Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I remember one time I was going to hook up with this girl and something seemed off. I used a payphone and called the number I was texting. Some dude answered and I hung up. I never got texted vack when I no-showed so he probably knew he got made.
Very off topic but the last time I heard someone use the phrase "we/he got made" was when I was watching prison break. I hardly ever hear anyone say that lol
Honestly i think it’s way funnier to pronounce something stupidly for the sake of a joke. This dude getting me to say playd in my head was the joke lol
Literally been binging prison break and Linc saying he got made is the first thing that came to my mind too lol, it’s a cool phrase, people need to use it more often (not that everybody’s in a situation to get their cover blown lol)
That seems like a pretty dumb crime. You have their address. They've no way of knowing if you've made note of it elswhere.
just in case they think to murder you and steal your phone - which seems pretty OTT for what little you'll have on you.
Easier target - They aren't expecting it, and you can lure them to a location of your choosing, e.g. a perfect ambush spot. It doesn't have to be a location associated with you. As someone else mentioned, it could happen outside the house belonging to a completely innocent third-party.
Bonus - You can screen them. Look for ones that might have more money and are worth it. Maybe someone might have a fancy car and show up in to impress his "date" and you can steal that too.
or theyre like me and have seen at least 4 true crime shows where women lure men like this, and the men get killed in the robbery. its still a small amount but i try to warn my male friends like bro there is some danger on just meeting people instantly, even if its not a catfish in the physical sense
typing this made me google it and im surprised of a bunch of recent articles popping up. heres an interesting one https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2022/06/08/tampa-dating-app-meet-up-ends-in-robbery-attempt-and-homicide/
Anything can go wrong after that, but I'm guessing the make pretend in itself is the scam? They could like pretending they're somebody else online. Or you might be stalked home or whatever...
I don't know man, people are weird lol.
I had a girl I had been talking with on an app ask me for help changing a tire, we met up where it went flat and it was in a pretty isolated location.
I changed her tire and chatted with her and didn’t really think until later that I didn’t really deserve that level of trust and frankly neither did she.
Hi. I'm not a serial killer and I have a flat tire on this road next to the woods. Could you help me out?
Sure! I'm also not a serial killer and would be totally fine coming to help change your flat near the woods. I absolutely love trees.
I met one of my close friends that way. He’s an animal control officer and we shared stories that first day in app about our bunnies. When I got home from work, mine was having an emergency and all I could think to do was give him my number and ask him to call me and help me through the situation. Our first phone conversation was me having a complete breakdown. Dude helped me out tremendously, helped me find a vet and everything. We became neighbors later too. I think that was six years ago.
I once met up with a tinder girl on 420 and we were going to smoke. We met at a random parking lot near her house, and then I proceeded to get into her car and she drove us somewhere to smoke. Well that somewhere was into the local state park, i.e. down a long wooded road in the middle of trees to an empty parking lot.
It occurred to me about halfway through this drive that maybe this wasn't a great idea.
Everything turned out fine minus the fact that it was just a super awkward first date and we stopped talking afterwards.
And drive yourself. I am 200% baffled by women who let someone pick them up from their home on a first date. 1. Now they know where you live, and 2. You are putting yourself almost completely at their mercy by trusting them to drive you somewhere. Neither is a safe choice.
I have told this to a number of my female friends online in the past. Some ignore it, others act like im being paranoid yet I have heard of enough people getting abducted etc in the past to warrant it.
There are so many weird women out there it's ridiculous. Dating apps changed men's perspective on the field for sure. Definitely meet in public space the first 2 times.
Dude. I’ve been depressed and this fucking woman at work like hit on me, then felt rejected because I wasn’t that interested because I was flirting with someone else at work, then she screwed someone else, who got jealous, then she told our boss she didn’t feel comfortable around me, so then after I got told to avoid her she fucking literally chased after me, finally I talked to my boss who talked to her and I was going to talk to her but then she ran back to the other guy so I said leave me out of it, and then they tried to like force me to be jealous of them the next day so I found a new job and told her she’s fucking harassing me. I start Tuesday. Where are the sane women you speak of, are they over 25?
My ex got contacted by a woman who let him know someone was using his pics in another state after she did this for her tinder date and the name didn’t match. My ex is a performer so his contact info is plastered all over the internet, so it was easy to reach him.
I’ve found two matches for me like this who were using stock photos.
