Face search for public figures and executives

What you are up against

Visibility is the job, and it is also the attack surface. The same headshot that sits on the company website and the conference programme is what a scammer needs to look like you. Three patterns dominate.

• Impersonation accountsA profile with your name, your photo and a plausible bio, messaging followers with investment tips, giveaways or requests for help. Victims blame the real you, and the account often has siblings on other platforms.
• Ads and endorsements you never gaveYour face next to a crypto scheme, a miracle supplement or a trading app, sometimes with a fabricated quote. These run as paid ads and on content farms, and they outlive any single takedown.
• Executive-fraud pretextsBusiness email compromise and its chat and video cousins borrow a real face to make a fake request credible: a message under the CEO's photo, a video call with a synthetic version of it. The lifted headshot is the first component to trace.

A face search matches the face, not the file, so it finds the crop, the mirror and the filtered copy that a reverse image search misses. Each result comes with its source URL, which is the evidence a platform report or a lawyer's letter needs. What it does not do is identify who is behind an account or watch the web on your behalf; see the limits below.

Three workflows

1. The baseline sweep before a launch or announcement

Before an IPO, a product launch, a book, a campaign or any moment that raises your profile, search the three or four photos the press will use. Record every page where they already appear, so that anything new after the announcement stands out. Share the list with whoever handles your social accounts and with your counsel; a baseline turns later sightings into evidence of a pattern rather than isolated complaints. The routine is on find where your photos are being used.

2. The impersonation sweep when a report comes in

A follower, a customer or a colleague says there is a fake account. Before anyone reports it, capture it: handle, follower count, bio, the messages it sent, screenshots with timestamps. Then search the photos it uses. The results often show sibling accounts, the ad creatives the same operation runs, and the forum posts where victims are comparing notes. File platform reports with all of it; the per-platform routes are on how to report a fake profile, and the step-by-step plan on someone is using your photos on a fake account.

3. The removal run and the verification badge

Work the list by host. Platform impersonation forms for accounts, ad-reporting forms for paid placements, DMCA notices where your organisation owns the headshot's copyright (check who commissioned the shoot), and search-engine removal requests for pages that do not respond. Get your real accounts verified on the platforms that offer it: a verified badge is the fastest way for followers to tell the real account from the copy, and platforms generally prioritise impersonation reports that involve a verified account. Getting a photo taken down has the sequence, and on the Business plan we help prepare and send the requests for the results you choose.

Which plan fits

Working with your PR and legal team

Agree three things before the first search. Who owns the search account and its history, since scans contain evidence that may be needed later. Who sends which request, because a DMCA notice must come from the copyright owner or their authorised agent, while impersonation reports can come from the person or from an authorised representative with proof of authority. And who talks to victims, because people who were scammed by an account wearing your face will contact the real you, and a prepared response that points them to the platform's and the police's reporting routes protects both them and you. In the United States the FTC's Impersonation Rule lets the agency pursue business and government impersonators in federal court, and the FTC has proposed extending it to impersonation of individuals; keep your evidence in a form that can be handed over.

Rules that apply to you

• Search your own face, and the faces of executives or clients you represent with their written authorisation. Our acceptable use rules apply to agencies and legal teams as to anyone.
• Use results for removal, reporting and evidence. Do not use them to identify or confront the person behind an account; that is a matter for the platform and, where money changed hands, the police.
• Do not search employees, journalists, critics or competitors. Reputation work is about your face, not other people's.
• Keep victim correspondence out of public channels. Posting a scammer's messages spreads the content and can expose the people who were targeted.