Scammers Are Always Adapting

Scammers Learn To Overcome Some Of The Clues We Use To Quickly Identify Them

One of these areas is the photos that are both their greatest weapon and also their liability.  If we can recognize a person whose photos have been used before, it’s an instant loss for them.

So now they are playing games with the photos to make it harder for us – for normal people to recognize them as repeat scammers.New Photo Techniques

ONE:  Make Them Dark!

An example of a darkened scammer photo – making it harder to recognize the person

While this is not a perfect solution, it does show they are thinking about how to fix their problems with their stolen photos.  It will also make it harder for both Google and the higher-end dating sites to use facial recognition software that has to be coming to combat this plague.

TWO:  Make Them Fuzzy

susanabernard@rocketmail.com – an example of purposely making images unfocused and fuzzy to make it hard to recognize

Here again, this would make it harder to recognize repeat faces and to use facial recognition software.  Plus it overcomes the problem with many of the stolen photos that are perfect photos by professionals, now these look more like real people shots.

THREE:  Make Them Really Tiny

marge

This may be the best solution for hiding reused or stolen profile images – make them so small that no one can recognize who they are.  They still have a photo, and you can see a little bit of the person, but not really recognize them.  This would also totally defeat automated facial recognition.  However, if you see a profile with a photo like this – instant RED FLAG – this is a scammer!

FOUR:  Don’t Use A Photo Of A Person!

cynthia_fems101@yahoo.com – smart using a kitten!

This is kind of brilliant, especially if you are trying to trap one sex or the other.  Kittens and dogs are always good.  It bypasses the person, and goes to the pet lovers!