There is no doubt in the fact that the technology came with a lot of blessings, but it also opened the doors of opportunities for fraudsters. They are using technology to trick people. The problem is that the tricksters always come up with new and innovative ideas, and ordinary people easily fall into their traps.
Catfishing is one of the most common kinds of scams these days, and thousands of people fall prey to it every week. Read the term catfishing for the first time? Catfishing is a new kind of fraudulent activity where the swindlers steal others’ identities or create fake personas on multiple social networking websites to deceive people. Catfishers can use this activity for any purpose, to gain financial gains, build emotional connections, or develop business relations.
Usually, people love to share their memories, pictures, and personal information on social networking sites knowing that it isn’t safe anymore. Unfortunately, the swindlers take this opportunity to use the uploaded photos for their personal gains or to hurt others. That’s why you should protect your personal information, especially your pictures, as they can be used against you or to trick the people you know.
Furthermore, you should regularly check the internet to find out if someone is using your pictures without your consent.
Don’t know how you can figure out if someone is using your images online? Don’t worry. This article has the solution to your problem.
Use Reverse Image Search Method
Reverse photo search is a new and improved way of searching for information over search engines. It can help you find out the original source of any image, track down where your personal photos are uploaded, and find high-resolution images. This technique has many other applications, which is why it is getting more popular every day. For example, many people rely on this technique to save themselves from scams and protect their identities.
If you want to know who is using your images and where your pictures are uploaded, upload your photos on any good reverse images search platform. When you search by image using the picture search facility, It will find out the links to the websites and social media pages using the same pictures to your input query. Once you are aware of those websites and pages and know that they are using your images illegally, you can save yourself and others from being scammed with your name.
Technology Behind Reverse Image Search
The working and accuracy of reverse picture search raise many questions as people want to know how a tool can analyze the picture and fetch the relevant data in front of the users’ screen. It’s the time of AI (Artificial Intelligence); everything is possible in this world. Now the AI can observe the elements in a picture and bring correct outputs.
When a user uploads an image to a reverse image search engine, the deep neural networks of the reverse photo lookup analyze everything in that picture. Deep neural networks study pictures like human brains. They have multiple input and output layers, and each layer scrutinizes a specific element. That’s how deep neural networks bring accuracy in reverse photo search.
Which Reverse Image Search Engine is Better for Finding Catfishers?
With time, multiple search engines have introduced their own reverse image search engines, and every engine has some unique features, pros, and cons. Also, every company claims that its photo search technology is updated and better than others. However, all of the reverse picture search engines are good to use but they give results from their own database. There is another solution that most users prefer. Don’t use any particular engine. Instead, go for the engine that fetches the data from multiple search engines and brings it to the users’ screen. The reverse image search engine offered by PlagiarismDetector.net offers this solution. You can access it with the link: https://plagiarismdetector.net/image-search. It can provide you with the results of multiple engines. And you can find the catfisher who are using your images on different search engines.
What to Do After You Find Out Who is Using Your Pictures?
Only knowing about the websites and social media pages that use your pictures isn’t enough; you have to report them and force them to remove your pictures. If they haven’t uploaded those images to harm anyone, you can ask them to give you credit for it. Besides that, you have many other options depending on the scenario. Here are some of them.
Report to Relevant Authorities: If someone is using your images to scam others, you should directly report that person, page, or website to concerned authorities and take legal actions against the fraudsters. Once the authorities know them, they can catch the scammer and save everyone from being scammed.
Alert Your Acquaintances: It doesn’t matter whether the catfishers live in your country or operate from any other country; you should alert your acquaintances about your stolen identity. Ask them not to trust anyone who pretends to be you until they directly talk to you.
Report on Online Platforms: If any swindler has created a fake profile on any social media page, report that profile on the relevant platform and take that ID down so that it may not scam anyone on your name.
Try to Contact that Person: This option is only suitable when someone hasn’t used your images with any harmful intent. In that case, you can politely contact the person and ask them to give you credit for the image.
How to Protect Your Pictures?
Catfishers cannot stay away from their habits for a long time, and you don’t know when they can steal your images and start uploading them on multiple platforms. That’s why it is your duty to protect your photos. Otherwise, your pictures can be used by anyone without your consent.
If you don’t know how to protect your images, the tips mentioned below are for you;
- Add watermarks to your pictures before uploading them
- Get copyrights for your images
- Don’t upload your private photos on social media pages
- Disable right-click and screenshot option
Conclusion
Your pictures are only your property; no one has the right to use them until you allow them to be used. Therefore, it is better to protect them from being misused by anyone. If you doubt that someone is using your pictures, you can use the reverse photo lookup to find the catfisher. If you don’t know how to find images using this method, first you need to know how to do a reverse image search and then find.
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