Social Studies: Spotting fake profile pictures, avoiding social media scammers

In our new series "Social Studies," we're going to teach you how to spot scams on apps like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

We'll also show you how to find discounts and deals using social media, but this lesson is about all things related to profile pictures.

We all have our photos on our Facebook or Instagram accounts.

Have you ever received a friend request and wondered why on Earth that person is friending you? There's a decent chance it's a fake account trying to engage with you with one simple goal: to scam you.

7 On Your Side reached out to Social Catfish , who specialize in scraping the internet for imposter profiles, and they scoured the internet using Nina Pineda's social media images to see what they could find.

So, how do you do a reverse image search with that curious friend request or even your own profile for that matter?

Rob Brydges lives in Canada and he's a social media influencer. People love to steal his pictures to create fake profiles for scams on social media and dating sites. He gave 7 On Your Side permission to use his picture as an example.

The first thing you need to do is save the profile picture which is much easier to do on a computer.

It's simple, right click on the profile picture and save it to your computer. The next thing you do, is go to Google Images.

Drag that picture into the search window and then click "see exact matches."

7 On Your Side found a French website has a bunch of profiles with Rob's images. Then there's a TikTok account where people have taken his images, claiming he's looking for love, and we also found the original picture we searched for.

If someone friends you and you get similar results from an image search, block and report.

Do not let these fake profiles into your social media or life.

Just so you know, despite what the search results showed, Rob's been happily married for 18 years with two kids and two grandchildren.

So, what do you do if you find other profiles or sites using your image?

You can easily report them on Facebook or Instagram, but if it's a website, you'll need to take the time to reach out and have it taken down or there are services you can pay to do it for you, like Social Catfish.

ALSO READ: 7 On Your Side helps utility worker get retirement money owed by ex-employer

Nina Pineda helps the former PSE&G lineman get access to his retirement fund.

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