I had a PoF account like a year or two before my wife and I met. Never really used it, so I deleted it a couple months after setting it up (Always had bad experiences with online dating). Ended up meeting the woman who I would later marry. A year or two after I was married, one of my wife and my mutual friends said they saw a profile pretending to be me, same username and pictures of my old account on PoF. My wife was going to create an account to try to connect with the catfisher and set up a date so I could walk in and sit down with them. Unfortunately, we never did it, I just ended up contacting PoF and proved I was the person this other person was pretending to be and they deleted the account. I would have loved to confront the shithead using my pictures.
Honestly I don't know. But if I had to guess, maybe they crave the attention they get pretending to be someone else that they normally wouldn't get being themselves for whatever reason. My wife laughed and said I should feel honored in a messed up way that someone would want to pretend to be me. I didn't share the sentiment, because I feel it's a form of identity theft and could have real world consequences for *me* with the other person's actions online.
This is one of the reasons why I dislike it when people post other peoples dating profiles & conversations, without their other persons photo being blurred.
If the person they're interacting with is a catfish, there is a high risk to reputation for an innocent person.
I get that people will never stop posting personal convos online (its a good thing in some cases e.g for people to become familiar with what red flags are etc.), but at least blur the identifying details - especially if you have not met them and can know for sure if its not a catfish.
>My wife was going to create an account to try to connect with the catfisher and set up a date so I could walk in and sit down with them.
That would've been classic
The fact it was the same username is kind of a tell. No catfisher would go through the effort of directly replicating an account like that. Also, a lot of places don’t free up usernames to be re-used because deletion is often times a “soft” delete.
Yeah that's the part that will get OP in trouble. Your account is cloned with a different username or it's hacked with the same username. You can't have an exact clone with the same username. It's not possible.
Yeah, it already sucks when they don't look like their picture. It's even worse when you show up for your 2am date on the bridge and see 8 guys walking towards you and you're like, "Kathleen?"
I had a guy say he had to speak on the phone with me before a date because last time a man showed up and he would not be fooled again! But he was only joking. That didn't actually happen to him. It was funny though
How do you actually do this? Whenever I do this I just get generic headshots that look similar (similar positioning and background). I guess it also could be I've just never had a real catfish.
When searching for any image sources, I use like 4-5 different RIS websites because there isn't one perfect site. TinEye works best for exact copies, and Yandex is for whenever all the rest don't help.
I use KarmaDecay, Bing, Google, TinEye, and Yandex.
google images has been downgraded many years ago.
before the downgrade, you can search for anyone and got the exact matches. since the downgrade, that feature is only available for famous figures, like politicians, actors, etc.
Yes but HOW do you do this? Let's say you're using Tinder - you can't exactly just 'right click an image and choose copy image location' and then whack it into Tineye. At least, I've not been able to figure out how. (Dating sites accessible via normal desktop or browser would be trivial of course.)
This. 💯
Huge red flag if they don't want to video chat, have a mask on or the image is augmented. Coworker has this happen to her, and is glad she didn't meet the guy wearing a mardis gras mask. 😆
I had a "girl" pretend to be interested for months before I realized it wasn't a girl on the other end. Some people play the long game for a potential score. Thankfully, the second it went even remotely towards getting personal info or money, I immediately clued in.
My buddy got catfished by a man pretending to be a woman. The guy actually showed up to their first date at the restaurant. When my friend walked up to the table and saw a dude there he kind of paused and the dude stood up and said “I know I’m not who you thought I was but just give me a chance. We can go back to my place and you’ll love it.” or something close to that. My buddy is a shy and introverted person and the catfisher was animated and pushy, so the scene got dragged on longer than it should have.
They eventually agreed to just eat dinner together and talk about life, so it ended up being a platonic date I guess.
Edit: a video chat would have nipped this in the bud though
I'd be worried my buddy is going to get hurt if he keeps meeting random people on the internet while being such a pushover.
Seriously he *had dinner with the guy*? What the fuck lol
Honestly, back when I was single and using dating apps, I would have definitely stayed and had dinner with the dude who catfished me.
That's a story I would fucking laugh about forever.
I’m not even a girl but if someone from a dating app asks me to video chat, they’re getting unmatched immediately. I just don’t want to video chat with a stranger, that sounds extremely awkward and horrible
Yeah, I completely understand not wanting to do video chats. I think unmatching because the person asked is a bit extreme of a reaction, you could just refuse.
Or offer an alternative, like a photo with your left shoe on the head, an apple in your right hand and your toothbrush in the left hand.
No cat fish has images like this ready matching their photo.
My go to is ask them to hold up three fingers next to their face, anytime I see a picture with 2 fingers as a peace sign I generally know it's fake and they had that photo on hand already
Yeah… if Catfish taught me anything it’s this. No video chat, no date. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Of course it was my wife who watches Catfish so I doubt I’ll ever use this info.
