Verify the person you are dealing with is real

When this is worth doing

Most online dealings do not need verification. The ones that do share two features: you are about to give something hard to get back, and the other person's identity is the only thing standing between you and a loss.

• A landlord or rental listingYou are asked for a deposit or a holding fee before a viewing. Fake landlords lift photos of real flats and real people from other listings.
• A marketplace seller or buyerHigh-value items, payment outside the platform, or a buyer who overpays and asks for a refund of the difference.
• A roommate or flatshareSomeone you will live with, found through a listing, who wants money or documents before you have met.
• A contractor or tradespersonA profile photo, glowing reviews and a request for a large upfront payment.
• A recruiter or clientA job or freelance contract that comes with a request to pay for equipment, training or a background check.
• A new online acquaintanceAnyone who steers quickly towards money, investments or secrecy. The catfish check and romance scam guides cover the dating version.

How to check a stranger's photo

1. 1

   Save the photo they present as themselves

   The profile picture on the listing, the marketplace account or the messaging app. Screenshot it if saving is blocked.

2. 2

   Crop to the face

   One face, filling most of the frame, interface and captions cut away. A photo that is tiny, sideways or wearing sunglasses matches poorly.

3. 3

   Run a face search

   Upload it on the search page. The first search is free and needs no account. Results list public pages where a similar face appears, closest first.

4. 4

   Compare the source pages with what they told you

   Same name and a consistent trail of public pages: the photo is probably theirs. A different name, a stock site or a scam forum: it is not. Nothing at all: you have learned nothing either way.

5. 5

   Weigh the photo check against the other signals

   The photo is one input. The table and checklist below carry the rest of the decision.

Reading the result

Checks that do not depend on the photo

• A short live video call. Thirty seconds answers more than any search. A real landlord can show you the flat; a real seller can show you the item.
• Pay in ways that can be reversed or are protected. Card payments, platform checkout and escrow. Refuse wire transfers, gift cards and crypto; they are chosen because they cannot be undone.
• Meet in public, or view before paying. A deposit before a viewing is the single most common rental scam.
• Check the thing, not only the person. Land registry or property records for a landlord, a company register for a business, a professional register for a tradesperson, the platform's own verification badges for a seller.
• Search the name and the phone number with the word scam. Repeat offenders are usually documented by earlier victims.
• Look for consistency. Addresses, time zones, the story of why they cannot meet, the spelling of their own name.
• Keep your documents to yourself until the deal is real. Nobody needs your passport or ID to show you a flat or sell you a sofa.

Rental and marketplace scams, specifically

Rental scams combine two stolen things: the photos of a real property, taken from an older listing, and the photos and name of a real person, taken from a public profile. The price is a little too good, the landlord is abroad, and the keys will be posted once the deposit clears. The US Federal Trade Commission's guidance is blunt: never pay for a place you have not seen in person, and never wire money to a landlord. Marketplace scams use the same photo trick for sellers who do not own the item and for buyers who overpay with a fake payment and ask for the difference back. A face search exposes the borrowed face; the protected-payment rule protects you even when the face is real.

Why never confront

Confrontation feels satisfying and achieves nothing useful. The account holder deletes the evidence or turns to threats. The real person in the photos, if there is one, did nothing and may already be dealing with a stream of angry strangers. Reporting to the platform, with your screenshots, is the action that gets a fake listing or account removed before the next person pays. The fake account guide covers how.

Is it legal to check someone's photo?

Checking that the person you are about to pay or meet is who they say they are is a lawful, ordinary purpose everywhere FaceSearch operates. Keep the search to that decision, use the result only for it and for a report, and do not store or share what you found. Biometric and data-protection laws differ by country, and some uses, listed in the box above, are restricted or prohibited; the legal guide explains the US, EU, UK and Indian positions, and the acceptable use page sets out our own rules.