.
- You will be redirected to Microsoft Bing and see the results!
View those results and see if that picture is being used anywhere—if it is, verify that the person in the picture is NOT the person who you’re keeping in touch with.
3. Duplichecker is originally a tool that helps us find similar pictures across the web—it works to bust catfishers!
At the end of the day, it only takes to know where an image is being used (and how often) to expose a catfisher.
To see all the similar images, go to DupliChecker and upload your image.
After clicking on Search Similar Image, you can pick the search engine you’d like to view your results on:
- Google;
- Bing;
- Yandex, etc.
I prefer Yandex because it never fails to find me what I’ve been looking for!
Scrolling through countless links is tiresome, but unfortunately, the process of busting a catfisher is tedious.
Better safe than sorry, though.
4. Among other search methods, SocialCatfish lets us search with an image.
I’m sure you’ve heard of SocialCatfish at one point—it’s commonly used to find cheaters on dating sites, do background checks, find out other details, etc.
And even though they’re all very useful (especially for online dating), what we need right now is the Reverse Image Search tool.
Upload the image on the box and click on Search—wait a short while for your results to be ready.
SocialCatfish runs a complex search as it finds all possible websites and social media platforms attached to that picture. You can also do a reverse image search on Tinder or any other dating app.
You’ll surely find the person’s true identity this way.
9 smart ways to end a catfish relationship!
5. The PimEyes face-recognition engine.
This is a superb choice if you’re suspecting a person of catfishing as another person: using another person’s face.
PimEyes gives users the opportunity to find out where the same pictures are published across the web—websites and social profiles.
Just upload the picture on the site!
It’s got an amazing facial recognition and reverse image searching system; if you’re getting catfished, you’ll definitely find out.
It’s built for easy usage and maximum accuracy!
6. Give TinEye a try when reverse-looking up the catfisher’s picture!
You can also use TinEye to reverse-search the catfisher’s selfies.
It works similarly to the other reverse image search sites: upload the selfie and research the results to make sure that somebody is attempting to catfish.
See what other profiles are using the same picture—if you’re being catfished, that picture should’ve been used multiple times.
You might even find the actual owner’s profiles.
7. Find out if you’re being catfished with SmallSEOTools.
With this website, you can see if someone is faking their identity and using another person’s images.
You can pick from different search engines for maximum precision!
You’ll find out all the information you need to make up your mind regarding the person you’re skeptical about.
8. The FaceCheck site was specifically made for this!
If you need to verify that someone is using their own pictures, then FaceCheck is just what you need.
It’s a seriously impressive facial recognition service that brings up the places where the face of a person in a specific picture appears.
We’re technically searching the internet by face!
You’ll be able to find social media and even criminal records—prevent any scams by knowing for a fact who you’re keeping in touch with.
With FaceCheck, catfishing, romantic scams, and other falsifications are very unlikely to take place.
Am I being catfished? How can I find out someone is a catfish by picture alone?
Luckily, most of the time we can tell when a person is catfishing us—certain clues just jump out.
Catfishers react in a very specific way.
Because they’re lying about their identity, they have certain restrictions, specifically regarding pictures.
Let me be a bit more specific:
– All of their pictures have notably low quality.
They’re all pixelated!
Catfishers steal pictures from other people, meaning that they go through the trouble of saving them on their own devices, and then re-posting them for the world to see.
It may not sound like a long process, but the damage it does to the picture is huge—it takes its quality down a peg.
The pictures catfishers use to scam people are usually of low quality.
– Despite that, those images are seemingly taken by a professional.
A model posing for a professional picture, great lighting and all, for example.
Even though the picture has such low quality, they look as if they were taken by a professional, in a professional setting!
Scammers usually use pictures of models to find their victims—the victim falls prey to what they believe is an attractive individual and gives up very private info.
If this person’s pictures seem as if they were supposed to be in HD but aren’t, then, as I said, they are catfishing as another person.
– They don’t have a lot of them either.
Their profile probably consists of one or a couple of pictures only—they’re not theirs, so how can they get more?
Aside from the issue of not having enough pictures, maybe they just don’t see the point in effort.
They think 1 or 2 pictures are enough to fool people, so they roll with it!
The point is, catfishers don’t usually use a lot of pictures—but I wouldn’t put it past them either.
– They ABSOLUTELY refuse to video chat with you!
You’ve been practically begging this person to have a video call with you, but they always come up with some sort of excuse.
You haven’t video-called during your time together at all, actually.
If this person is a catfish, it’s only normal for them to avoid anything that might expose them—a video chat wouldn’t be the brightest idea.
– You have never (and will probably never) received real-time pictures from them.
No spur-of-the-moment images of them doing everyday things—they can’t send such pictures.
A catfish is not the person they proclaim to be, so unless they ask the person whose identity they’ve stolen to cover up for them, I don’t see them sending candid pictures anytime soon.
They don’t have a picture in a casual setting to send.
– Their images are heavily edited.
This can be a bit of tricky as some images aren’t too obvious, but for the ones that are, know that catfishing may be the case.
Catfishing comes in many ways—technically speaking, it is pretending to be someone else.
Watch out for any signs of editing in pictures: appearance, fake locations, etc.
– And horribly-cropped.
If this person’s images are shaped very weirdly, I’m talking about white outlines and things that shouldn’t be cropped, being cropped.
This is another case of a catfish who doesn’t bother protecting their secret!
– Catfishers don’t have any pictures with other people in their profile.
It’s only their oddly cropped, pixelated pictures.
They never post pictures with their friends or family—because they’re trying to scam, they’re not using their own pictures.
Meaning that they have no pictures of the person they’re posing as with other people.
– And most importantly, when you try reverse image searching, the following things take place:
- The image is being used by other people;
- Their selfie can be found on image-sharing websites (Pinterest, Tumblr, and others);
- You see one person in the search whose pictures might belong to;
- The picture is found in different colors, sizes, and other alterations!
To find out for a fact that you’re talking to a catfish, I seriously recommend taking action.
Consider reverse-searching people’s images if you have met them online and think of getting closer to them.
Catfishers pose a potential danger and we need to prevent it.
We need to use all available methods to expose a catfish; they have the power to do some real damage.
The worst-case scenario is that they can be really dangerous.
Do not, under any circumstances, give out sensitive information to people you only know online!
And be extra careful when using dating sites—that’s where most catfishing happens.
Good luck and stay safe.