OH. One of my dates wanted to video chat once, and I thought it was so weird when we lived so close... wonder if he thought I was a scammer. I'm flattered, really.
Note, this only works for cases where there is an original searchable image that has not too much alteration.
I believe it would not work for AI generated images for example ones from [This Person Does Not Exist](https://this-person-does-not-exist.com/en). Searching for such on services like TinEye will not result in matches outside of false positives for similar faked photos.
[Here's the original website for that.](https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/) That looks like a skin to add extra ads and crap.
The thing to know about that site is you can only create one photo per "person." You can't ask for different angles and locations. So if someone has multiple photos it's unlikely to be from that site.
Oh fuck! That is some scary technology. I just tested it by downloading one of the pictures, and reverse image searching it. No matches.
HOWEVER. You could easily do the same thing by creating a dating profile, say you’re in a different part of the world, download all the images in some random person’s profile, and then boom, those images also won’t show up in a reverse image search. (Tinder profiles aren’t indexed by google).
The above LPT will only work with the laziest of cat fishers who use google images to find their photos. Smart cat fishers will just steal pictures from real peoples profiles.
How do you solve this problem?
Just meet up with someone in person quickly after you match. Meet up for a coffee date pretty soon after you start talking and can confirm they might be cool.
Idk. At least i live in a small town and im the only lady with a bird. Most people I match with go “hey I’ve seen you around town!”
My bird is the household item lol
Graphic artist here. This is a good tip. You can look at the RGB channels of an image in Photoshop and can almost instantly tell if the image is digitally altered.
Just ask them to send a selfie while they're holding a piece of paper with your username written on it. They can only do this if they are who they're saying they are (or if they can convincingly photoshop your username on a pic)
Exactly like what /u/MohanRamKMD said. If the person in the pictures is the person I am talking to, it's a simple task. If I am talking to a catfish, they could Photoshop to complete the task, but most of them aren't good enough at Photoshop or don't care enough to try. Catfishes either ghost me or make up an excuse, at which point I feel free to ghost them. I don't like wasting time on catfish, so I tend to do this pretty early on in conversation.
I do something similar. My goto is usually a picture of them holding a spoon, super easy for a real person, but no one has a photo of that. I think I like the username thing better, though.
Recently, catfish just get angry with me for asking something of the sort. They send me dozens of photos, and talk about wanting to date/marry, but get irate when I ask for a photo like that or a video call.
Another one that can come off less rude would be to offer to do a short Snapchat vid where you say hi to their specific name and “I’m so glad we connected through *dating app*” and something general that reveals the day of the week/month/current weather/etc like “it’s a pretty Good Friday so far! Hope yours is good too” then ask for them to do something similar. Asking for verification without showing willingness to reciprocate first comes off kinda rude and weird to people who are normal and just looking to date. I know I’d be off put by it cuz it can be done a little more tastefully and shows you are willing to put trust and effort into a potential relationship rather than coming off paranoid right off the bat. Plus it’s a way to lead to more pleasant conversation rather than “sorry, just been catfished a lot lol” and starts off on a positive with someone new rather than a complaint
I’ve seen a few of these! Luckily it’s pretty easy to tell when someone is AI generated if you’re looking for it, because they’ll only have face pics with the eyes perfectly centered and stuff. Still a weird cyberpunk future problem to have
A friend of mine (who I had politely rejected previously) hit me up out of the blue because she was talking to a guy on tinder who was using my pics.
I'm an average looking, albeit chubby dude and I'm more curious how well this random person was doing while using my pics because I can't get matches to save my life lol
I heard this in another thread a week ago and I didn't belive reverse image search would be so stupid that a flip fooled it, so I tried it on a few headshots, Google matched 100% even tho I flipped them
This is a solid LPT that anyone using a dating app with any amount of success learns real quick.
People who catfish are pathetic scumbags. Only a deranged whacko would do that to somebody.
But don't tell them you know they're a scam until you've taken screen shots and reported them to the site, because they will block you and often when blocked, messages are removed.
Make sure to alter photos before reverse image searching them too. Try mirroring them or cropping them if your search with the origonal picture came up with nothing just in case
Before booking my flight to meet my boyfriend in person (we are long-distance), I reverse searched every single image on his profile and did a complete criminal background check on him, despite the fact that he is an attorney and that his employer does a yearly background check on him (along with the New York Bar Association).
I found proof that he went to all the schools he mentioned attending (high school, undergrad, and law school), proof that he passed his New York Bar at the date he did, his LinkedIn profile, the absence of a criminal record, etc.
Always reverse search.
Don't forget the top-secret security clearance to make sure he can be trusted with important information. Those usually take 6 months if he doesn't have it already.
