How to check if listing or ad photos are stolen (and avoid the scam)

To check whether a listing or ad uses stolen photos, run its most distinctive picture through Google Lens, TinEye and Bing, then compare any matching page with what the listing claims: location, price, condition, dates and the person or company named. A match on an unrelated listing, a hotel site or another city is a strong warning sign. No match proves nothing, so never let a clean photo search replace the platform's payment protection, a viewing, or a check through official channels.

This guide gives you one routine that works for any listing, then the specific things to look for in marketplace sales, rentals and holiday lets, charity appeals, job ads, freelancer portfolios and testimonials.

The 10-minute check for any listing photo

1. Save the photos properly. Download the largest version, or take a clean screenshot and crop away the app interface. Keep the listing URL and note the date.
2. Pick the most distinctive images. A room with an unusual fireplace, a car with a visible dent, a product on a recognisable table. Generic close-ups (bedding, a stock product shot, a beach) match too many pages to be useful.
3. Search each one in Google Lens and switch to exact matches or the image source option.
4. Search the same images in TinEye and sort by oldest. An older copy elsewhere is the most useful finding.
5. Try Bing Visual Search for a second index, cropping to the subject.
6. Open every plausible match. Compare it with the listing: location, price, dates, condition, seller or company name.
7. Search the text too. Paste a distinctive sentence from the description into ordinary search in quotation marks. Scammers reuse wording as often as photos.
8. Save what you found: screenshots of both pages with their URLs and dates.

If you are working from a screenshot, our guide to reverse image search from a screenshot shows how to crop it so engines can match it.

What a match means (and what it does not)

Reuse is a lead, not a verdict. A landlord may list one flat with several agencies, and a retailer may use manufacturer images. The question is always whether the photo supports what this particular listing claims.

Marketplace sellers

For second-hand items on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Craigslist, Gumtree, Vinted and similar sites:

• Look for the same scratch, the same background. A used bike listing that shows the same garage and the same scuff as a listing from two years ago in another region is worth questioning.
• Ask for a specific new photo. For example, the item next to today's newspaper or a handwritten note with your first name. A genuine seller can do this in a minute. Refusal or excuses are more telling than any search result.
• Check the seller's profile age, location and other listings, and whether the item price is far below market. Scammers often price just low enough to create urgency.
• Stay inside the platform. Use its checkout or payment protection, and do not move to bank transfer, gift cards, crypto or a "friends and family" payment because a photo looked real.

Rentals and holiday lets

Rental scams commonly copy photos from a genuine listing, then advertise the property at a lower price with a new contact. The FTC describes the pattern in its guide to rental listing scams.

For long-term rentals:

1. Search at least two interior photos and one exterior photo.
2. If a match turns up, compare the address, price, layout and listing date. The same flat on two legitimate agency sites is normal; the same flat at half the price with a different "owner" is not.
3. Search the address itself and check whether it is listed for sale or rent elsewhere with a different contact.
4. View the property in person, or have someone you trust do so, before paying anything. Do not send deposits or ID documents because the photos "look real".

For holiday accommodation:

• Label each photo by what it claims to show: the room you are booking, the property, or the general area. A beautiful beach or skyline may illustrate the destination without showing the accommodation.
• Compare with the official source. If the photos match a hotel or resort's own website, book through that site or a major platform rather than a private contact offering a discount.
• Read the room category. A resort may legitimately show its premium suite in the gallery while your rate is for a standard room. That is a disclosure question, not a stolen-photo question.
• Keep payment on the booking platform. A host who asks you to pay off-platform removes your protection, whatever the photos show.

Charity and fundraising appeals

Fake appeals often reuse photos from real disasters, old news stories or other people's campaigns.

1. Record what the appeal says the picture shows: who, where and when.
2. Search the image. If it appears in an older news article or a different campaign, read that caption and compare the event, place and date.
3. Find the organisation's official website independently, not through a link in the message, and confirm the appeal and donation route there.
4. In the US, the FTC's advice on avoiding charity scams lists further checks.

An archive photo used to illustrate an ongoing cause can be legitimate. A photo from a 2019 news story presented as a named beneficiary today is not. Do not try to identify the people pictured; the legitimate check is whether the campaign's source and payment route support its claims.

Job ads and recruiter messages

Job scams often borrow a real company's office photos, logo and staff headshots to look credible. The FTC's guide to job scams describes the common forms.

• A real office photo does not prove the advertiser represents the employer. Search it, and if it comes from the company's own site, that is where you should apply.
• Find the careers page yourself through a search engine and check that the role is listed there.
• Check recruiter profile photos. A recruiter's headshot that turns up on a stock site or under a different name is a strong warning sign. If you are already in contact with someone and want to check whether their face appears elsewhere under other names, a face search can help; Facehunch does this at $4.99 per search, showing every result with its source link.
• Never pay for equipment, training or "processing", and never send bank details or ID before you have confirmed the job through the employer's normal process.

Freelancer portfolios

A shared image in a portfolio can mean teamwork, a licensed mock-up or outright copying. Image search alone cannot tell which.

1. Search two or three distinctive pieces, not stock-looking ones.
2. Open matching pages and compare credits and dates. A match on Behance or Dribbble under a different name is worth asking about.
3. Ask the freelancer what their role was in each project: design, photography, editing or development.
4. Ask for a short walkthrough of a project or a small paid test task.

A web designer showing a client site that uses licensed stock photography has not stolen anything; the design is the work being claimed. Keep the question narrow (what does this portfolio say the person made?) and avoid accusations based on visual overlap alone.

Testimonials, speaker headshots and event posters

These are lower-stakes, but the same method applies.

• Testimonials. If a "customer" photo turns up on a stock photo site, the page is presenting a model as a named customer. That undermines the testimonial, though it does not prove the quote is invented. Look for an attributable review elsewhere.
• Speaker headshots. Use the speaker's own website or the organiser's media kit for the current approved photo and credit. An old conference page may have an outdated title or a photo the speaker no longer uses.
• Event posters. A photo of a famous performer or a packed crowd may come from a previous event or a stock library. It does not prove that person will attend. Confirm the line-up on the organiser's official page.

If you find your own photo used on a poster, testimonial or fake listing, see someone using my photos for a fake account and keep a record using our guide to documenting photo impersonation.

Warning signs that matter more than any photo result

A clean photo search should never outweigh these:

• Pressure to pay quickly, or a "deposit to hold" before a viewing
• Payment by bank transfer, wire, gift card, crypto or payment apps without buyer protection
• A request to move the conversation off the platform
• Excuses for why you cannot see the item, property or office
• A price well below comparable listings
• A story that changes when you ask simple questions
• Requests for ID, bank details or a "verification code" sent to your phone

Also be aware that some listings now use AI-generated or AI-edited images, which will not match anything online. Our guide to checking for AI images and deepfakes covers the tell-tale signs.

If you find stolen photos or have been scammed

1. Stop contact and do not send more money.
2. Report the listing to the platform using its report button, and include the matching URLs you saved.
3. Tell the real owner if photos came from a genuine agency, hotel or business, through the contact details on its own website.
4. Contact your bank or card provider immediately if you paid. The sooner you call, the better the chance of stopping or reversing a payment.
5. Report the fraud. In the US, use ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, for online crime, the FBI's IC3. In the UK, use Action Fraud. Other countries have equivalent police or consumer reporting services.

For a scammer who used a person's photos rather than a property's, our scammer photo search page explains the next checks, and finding the original source of an image helps you work out who first published it.

Written by Facehunch with AI assistance and checked against the cited sources. Our editorial policy.