How not to get scammed - how to search for fake photos

[human-potato_hybrid]

If you want to see if a picture has been used on the internet before, right click then click Search image with Google. On the sidebar, click Find image source. This will list the websites in the internet that the picture was posted on before. (See images 3–5.)

 

However, if you get no results, that doesn't mean the picture is original, since if you crop a picture it might not show up. Be wary of pictures that seem grainy, or zoomed in / cropped for no apparent reason. For example, here is an image. The cropped one is first, and the original is second. The difference is subtle, but we can see that the first image is:

• Grainy like it was taken with a 20 year old camera instead of a modern smartphone or camera (which is how most sellers will take pictures). The graininess actually comes from that I screenshotted the picture on my PC, instead of downloading the original.
• Appears slightly zoomed in for no reason.
• The subject is framed nearly perfectly in the photo, which is much easier to do after the fact.

Of course, also be wary of extremely nice photos that look like they were taken in a museum when the car is a cheaper private party sale, and other such "common sense" inconsistencies.

Edited July 13 by human-potato_hybrid (see edit history)