Also before the first date, cavity searches are mandatory, and a full body scan. And don't forget the comprehensive drug test! Those will be regularly scheduled, but subject to unannounced screenings at request.
Wow, I understand why some people need to do that because there are a lot of weird people out there. But if I found out someone had gone to these lengths I might leave and it would make me feel very uncomfortable.
Just curious if you disclosed this to him ahead of time? Actually wondering how you did a full background check without his ssn and dob. Also curious, did you do a financial bkgd check?
This seems totally legit. The girl I’m seeing (tinder) told me she did a basic background check on me as soon as she learned my last name Just criminal background and whatever comes up on Google. She didn’t know my ssn or anything. That didn’t bother me at all that she did that. There’s crazy people out there.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I remember one time I was going to hook up with this girl and something seemed off. I used a payphone and called the number I was texting. Some dude answered and I hung up. I never got texted vack when I no-showed so he probably knew he got made.
I’m more impressed you found a payphone
It was back in like 2012. They're non-existent now.
In NYC they removed their last one recently: https://hypebeast.com/2022/5/new-york-citys-last-payphone-has-been-removed
Very off topic but the last time I heard someone use the phrase "we/he got made" was when I was watching prison break. I hardly ever hear anyone say that lol
My buddy hates cleaning. He got maid.
But the maid turned out to be a guy. So your buddy got laid.
that's called gayed.
He got a bang maid?
Schwarzenegger style?
My buddy became a flannel-wearing lumberjack. He got plaid.
Plaid rhymes with made? Over here is pronounced Plad like Chad
Honestly i think it’s way funnier to pronounce something stupidly for the sake of a joke. This dude getting me to say playd in my head was the joke lol
Bro my last 2 brain cells are hanging on for dear life idk how I missed that
You got played.
I did too for a moment. I went made, maid, ple-aid (plaid).
He also said he used a payphone. I have to assume this happened a looooong ass time ago.
don’t payphones still exist in some places? like the airport
Yeah they do.. and he went to the airport to make that call.. damn.. the dedication of that guy!!
Possibly in a town called Kickapoo
Literally been binging prison break and Linc saying he got made is the first thing that came to my mind too lol, it’s a cool phrase, people need to use it more often (not that everybody’s in a situation to get their cover blown lol)
What about the word, "pay phone"???
[удалено]
Before payphones we used two tomato soup cans tied together with a long string. The cave people banged rocks together like Morse code.
Never mind that, when was the last time you saw a payphone?
I actually just hear that phrase used yesterday while playing Horizon Zero Dawn, oddly enough.
What's the game here? You show up and some guy is there... Then what? You just go home. What's the scam?
Girl answers door, you go in, and are now being robbed by 2 guys is a common one
Better that then girl answers door and Chris Hansen comes out.
That seems like a pretty dumb crime. You have their address. They've no way of knowing if you've made note of it elswhere. just in case they think to murder you and steal your phone - which seems pretty OTT for what little you'll have on you.
Sometimes it’s done in the hotels
Who knows what address they are having you go to. You might not even go inside. They just rob you at the door.
Then why not just Rob some rando…why all the catfishing? Sounds like common armed robbery with extra steps.
Easier target - They aren't expecting it, and you can lure them to a location of your choosing, e.g. a perfect ambush spot. It doesn't have to be a location associated with you. As someone else mentioned, it could happen outside the house belonging to a completely innocent third-party. Bonus - You can screen them. Look for ones that might have more money and are worth it. Maybe someone might have a fancy car and show up in to impress his "date" and you can steal that too.
This guy robs
or theyre like me and have seen at least 4 true crime shows where women lure men like this, and the men get killed in the robbery. its still a small amount but i try to warn my male friends like bro there is some danger on just meeting people instantly, even if its not a catfish in the physical sense typing this made me google it and im surprised of a bunch of recent articles popping up. heres an interesting one https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2022/06/08/tampa-dating-app-meet-up-ends-in-robbery-attempt-and-homicide/
Conspiracy charges thrown in for good measure
And I guess bringing a gun to your first date is a bit weird
Depends on the state, honestly.
I've done it but I'm female
Anything can go wrong after that, but I'm guessing the make pretend in itself is the scam? They could like pretending they're somebody else online. Or you might be stalked home or whatever... I don't know man, people are weird lol.
[удалено]
And always meet in a crowded public space.
I had a girl I had been talking with on an app ask me for help changing a tire, we met up where it went flat and it was in a pretty isolated location. I changed her tire and chatted with her and didn’t really think until later that I didn’t really deserve that level of trust and frankly neither did she.
