How do you find the original source of a picture online?

[kate]

My friend likes a guy she meet on facebook.
They talk online a lot but I think its a fake profile (like the pictures are fake)
Is there anyway to find the original sources of the photos because i think they have been copied from another website?
I really don't want her getting too hurt and sucked in to this! thanks

[littleson767]

There are scam busting sites with online lists of the names scammers use, their fake job offes, their email addresses, stock copy/paste emails, paid-for-in-cash cell phone numbers, stolen pictures and fake websites they use. You could start your search and post/ask at such sites.

If you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even partial sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

[Kittysue]

The two main sites are http://images.google.com/
Save the pictures as jpegs, then look them up on both sites (on Google Images you click on the camera icon in the search box, then Upload an Image). You have to look on both sites as you'll often get different results. There are pictures that will show up on Tineye but not on Google Images and vice versa

Hasn't your friend watched MTV's Catfish?? Why is she talking to someone she's never met to begin with? Why hasnt' she insisted on a video chat right away - the ONLY reason why someone won't do a video chat is because it's a fake profile. Every year girls are kidnapped and raped by people posting fake profiles

Last January my friend's 13 year old niece was kidnapped and raped by a 40 something convicted sex offender who posed as a 16 year old on Facebook. He convinced her that he only lived 15 miles away and wanted to meet her. She gave her address and he used to send her jewelry, chocolate, stuffed animals, etc as gifts. One Sunday night at midnight he texted her to say he was out front in his dad's car and snuck out to meet her. He told her to just come out for a minute so he could meet her in person and then he'd go home. She went out in her PJs, leaving her phone in her room. She got into the car and he drove off. There was a California statewide Amber Alert about her. She was found 4 days later 250 miles from her home. The FBI told her parents she was lucky she was still alive as most of these kidnapper/rapists end up killing their victims.