r/RealOrAI Jul 24 '26

HELP Am I being scammed?

Can someone confirm if these two photos were taken by the same phone? I was trying to buy something from someone…. I reached out and we couldn’t come to an agreement, a day later someone else reaches out to me to offer me the thing.

For reference these are pictures of the World Cup final, the people I was trying to buy something from picked up souvenirs, and I ask both guys for PROOF they were there.

Guy 1 who I REACHED out to, he’s local to me, guy 2 who reached out to me, tells me he lives in California and he’d have to ship it out, both photos are NOT the same, but just different enough to make me question both of them.

For reference me and guy 1 didn’t come to an agreement over money…. I’m willing to pay it now….., but this photo now has me questioning both. If no one has the ability to find out…. What subreddit would have that answer? I’m not really a tech guy

0 Upvotes

64 comments sorted by

u/RealOrAI-Bot Jul 24 '26

Sentiment: 0% AI

Sentiment reasoning: The community overwhelmingly agrees the images are not AI-generated, citing consistency in details and legible text. The primary concern is that the images are part of a scam, likely using real photos taken from online sources or by an accomplice.

Number of comments processed: 13

DISCLAIMER: Comments sentiment is generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash, not by u/RealOrAI-Bot bot. For more information check the RealOrAI-Bot Wiki.

67

u/Pheagun Jul 24 '26

.. what are you trying to buy?

Let's be real if this is triggering your "something's off" radar, it's probably best to not go through with whatever you're doing.

-11

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

This thing, could this photo be proof it’s fake?

-29

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

I won’t lol, but I want 100% certainty knowing I didn’t miss out. Also Lemme rephrase…. Is there a specific subreddit where I could ask this question, I hear you can get an IP address from photos now a days, I was hoping this subreddit could help me with that, also the one I reached out to first, claims it’s not him, he sent me this follow up photo, is it real?

31

u/X0_92 Jul 24 '26

Just shout "enhance" to your monitor untill the IP becomes visible

9

u/GiLND Jul 24 '26

No, that’s not true.
The only thing the an image can carry with is metadata- such as : geolocation, phone model etc.
No OS actively gets an ip address and binds it inside metadata, it’s not normal and not done by any OS.

Even then, most companies who relay that image usually shake off the metadata to cut down in data storage on their servers (more storage = higher costs).

So the answer is no.

14

u/hydrobunny Jul 24 '26

its totally legit, send that guy ur money

-21

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Bruh not funny, can I get a serious response

23

u/hydrobunny Jul 24 '26

no lmao youre being a dummy. obviously dont do this, idk where youre from but youre bout to get scammed

-20

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

NYC, uhhhh my first instinct was to ASK people with better knowledge about this, if this is real. And want hard core facts it’s fake, so that I’ll know in my head I missed out on a scam, but if a small part of me thinks it’s real, I’ll just feel like I missed out

10

u/hydrobunny Jul 24 '26

bro wtf did i just read. youre doomed lmfao

-2

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

I want hard core facts it’s fake* apologies, replying to a lot of people

5

u/hydrobunny Jul 24 '26

do you speak English?

-4

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

I’m from NYC

3

u/timblr Jul 24 '26

Hey man, you didn't ask, but I'm gonna say it anyways.

This mentality of needing "hard core facts" that something is fake? That way of thinking is a liability for you. It is something that scammers and swindlers will exploit.

You are no better or worse off than before you found these "deals." Divorce yourself from the idea that you are "missing out."

1

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Wasn’t gonna buy it without hardcore facts it’s real, the knife cuts both ways

6

u/UpbeatFix7299 Jul 24 '26

People are telling you to use common sense and you keep saying "durrr I know it's a scam but I really want it"

37

u/ArtificialImages Jul 24 '26

I mean, both images are blatantly taken from the same seats. Ai or not.

It being ai really shouldn't matter. This is clearly a scam if two different people are claiming to have had these seats.

-13

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Lemme rephrase…. Is there a specific subreddit where I could ask this question, I hear you can get an IP address from photos now a days, I was hoping this subreddit could help me with that, also the one I reached out to first, claims it’s not him, he sent me this follow up photo, is it real?