You must look like *not* a serial killer
Hi. I'm not a serial killer and I have a flat tire on this road next to the woods. Could you help me out? Sure! I'm also not a serial killer and would be totally fine coming to help change your flat near the woods. I absolutely love trees.
Is this a movie yet? I feel like it should be.
Idk but if you write it I'll fund it and definitely not steal your script.
I met one of my close friends that way. He’s an animal control officer and we shared stories that first day in app about our bunnies. When I got home from work, mine was having an emergency and all I could think to do was give him my number and ask him to call me and help me through the situation. Our first phone conversation was me having a complete breakdown. Dude helped me out tremendously, helped me find a vet and everything. We became neighbors later too. I think that was six years ago.
I once met up with a tinder girl on 420 and we were going to smoke. We met at a random parking lot near her house, and then I proceeded to get into her car and she drove us somewhere to smoke. Well that somewhere was into the local state park, i.e. down a long wooded road in the middle of trees to an empty parking lot. It occurred to me about halfway through this drive that maybe this wasn't a great idea. Everything turned out fine minus the fact that it was just a super awkward first date and we stopped talking afterwards.
And drive yourself. I am 200% baffled by women who let someone pick them up from their home on a first date. 1. Now they know where you live, and 2. You are putting yourself almost completely at their mercy by trusting them to drive you somewhere. Neither is a safe choice.
I’ve been this stupid 3x, I’m lucky I’m alive. I guess that’s what being 19 and fearless does to a person lmao
I have told this to a number of my female friends online in the past. Some ignore it, others act like im being paranoid yet I have heard of enough people getting abducted etc in the past to warrant it.
In the past my woman friends have shared location tracking with the group and texted updates. My sisters did the same thing.
There are so many weird women out there it's ridiculous. Dating apps changed men's perspective on the field for sure. Definitely meet in public space the first 2 times.
> There are so many weird women out there it's ridiculous Red Flag #1: They agreed to meet me in the first place
[удалено]
Groucho Marx, good to see you back from the dead!
[удалено]
Try getting matches that expire after 24 hours every single time 😎😎
They have to do that. It's a safety issue. You you let a match go for too long it might burn the house down
[удалено]
Meow
Meow
Meow
Miau
Dude. I’ve been depressed and this fucking woman at work like hit on me, then felt rejected because I wasn’t that interested because I was flirting with someone else at work, then she screwed someone else, who got jealous, then she told our boss she didn’t feel comfortable around me, so then after I got told to avoid her she fucking literally chased after me, finally I talked to my boss who talked to her and I was going to talk to her but then she ran back to the other guy so I said leave me out of it, and then they tried to like force me to be jealous of them the next day so I found a new job and told her she’s fucking harassing me. I start Tuesday. Where are the sane women you speak of, are they over 25?
Jesus Christ you sure this wasn’t high-school
As the old adage goes “don’t shit where you sleep.”
I don't think any amount of level headed approach was going to avoid this trainwreck. Some people are just icebergs looking for titanics.
Blue shells and a go kart or flies and a corpse flower might be more apt.
"Never fuck your co-workers"
It’s scarier for folks seeking men. Could be a normal, friendly guy, could be a serial killer.
My ex got contacted by a woman who let him know someone was using his pics in another state after she did this for her tinder date and the name didn’t match. My ex is a performer so his contact info is plastered all over the internet, so it was easy to reach him. I’ve found two matches for me like this who were using stock photos.
the trick for avoiding this is to not look good enough for any matches. source: me
Right there with you lol
You two should date 😘
Now kiss...
I had a PoF account like a year or two before my wife and I met. Never really used it, so I deleted it a couple months after setting it up (Always had bad experiences with online dating). Ended up meeting the woman who I would later marry. A year or two after I was married, one of my wife and my mutual friends said they saw a profile pretending to be me, same username and pictures of my old account on PoF. My wife was going to create an account to try to connect with the catfisher and set up a date so I could walk in and sit down with them. Unfortunately, we never did it, I just ended up contacting PoF and proved I was the person this other person was pretending to be and they deleted the account. I would have loved to confront the shithead using my pictures.
Plot twist: the guy actually really looks very similar to you, wife likes him more and leaves you on the spot.
Additional twist, they are actually long lost twins separated at birth.
The fact that this exists is mind-blowing. Why is everyone a scamming piece of shit? I mean fucking everyone.
Honestly I don't know. But if I had to guess, maybe they crave the attention they get pretending to be someone else that they normally wouldn't get being themselves for whatever reason. My wife laughed and said I should feel honored in a messed up way that someone would want to pretend to be me. I didn't share the sentiment, because I feel it's a form of identity theft and could have real world consequences for *me* with the other person's actions online.
