Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on what you're checking. For images you come across while browsing — dating profiles, social media, news — a browser extension is fastest, because you check the photo where it appears instead of uploading it somewhere. Upload tools suit one-off checks, and APIs suit businesses. Whatever you choose, look for a confidence score rather than a flat yes/no, and coverage of the generators you care about (Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Adobe Firefly). Faux Spy is a free browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge that checks any image in about 2 seconds.

The most reliable method is an AI image detector like Faux Spy (free Chrome extension). Visual signs to look for manually: skin that is too smooth with no visible pores, hands with wrong finger count or anatomy, background text that is blurry or garbled, overly symmetrical faces, and professional lighting on every photo even candid ones. However, modern AI generators produce images that pass all these visual checks — automated pixel-level analysis is more reliable than human inspection.

Yes. Faux Spy is free — install the Chrome extension and get 3 image detections per day with no account or signup required. Just right-click any image on any website and select "Investigate this image." The free tier covers most personal use cases. Pro ($9.99/month) gives unlimited scans, the AI Photo vs. AI Art distinction, and scan history.

It's a strong signal, but no detector is 100% accurate. Images from major generators are the easiest to catch, while the latest generators (Midjourney v6, FLUX, SDXL) are harder to detect than earlier models. Faux Spy uses a two-stage pipeline: a local machine learning model for fast pre-filtering, then a cloud ensemble (Sightengine + HiveModeration) for ambiguous cases. The confidence score helps you weigh each result — a 98% AI score is very reliable; a 60% score warrants additional scrutiny.

Yes, partially. Adversarial techniques — adding specific noise patterns to images — can reduce detection accuracy. Heavily compressed images (like screenshots of screenshots) also lose the artifacts that detectors rely on. The best generators (Midjourney v6, FLUX) produce images that score lower confidence than earlier models. This is why Faux Spy shows a confidence score rather than a binary verdict, and recommends treating results as one strong signal alongside other contextual clues.

Reverse image search (Google Images, TinEye) finds matches for photos that exist elsewhere online. AI-generated images are synthetic originals — they were created by the generator and have never been uploaded anywhere before. There is no original photo to match against, so reverse image search returns zero results. This is not the same as the image being real; it just means the old method is useless against AI-generated faces. ML pixel analysis is the correct approach.

Yes. Faux Spy works on any image on any website you can visit in Chrome. Right-click any photo — on dating apps, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter), TikTok, news sites, marketplaces, or anywhere else — and select "Investigate this image." No uploading required. The image URL is sent to Faux Spy's detection API without you leaving the page.

Install Faux Spy (free Chrome extension) and open the dating app in your browser. Right-click any profile photo and select "Investigate this image" for a 2-second AI verdict. Works on Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Match, Zoosk, and any other site you can view in Chrome. Red flags beyond AI detection: profile contacted you first with no mutual connections, refuses video calls, falls in love very quickly, and eventually asks for money or gift cards.

Faux Spy detects images from all major AI generators including: Midjourney (v4, v5, v6), DALL-E 2 and 3 (including ChatGPT image generation), Stable Diffusion (SDXL, SD 1.5, SD 2.1), Adobe Firefly, Flux (dev and pro), Grok/Aurora (X's image generator), Runway, Bing Image Creator, and others. Detection accuracy varies by generator — older models are easier to detect than newer ones.

Free tier: 3 scans per day, no account or signup required. Pro: $9.99/month for unlimited scans, AI Photo vs. AI Art distinction, Case Files scan history, and priority support. Token packs ($1.99, $5.99, $11.99) give one-time scan credits without a subscription.

AI Photo is a photorealistic AI-generated image — a synthetic face, scene, or product shot designed to look like a real photograph. These are the most dangerous for catfishing and scams. AI Art is a stylized AI-generated image — illustrations, concept art, anime-style images, or artwork that is obviously not photographic. Free users see a combined "Likely AI" verdict; Pro users see which category applies.

Yes. Faux Spy is live on Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Get the Firefox add-on or the Edge extension.

Faux Spy uses a two-stage detection pipeline. Stage 1: a local ONNX machine learning model (50MB, runs inside your browser) analyzes pixel patterns for high-confidence cases in about 50ms — no network call needed. Stage 2: for ambiguous cases, the image URL is sent to a cloud ensemble combining Sightengine and HiveModeration for a more detailed analysis. The combination keeps fast local verdicts for obvious cases.

Faux Spy sends only the URL of the image you explicitly right-click to check. No images are stored. No browsing history is collected. No personal information is required. The extension stores locally: your scan count (to enforce the free tier limit) and your Pro license key if you have one. Neither is transmitted to Faux Spy servers. Full details at fauxspy.com/privacy.

Pig butchering (sha zhu pan) is a long-con romance fraud where scammers build trust over weeks or months, then steal victims' savings through fake cryptocurrency investments. Every pig butchering operation starts with an AI-generated profile photo — synthetic faces that reverse image search cannot catch. Faux Spy detects these photos, breaking the scam at its entry point before emotional investment occurs. US losses to pig butchering exceeded $4.57 billion in 2023.

Stop all contact immediately. Do not send money, gift cards, or cryptocurrency. Report to: the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov), the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov), and the platform where you met them. If you have already sent money, contact your bank immediately — wire transfers may be reversible within 72 hours. You are not alone — the FTC received over 64,000 romance scam reports in 2023.

Yes, if the photo is AI-generated. Military romance scammers have long used photos stolen from real service members, and increasingly use AI-generated faces of soldiers who don't exist. Faux Spy catches the AI-generated ones in about 2 seconds; for stolen real photos, a reverse image search is the right check. Use both on any suspicious profile.

In 2024, the FBI IC3 recorded $672,009,052 in romance and confidence fraud losses across 17,910 complaints. The Consumer Federation of America estimates the true total is closer to $4.7 billion annually — roughly 6 in 7 victims never report to law enforcement. The average victim loses $37,521. See the full 2024 romance scam statistics with state-by-state breakdowns and age group data, or read what a romance scam is and how these operations work step by step.

Yes. The FBI confirmed increasing use of AI-generated photos and video in romance scam operations in its 2024 IC3 report. AI-generated profile photos are synthetic portraits of people who don't exist — making reverse image search useless, since no original photo was ever taken. Faux Spy detects AI-generated faces by analyzing pixel-level patterns that differ from real photographs, even when the image looks convincingly real to the human eye.

Faux Spy is a free browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge that detects deepfakes and AI-generated photos. It works on any image on any website — right-click and select Investigate for a verdict in 2 seconds. 3 checks per day free, no account required. For images without the extension installed, check any photo online at fauxspy.com/check.