Identifying Online Frauds and Scams Using Image Search

Reading Time: 2 Minutes

Introduction

Whether you are a business owner, a celebrity, or a common individual, you might be the next victim of online scams. Yes, you heard it right. The pace at which cybercrimes are growing in the world clearly indicates that everyone who uses the internet might fall victim to online fraud.

Cybercriminals are now smarter than before. They attempt fraudulent activities using new techniques and technologies. They leave no stone unturned to draw innocent people into their nest. It is possible that you might fall prey to them without realizing it.

Well, if the fraudsters are getting smarter, then why not you? Don’t you want to be efficient enough to protect yourself from their tricks? If yes, then meet reverse image search, the latest search technique that enables you to stay ahead of online scammers.

In this article, we will look at how picture search contributes to shielding you from online fraud. So, continue reading, and don’t miss out on anything. But wait, do you know what image search is? If not, let’s first introduce you to it.

Introducing Reverse Image Search

To put it simply, reverse image search is a modern-day search method that is backed by advanced image recognition technology. It is an updated way of finding data from the internet. It is a new search technique that involves images rather than text.

You might be familiar with the conventional search method, like inserting text queries in the search box. Well, photo search is totally different. Here, you insert an image as an input instead of words and phrases. In the results of a picture search, you get a large stock of similar images.

Today, dozens of online tools have been specially developed for photo search. These tools capitalize on sophisticated content-based image retrieval technology. Many tools are so efficient that they not only recognize input pictures accurately but also provide diverse results from multiple search engines.

Contributions Of Image Search To Identifying Online Frauds

As mentioned earlier, cybercriminals might attack you in different ways. Image search doesn’t protect you from just one type of scam. Rather, it helps you stay safe in many situations by enabling you to identify different sorts of fraud. Some of its prominent contributions to fraud detection are here:

●      Helps Identify Fake Profiles

In most online scams, fake profiles are involved. Fraudsters steal the identities of legitimate individuals, businesses, and organizations to pretend to be reliable.

Sometimes, they can even swindle you by appearing as your friend, colleague, or family member.

They use these fake identities to obtain sensitive information from you.

Well, if you find a suspicious profile trying to convince you to provide such details, don’t fret. Rather, save the profile picture of that account and search by image using an AI-powered image search tool.

Within seconds, you will get information on all the sources where that picture appears.

If you find the image on multiple profiles, it is more likely that you are facing a scam attempt. Immediately stop chatting with the profile and report it to the respective platform.

●      Facilitates Fake News Identification

Today, while downloading a photo from the internet is simple, modifying it and associating it with fabricated stories is even easier. This is exactly what the fraudsters do. They steal pictures from legitimate sources, make them attention-grabbing, and use them to spread falsehoods.

Most of the time, they do this to direct internet users to a particular website where they can swindle the incoming traffic. However, you can stay safe from navigating to such websites by using a picture search. All you need to do is search the doubtful image on an image search tool.

When you find similar pictures of a fishy image, it informs you where else the image is being used. By reviewing a few sources, it becomes clear to you whether others used the image in the same context or not. Resultantly, you save yourself from falling prey to online fraud.

●      Assists In Being Alert To Phishing Scams

If you regularly read self-protection articles on the internet, you might be familiar with phishing scams. These frauds involve sending deceptive links to people to get their personal information or unauthorized access to their accounts.

Since a picture is more likely to be clicked, cybercriminals embed phishing links into attractive pictures. Upon encountering appealing pictures, people casually click on them and fall victim to online scams. However, with an image search tool, you can identify such scams easily.

Whenever you receive a message that contains a clickable picture, take a screenshot of the image and upload it to a picture search tool. As similar images appear, review them and check whether the image is original, fabricated, or stolen. This helps you verify the authenticity of the image before you click it.

●      Aids In Recognizing Phony E-commerce Listings

Scammers know that a large number of people buy things from e-commerce stores. They take advantage of this and create fake stores to conduct financial scams with online buyers. To appear legitimate, they steal product pictures of reputed brands and list them on their site.

If you also buy products online, you can easily recognize such fake listings. Before placing an order, first check whether the product image is original or stolen. Again, you can take assistance from reverse image search for this purpose.

Simply search for identical pictures of the intended product and analyze the results. If you carefully look at similar pictures and their sources, you will definitely find clues about the authenticity of the store from which you were going to buy the product.

To Sum Up

After reading this article, we hope that you understand how image search alerts you to online fraud. So, whenever you find yourself caught in the abovementioned situations, don’t hesitate to get help from reverse photo search.

Also, make it a habit to report stolen, fake, and unauthorized images. This not only keeps you safe from potential risks but also contributes to the safety of society.

This article is written by Zara Akifah

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