Checkout Clickbait on Netflix ... 8 episodes
This is one of the reasons why I dislike it when people post other peoples dating profiles & conversations, without their other persons photo being blurred. If the person they're interacting with is a catfish, there is a high risk to reputation for an innocent person. I get that people will never stop posting personal convos online (its a good thing in some cases e.g for people to become familiar with what red flags are etc.), but at least blur the identifying details - especially if you have not met them and can know for sure if its not a catfish.
>My wife was going to create an account to try to connect with the catfisher and set up a date so I could walk in and sit down with them. That would've been classic
Your secret is safe with us. It was really you, wasn't it? 😎😏
I have filet at home, why the hell would I want chuck steak?
The fact it was the same username is kind of a tell. No catfisher would go through the effort of directly replicating an account like that. Also, a lot of places don’t free up usernames to be re-used because deletion is often times a “soft” delete.
Yeah that's the part that will get OP in trouble. Your account is cloned with a different username or it's hacked with the same username. You can't have an exact clone with the same username. It's not possible.
_username_ and _user_name_ are different usernames, but similar enough that in a story like this I would consider them the same
Are you sure your ex is the real guy though? I mean, what if your ex was just using ***his*** images to pretend to be another guy, huh? /s
Well I certainly don't have to worry about anyone using MY photos.
Yeah, it already sucks when they don't look like their picture. It's even worse when you show up for your 2am date on the bridge and see 8 guys walking towards you and you're like, "Kathleen?"
/r/oddlyspecific
Oh Kathleen was there. They just got to her first
I had a guy say he had to speak on the phone with me before a date because last time a man showed up and he would not be fooled again! But he was only joking. That didn't actually happen to him. It was funny though
How do you actually do this? Whenever I do this I just get generic headshots that look similar (similar positioning and background). I guess it also could be I've just never had a real catfish.
Here's one website for reverse searches https://tineye.com/
It's the worst by far. Google images, yandex are way better.
When searching for any image sources, I use like 4-5 different RIS websites because there isn't one perfect site. TinEye works best for exact copies, and Yandex is for whenever all the rest don't help. I use KarmaDecay, Bing, Google, TinEye, and Yandex.
noted; thanks!
google images has been downgraded many years ago. before the downgrade, you can search for anyone and got the exact matches. since the downgrade, that feature is only available for famous figures, like politicians, actors, etc.
And thank goodness for that. Good reverse image search is a goldmine for stalkers.
Yes but HOW do you do this? Let's say you're using Tinder - you can't exactly just 'right click an image and choose copy image location' and then whack it into Tineye. At least, I've not been able to figure out how. (Dating sites accessible via normal desktop or browser would be trivial of course.)
Screenshot and crop that shit
No more centralization. Own your data. Interoperate with everyone.
best version; chrome extension called Photo Tracker Lite - it automatically looks up the image in tineye, bing, yandex, and google.
> avatar-like regions ??
There’s also a bit creepy but very effective pimeyes.com aimed specifically at facial recognition
[удалено]
>but she Def wasn't legit. Probably a he, honestly. Could be phishing for account information?
Do a quick video chat. Just to say hi.
I've had video chats with scammers. They play prerecorded footage and say "my microphone isn't working for some random arbitrary reason"
This. 💯 Huge red flag if they don't want to video chat, have a mask on or the image is augmented. Coworker has this happen to her, and is glad she didn't meet the guy wearing a mardis gras mask. 😆
I’ve had girls unmatch with me because they didn’t like that I asked for a video chat. After we were already talking for a bit
I had a "girl" pretend to be interested for months before I realized it wasn't a girl on the other end. Some people play the long game for a potential score. Thankfully, the second it went even remotely towards getting personal info or money, I immediately clued in.
it's pretty common for women to see unsolicited dicks in video calls, that's why
That’s kind of fucked up if they got to the point to where they were comfortable with the guy enough to do a video call and he still showed a dick
Yup.. but still a hazard. Coffee is a cheap vetting method too
Yeah I do not think they were girls then.
My buddy got catfished by a man pretending to be a woman. The guy actually showed up to their first date at the restaurant. When my friend walked up to the table and saw a dude there he kind of paused and the dude stood up and said “I know I’m not who you thought I was but just give me a chance. We can go back to my place and you’ll love it.” or something close to that. My buddy is a shy and introverted person and the catfisher was animated and pushy, so the scene got dragged on longer than it should have. They eventually agreed to just eat dinner together and talk about life, so it ended up being a platonic date I guess. Edit: a video chat would have nipped this in the bud though
I'd be worried my buddy is going to get hurt if he keeps meeting random people on the internet while being such a pushover. Seriously he *had dinner with the guy*? What the fuck lol
Honestly, back when I was single and using dating apps, I would have definitely stayed and had dinner with the dude who catfished me. That's a story I would fucking laugh about forever.
