Profile pictures not always accurate

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/04/2016 (3514 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: In response to Want My Innocence Back (the woman whose ex-husband was a compulsive liar and fabricated his life story), I would like to add that, in the case of suspecting something wrong in online relationships, it could be handy to reverse-image search a person’s profile picture. This entails going to Google Images, clicking the little camera on the right side of the search bar and uploading the image the other person has sent you. A search of the Internet will be made for that exact image. You can see if their picture comes from a strange source, or you can figure out if the person has hijacked a picture from elsewhere and is using it dishonestly. Another website designed for this is tineye.com.

I had an experience where I met a man on a video-game network. We flirted heavily online for about five years, playing games together and, on occasion, chatting well into the night. Although I was forthcoming with several pictures of myself, he was stingy and only showed me about three clear shots. Despite this, I felt an attraction and wanted to go visit him after I graduated college. I liked him because he was a bit mysterious and enticing, but also could be understanding and charming. He made me feel special with a lot of compliments.

However, I started to get the suspicion that he used his charm and lack of honesty to manipulate women emotionally. One day I got the bright idea to reverse-image search his pictures. One handsome portrait in particular, turned out to actually be a person who had bisexual pornography pictures showcased online; I found his picture on a website’s image gallery containing the original, and other photos like it. I confronted him and asked if that picture was really him. He said yes; then I told him to explain the gallery of photos containing that same picture he had sent me. Caught, he had no choice but to admit it was not really him, although there’s a facial resemblance, he said. He argued he felt bad because I had supplied so many pictures of myself and he didn’t have many good ones to share of himself.

Another photo was a muscular body shot with the face cropped out, which I found out had been taken from some other man’s twitter profile. Only one picture was authentically him. I gathered as much because he adamantly swore to it, and also because I found it on an array of online dating profiles he had. On those dating sites, I read the heavy come-ons and flirtatious compliments he made, targeted at countless other women’s pictures and profiles. I felt like a fool. Time has passed and I’ve moved on from it.

— New Reality Checker, Manitoba

Dear Reality Checker: Thanks for sharing this. It’s too bad you wasted five long years mooning over this guy when you could have met a bunch of real people online who lived closer, told the truth and wanted to meet you face to face. Warm arms beat cold type!

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6

Miss Lonelyhearts
Advice Columnist

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