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Victimized4 · Dec 24, 2010, 06:53 PM

Hi, I was recently a victim of a scam on a dating website and I wish to find the person whose photograph the scammer used to warn him that he is a victim of identity theft. I have seen other threads here of that type. I have 3 photographs of this individual one of them with his son. The scam artist has the picture posted on several other sites includind Facebook and is posing as him.
Many of the romance scam websites only post the photographs but most if not all people whose photographs are used to commit a crime remain unaware that such is the case.
If it had been me I would be thankful someone would be trying to notify me. I have warned both the police in Canada and the FBI but these type of crimes do not get followed through. Can someone help me to know if it is possible to find someone with just a picture or if there is service that can locates people this way.
Most thankful.

G

Fr_Chuck · Dec 24, 2010, 07:20 PM

No,

You need to move on and get over it, first that may well be the real photo of the person, or some family member of the scammer. If not, they just took a photo off a dating site or another web site, perhaps photo shopped it a bit to change a feature or two, Or at times they use model photos from advertising.

And they normally use other fake names, or several names to the same photo.

Next if they were in Nigeria for real, nothing gets done, the polcie there will not follow up on them.

If the photo is on face book, then if this person who really is in the photo has face book, it will now show up, one of the new feature shows a person when their photo is used anywhere on Facebook.

You need to just move on and get over it.

Victimized4 · Dec 25, 2010, 12:34 PM

If it was your picture out there I am sure you would be of a different opinion. I didn't ask for advice but for a way in which a photograph can be identified online to stop a criminal.

Fr_Chuck · Dec 25, 2010, 12:51 PM

No, I couldn't care less if someone was merely using my photo,

And even if you found them, they could not stop someone in Nigeria anyway from doing it.

And no there is no way to find them with just the photo,

Again, get over it, you were scammed, now move on with your life

Victimized4 · Dec 25, 2010, 01:01 PM

It seems you get a button and just post the same thing over and over again? I said I didn't ask for your advice.
If someone out there can give a reasonable answer I appreciate.
Thanks.

J_9 · Dec 25, 2010, 01:07 PM

I'm sorry, but there is no way to identify someone simply from using a photo.

We've had this conversation before on this site.

Just because this person had a photo doesn't mean it actually IS that person. There are millions of photos on the internet and this person who scammed you could have been using any one of them as a disguise.

Victimized4 · Dec 25, 2010, 01:12 PM

Be kind and get off this thread. Your advice is irrelevant. I will not respond again.
M

J_9 · Dec 25, 2010, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by Victimized4

Be kind and get off this thread. Your advice is irrelevant. I will not respond again.
M

You cannot dictate who does or does not respond to your threads. When you place your question on a worldwide Q&A board you open yourself up to any response.

I am sorry it's not what you want to hear, but it's the plain and simple truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.

ScottGem · Dec 25, 2010, 01:37 PM

As J_9 stated, you don't seem to understand how a site like this works. We try to help people, not just answer a question. As long as the response does not violate our rules, you cannot dictate how we respond.

As you were answered, there is no way to trace the photo. While there is facial recognition software it would have to be applied against a database and there is no guarantee the photo would be in any database. Besides it would mean getting law enforcement interested and the possibility of that is about nil. So your question has been answered, yet again.

It is nice that you want to try an protect the person who's photo was used, but its fruitless and you should forget about it and move on. I'm guessing here that what is really motivating you is embarrassment over falling for the scam and trying to exact a measure of revenge.

Fr_Chuck · Dec 25, 2010, 02:11 PM

And to be frank, this person is not being hurt, ( if the photo is really a real person) at worst a few people fall in love with a photo and send money to a crook. They are not using the persons real name or ID and just a photo.

In most cases the people like you come here since they are still in love with the person, and his looks, and want to find them not to warn them but hoping they can still find love.

But either way, you just can't find them, it can't happen, so again, get over it and go on with life.

chefpierce · Dec 26, 2010, 01:29 PM

ID theft couldn't even be stopped or tracked by Dateline on MSNBC (right?). They put up phony fake credit cards, found out that they were being used by someone in an african country, traced the package (an xbox360), and the package just "dissappeared". Online ID theft is very very very tough to crack down on as many countries don't have laws preventing or even charging a person with such crime. HOWEVER, if you know any hackers, I'm sure they could crack the account, get a regional ISP as well as a terminal IP Address and you could track whomever, from wherever, but it's a one and a million, you risk your safety, and not to mention it would cost a lot of money, and pray that they don't use wifi on a laptop... impossible to catch unless you know someone in the CIA. The best thing to do is prevent it from happening again by protecting yourself by taking extra measures; i.e. background checks on individuals in question, finding out if their stories pan out, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

Fr_Chuck · Dec 26, 2010, 02:05 PM

And the issue with finding the person in the photo , who is not the criminal is that the police are not going to search or do anything to find the ID of a possible victim

LoveLorna · Dec 30, 2010, 12:31 AM

You can upload the scammer photo in to a site called Tineye. Www.tineye.com

Please be aware that this lady is a victim of a crime and is grieving, she is trying to cope the best she can.

ScottGem · Dec 30, 2010, 04:49 AM

Originally Posted by LoveLorna

You can upload the scammer photo in to a site called Tineye. TinEye Reverse Image Search

Please be aware that this lady is a victim of a crime and is grieving, she is trying to cope the best she can.

Tineye is more for copyright protection of for photographers. But it can't hurt for the OP to try it since a search is free. But all it will return is the site that created the image, not necessarily the name of a person who might be in the image.

Fr_Chuck · Dec 30, 2010, 05:46 AM

Originally Posted by LoveLorna

You can upload the scammer photo in to a site called Tineye. TinEye Reverse Image Search

Please be aware that this lady is a victim of a crime and is grieving, she is trying to cope the best she can.

If they want a "poor you" "sorry this happened" go post in the relationship area , this is a legal area of the site, where legal advice is given, Pure legal advice is not always loving, it is not nice if it is not what you want to hear,

But we also don't have 40 pages to write everything and sometimes they need a blunt, kick in the face wake up call