safety field guide
AI Image Scams and Catfishing: Warning Signs
Learn how synthetic photos appear in pet, dating, marketplace, and identity scams—and what evidence to request before trusting an image.
A suspicious image matters most when someone is asking for money, personal information, urgency, or trust. Visual inspection helps, but verification outside the image is more reliable.
The examples below show patterns that have prompted real people to question pet listings, identities, products, and personal stories.
Inspection checklist
Ask for fresh evidence
Request a new photo with a specific harmless detail, a short live video call, or another angle. Recycled and generated identities often fail this test.
Reverse-search the media
Look for earlier appearances, different names, or the same background attached to unrelated accounts and listings.
Verify the story separately
Check contact details, payment requests, business records, and account history. A visually convincing image does not validate the surrounding claim.
Slow down urgency
Pressure to pay or act immediately is a stronger scam signal than visual weirdness. Use a protected payment method and involve another person before proceeding.
from the game
Annotated examples
Photo of a coworker's boyfriend — catfish alert
Start with the hand on the suitcase handle: the fingers are fused into a mitten and a second thumb crosses over the wrist. His eyes are flat pale-blue rings with no iris texture, and the moustache is painted on. At the waist he wears suspenders over a belt that only exists on one side, and the tie bar floats free of the tie. The departure board behind him is rows of blurry blue blocks. A coworker showed this as a photo of her boyfriend. It's the kind of AI "perfect man" used in romance scams.
Help me prove this is AI — aunt matched with this person
Snow dusts his sleeve, but there isn't a flake in his perfectly styled hair. His teeth are a flawless row, his skin is filter-smooth, and the log yard behind him is a stock "rugged outdoorsman" backdrop. A handsome, silver-haired outdoor worker is the classic romance-scam persona. Someone's aunt matched with him on a dating app.
Dog photo sent as "proof" in an online scam
Start with the trailer outside: its branding reads "W POST" over a line of nonsense, and the nameplate below it is garbled. The trailer's back corner overlaps the office desk inside instead of stopping outside the door. The man on the right is holding a phone in hands that have melted into one lump, and the man crouching with the dog has the same problem. Up on the shelf, the cat in the top crate has a smeared face and a body that doesn't fit the box. Someone's mom got this as "proof" her puppy was ready to ship, and the scammers kept asking for transport and insurance money. SynthID confirmed an AI watermark.
Painting at a local art gallery selling for $1200
This was selling as a $1,200 painting, but there's no visible brushwork or paint texture. It looks like a flat print. Then look at the details AI fumbles: berries on the hairpin that aren't attached to anything, a hair ornament on the right that hovers beside her head, and an ear that commenters said is "not how ears look".
$50 pet portrait commission — "artist" in her studio
Read the book spines: squiggles, no words. The paint box on the floor is full of melted shapes instead of tubes, and there isn't a single brush, palette or rag in this "studio". You can't oil-paint without them. The scam: run a customer's pet photo through an AI filter, print it on canvas, and charge $50 for a "hand-painted" portrait.
"Miracle" rust-removing spray — AI product ad
A product ad for a spray that "removes rust instantly." The tells are stacked: the spray bottle materialises out of a completely flat pocket (no bulge beforehand), then the pressure washer rod teleports into his hand. The squeeze bottle sprays like a firehose. The rust is erased to a mirror-chrome finish — physically impossible, since rust causes pitting that no spray can undo. The foam respects the tape line perfectly, only working on the correct side. The angle grinder produces dramatic sparks despite having a cloth buffing head, and keeps sparking normally after being doused in chemical foam. The bystanders don't react at all to getting spray on them.
TikTok skincare influencer — "I'm 40 but look 25"
Watch her hand: she holds the box stacked on top of the jar with one hand, shifts her grip, and the stack stays perfectly balanced. Letters vanish when her thumb moves over them, and the products behind her have near-brand gibberish labels. "JIYU" isn't a real company. The brand, website and influencer were all AI-generated, and a YouTube channel had already exposed the scam.