Start with the photos, because it's the only free proof
Everything else on this list is interpretation. Photo provenance is evidence.
Take the clearest photo they have sent you or posted, and search the face — not the file. This matters: an ordinary reverse image search looks for copies of the exact picture, so a crop, a filter or a re-save defeats it. A face search compares the geometry of the face, so it still finds the same person in a completely different photo.
What you're looking for is not 'does this person exist' — it's whether the same face appears under other names. One account under one consistent name is normal. The same face on four accounts with four different names, or tracing back to a model's portfolio or a stock library, is the answer.
Read the result honestly
A high-confidence match to a public profile under the same name they gave you is a good sign, not a bad one — you have just corroborated them.
An empty result is genuinely ambiguous. It can mean the person is real and simply has no public photos, which is common for people who keep private accounts. It can also mean the photo is AI-generated, and generated faces return nothing because they don't exist anywhere else. On an account that claims a long history, no footprint at all is itself worth a raised eyebrow.
The video call test
This is the check that cannot be faked cheaply, and it is why it works.
Ask for a short live video call at a time you pick, not one they schedule. Not a pre-recorded clip, not a voice note, not 'my camera is broken'. Someone using stolen photos will produce an escalating series of reasons why now isn't possible: a broken phone, a bad connection, a strict workplace, an oil rig, a deployment, a hospital.
One rescheduling is life. A pattern of them, especially with increasingly elaborate reasons, is the thing itself.
The signals that actually correlate
Weight these together rather than individually. Any one of them has an innocent explanation; three of them at once usually don't.
- The relationship accelerated far faster than the amount of contact justifies
- They moved you off the platform you met on, quickly, to something less moderated
- Their photos are all professionally lit, or all from a narrow window of time
- Details drift — an age, a job, a city, a sibling's name that changes between conversations
- They are always in a timezone that conveniently prevents calls
- There is a crisis that requires money, and it arrives shortly after emotional intimacy does
Money is not a signal, it's the ending
Any request for money, gift cards, crypto, a 'temporary loan', help clearing a customs fee, or an investment opportunity is where the conversation stops. This is true even if everything else checked out, and it is especially true if they have never met you in person.
Romance fraud is not a failure of judgement about a person; it's a script being run on you by someone who runs it professionally. The script needs money to complete. Refusing to send any is a complete defence regardless of how convincing the rest of it was.
If it was a catfish
Report the account on the platform — use the impersonation report specifically, not a generic one, as those are handled differently. Keep screenshots before you block, because they vanish when the account goes.
If someone's photos were stolen to build the fake profile, they are a victim too and usually have no idea. Telling them is a kindness; many people find out only because a stranger reached out.
If intimate images of you were involved, StopNCII.org can get them blocked across participating platforms without you having to send the images to anyone.
Last updated 3 August 2026