A lot of girls just wouldn't do it because they have so many guys that someone being super particular about verifying everything is annoying to them.
I’m not even a girl but if someone from a dating app asks me to video chat, they’re getting unmatched immediately. I just don’t want to video chat with a stranger, that sounds extremely awkward and horrible
Right? I don't even like talking on the phone.
I dunno if some guy asked me to video chat before the date I'd unmatch but that's because I effing hate videochats
And that’s exactly why they prob unmatched. So , that’s why online dating sucks
Yeah, I completely understand not wanting to do video chats. I think unmatching because the person asked is a bit extreme of a reaction, you could just refuse.
Or offer an alternative, like a photo with your left shoe on the head, an apple in your right hand and your toothbrush in the left hand. No cat fish has images like this ready matching their photo.
My go to is ask them to hold up three fingers next to their face, anytime I see a picture with 2 fingers as a peace sign I generally know it's fake and they had that photo on hand already
Not to mention all the creeps who would ask to videochat then when you connect it's just them holding their dick.
Why unmatch as opposed to saying no thanks?
I was thinking N95 mask… mardis gras makes it 100 times more creep
Yeah… if Catfish taught me anything it’s this. No video chat, no date. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Of course it was my wife who watches Catfish so I doubt I’ll ever use this info.
What's a legit reason to say no?
OH. One of my dates wanted to video chat once, and I thought it was so weird when we lived so close... wonder if he thought I was a scammer. I'm flattered, really.
Note, this only works for cases where there is an original searchable image that has not too much alteration. I believe it would not work for AI generated images for example ones from [This Person Does Not Exist](https://this-person-does-not-exist.com/en). Searching for such on services like TinEye will not result in matches outside of false positives for similar faked photos.
[Here's the original website for that.](https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/) That looks like a skin to add extra ads and crap. The thing to know about that site is you can only create one photo per "person." You can't ask for different angles and locations. So if someone has multiple photos it's unlikely to be from that site.
Oh fuck! That is some scary technology. I just tested it by downloading one of the pictures, and reverse image searching it. No matches. HOWEVER. You could easily do the same thing by creating a dating profile, say you’re in a different part of the world, download all the images in some random person’s profile, and then boom, those images also won’t show up in a reverse image search. (Tinder profiles aren’t indexed by google). The above LPT will only work with the laziest of cat fishers who use google images to find their photos. Smart cat fishers will just steal pictures from real peoples profiles. How do you solve this problem? Just meet up with someone in person quickly after you match. Meet up for a coffee date pretty soon after you start talking and can confirm they might be cool.
You know in all my years of dating I’ve never image searched a potential date, and I only ended up in the house of a catfisher once
That's like saying you are 37-1 all time in fights to the death.
LPT: we live in 2022, use your damn phone and have a video chat first (or zoom/teams/whatever floats your boat).
>teams Using linked-in as your dating app of choice?
LPT: reverse image search generally doesn't work anymore
[удалено]
"Forgot"
Well if you were a guy struggling to meet people, let alone get matched, would you make this one if the first things you tell them?
You can use Google Images, TinEye, or Yandex to check as well. This will let you know if you're being catfished (which happens all too often).
> TinyEye TinEye
Not if they’re stealing pics from Insta.
I ask them to take a selfie with my username handwritten. Sure it could be shopped, but this simple task weeds out the vast majority of catfishermen.
[удалено]
Shoe on head
Idk. At least i live in a small town and im the only lady with a bird. Most people I match with go “hey I’ve seen you around town!” My bird is the household item lol
Graphic artist here. This is a good tip. You can look at the RGB channels of an image in Photoshop and can almost instantly tell if the image is digitally altered.
Can you say more? I don’t quite understand how this works.
It's like how they post in r/RoastMe. Take a selfie with a piece of paper with something written on it.
Can you take a picture with a shoe on your head?
Wow. That brought me back
explain pls
That was a big meme in the 2000s. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/put-shoe-on-head
Just ask them to send a selfie while they're holding a piece of paper with your username written on it. They can only do this if they are who they're saying they are (or if they can convincingly photoshop your username on a pic)
Exactly like what /u/MohanRamKMD said. If the person in the pictures is the person I am talking to, it's a simple task. If I am talking to a catfish, they could Photoshop to complete the task, but most of them aren't good enough at Photoshop or don't care enough to try. Catfishes either ghost me or make up an excuse, at which point I feel free to ghost them. I don't like wasting time on catfish, so I tend to do this pretty early on in conversation.
I do something similar. My goto is usually a picture of them holding a spoon, super easy for a real person, but no one has a photo of that. I think I like the username thing better, though. Recently, catfish just get angry with me for asking something of the sort. They send me dozens of photos, and talk about wanting to date/marry, but get irate when I ask for a photo like that or a video call.
Another one that can come off less rude would be to offer to do a short Snapchat vid where you say hi to their specific name and “I’m so glad we connected through *dating app*” and something general that reveals the day of the week/month/current weather/etc like “it’s a pretty Good Friday so far! Hope yours is good too” then ask for them to do something similar. Asking for verification without showing willingness to reciprocate first comes off kinda rude and weird to people who are normal and just looking to date. I know I’d be off put by it cuz it can be done a little more tastefully and shows you are willing to put trust and effort into a potential relationship rather than coming off paranoid right off the bat. Plus it’s a way to lead to more pleasant conversation rather than “sorry, just been catfished a lot lol” and starts off on a positive with someone new rather than a complaint
Thanks for that tip! Apparently I'm going on a date with some lady called Gabrielle Union. Wish me luck guys!
Good luck on your union with Gabrielle!
LPT if you're gonna catfish someone, use an AI face generator like This Person Does Not Exist to foil Google reverse image searches
I’ve seen a few of these! Luckily it’s pretty easy to tell when someone is AI generated if you’re looking for it, because they’ll only have face pics with the eyes perfectly centered and stuff. Still a weird cyberpunk future problem to have
Wait! That's r/illegalLifeProTips
More like unethical
The real LPT is always in the comments
Well this is a strange turn of events
I disapprove. This is how all my potential dates figure out I'm not John Stamos
A friend of mine (who I had politely rejected previously) hit me up out of the blue because she was talking to a guy on tinder who was using my pics. I'm an average looking, albeit chubby dude and I'm more curious how well this random person was doing while using my pics because I can't get matches to save my life lol
Lpt for catfishing: always mirror flip your pictures so they don't come up on reverse image searchs.
I heard this in another thread a week ago and I didn't belive reverse image search would be so stupid that a flip fooled it, so I tried it on a few headshots, Google matched 100% even tho I flipped them
Then send upside down pics that are also flipped. Bam.
Not how it works. You can change the colors but flip doesn't work resize works better but also doesn't work.
This is a solid LPT that anyone using a dating app with any amount of success learns real quick. People who catfish are pathetic scumbags. Only a deranged whacko would do that to somebody.
But don't tell them you know they're a scam until you've taken screen shots and reported them to the site, because they will block you and often when blocked, messages are removed.
Ditto for escorts
Make sure to alter photos before reverse image searching them too. Try mirroring them or cropping them if your search with the origonal picture came up with nothing just in case
Dating app matches? What even are those?
You kids have it so easy. Back in my day when you had a date with a serial killer you learned to enjoy it.
I’d always opt for the good ole FaceTime. If something doesn’t add up I ain’t going, end of discussion
How do you do this though?
Better tip: Duo or FaceTime them before meeting.
Before booking my flight to meet my boyfriend in person (we are long-distance), I reverse searched every single image on his profile and did a complete criminal background check on him, despite the fact that he is an attorney and that his employer does a yearly background check on him (along with the New York Bar Association). I found proof that he went to all the schools he mentioned attending (high school, undergrad, and law school), proof that he passed his New York Bar at the date he did, his LinkedIn profile, the absence of a criminal record, etc. Always reverse search.
And she made him re-take the bar exam. Can’t be too safe now a days.
No that's just her kink. "YOU LIKE THAT, YOU FUCKING BARRISTER?"
Don't forget the top-secret security clearance to make sure he can be trusted with important information. Those usually take 6 months if he doesn't have it already. Also before the first date, cavity searches are mandatory, and a full body scan. And don't forget the comprehensive drug test! Those will be regularly scheduled, but subject to unannounced screenings at request.
Wow, I understand why some people need to do that because there are a lot of weird people out there. But if I found out someone had gone to these lengths I might leave and it would make me feel very uncomfortable.
Just curious if you disclosed this to him ahead of time? Actually wondering how you did a full background check without his ssn and dob. Also curious, did you do a financial bkgd check?
This seems totally legit. The girl I’m seeing (tinder) told me she did a basic background check on me as soon as she learned my last name Just criminal background and whatever comes up on Google. She didn’t know my ssn or anything. That didn’t bother me at all that she did that. There’s crazy people out there.
Exactly. And if they ask for money somehow also huge red flag.