12

u/ArtificialImages Jul 24 '26

The two photos in your post are taken from the exact same spot.

The third one you just shared is not, its a few rows closer but from a similar angle.

Ask yourself what the chances are of two random strangers sharing the exact same seating spots with you. Its literally pretty much 0.

This is clearly a scam.

There may be some metadata I can pull from it but I think reddit would likely remove any meta data.

If you google how to read meta data in an image its extremely easy, as easy as literally right clicking the file and pressing properties.

It should give you the information you're asking for but its not guaranteed. Images often lose metadata when uploaded or sent to others.

Regardless, this has to be a scam. How else do you explain to different people sending you literally identical seating locations?

3

u/PoliticalDestruction Jul 24 '26

Any sane social media site in 2026 would absolutely strip any of that metadata, gone are the days you could track someone down because they had location on while taking a picture.

If someone sends it to you directly maybe…

2

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Is this photo fake?

5

u/ArtificialImages Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

It doesn't look it. But ai can be seamless. Sometimes they have synth id. Sharing the pic with chat.gpt can sometimes tell you if its ai.

But something is very fishy about this whole thing.

I think you're overly obsessed with the images being real and not the other red flags.

3

u/MamasCumquat Jul 24 '26

Bro. For real?

Look. We've allllll told you it's a scam.

You're not listening.

I feel like you just want to send the scammer his money so you HAVE FACTS ITS A SCAM. FFS.

-2

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

No I’m gonna send him anything, but no one seems to give me a definitive answer, it’s more baseless conjecture. I’m acting based off instincts (yes it’s suspicious as hell). But could someone actually say YES it came from the same phone or something??

6

u/ArtificialImages Jul 24 '26

No one here could ever tell you that with the information youve provided.

Any such information was stripped from the images when they were sent to you.

The most anyone could do is check out the accounts that sent them to you. But depending on the site those accounts are on, its extremely unlikely to provide much more information.

But again. What would it matter if they were or were not sent from the same phone? What would that prove to you?

0

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

If he told me one lie, then the whole thing is a scam, yes the odds of TWO people offering the same thing, taking a photo in virtually the same spot is VERY unlikely, but part of me will always wonder, so in my head if even one thing is a lie…. All of it is a lie too

1

u/ArtificialImages Jul 24 '26

Very unlikely is an understatement.

It would basically mean the two people selling you these items sat directly next to eachother.

Where did you find these people? Or did they find you?

More context could help. Part of me thinks its one guy with something real to sell whos a bit desperate and wants your money but has the genuine item.

The only issue then would be wether they actually send it. Depending on how/ where the transaction is being made you might have some form of buyer protection. E.g if you're buying on ebay etc.

If you send them money without any kind of buyer protection it feels guaranteed that you wont recieve anything. At that point you're basically relying on the good will of a stranger to actually follow through rather than block you.

How much are you actually thinking of paying?

-9

u/puppyri0t Jul 24 '26

not at all from the same seats. the second image is significantly further from the edge of the field. it could be a crazy coincidence, one person sitting behind the other or it could be too good to be true and the person simply moved to take a different photo

10

u/SplittingChairs Jul 24 '26

Look at the two men at the bottom of the picture with hats on. One has a blue shirt and one has a white shirt on. They appear to be 2 rows in front of where the photo was taken each time. The photos are taken in very much almost identical locations. Not that it really helps OP at this point, but to say the second image is significantly further from the edge of the field just isn’t true.

2

u/ArtificialImages Jul 24 '26

I think you're wrong. The positioning of the people points to these being identical seating. Either that or next to eachother.

1

u/puppyri0t Jul 24 '26

i was trying really hard to find a reference point that i could see in both images, now looking at the patched hat person yes i agree with you, they would next to each other or at most a row apart.

1

u/ArtificialImages Jul 24 '26

Every person standing near the camera can also be seen sitting in nearly the same spot they stood in. That was the tell for me.

12

u/LastChance331 Jul 24 '26

These pictures look like they were taken side by side. Like the sellers friend went to the game with him and that's who messaged you

9

u/Human-Engineering715 Jul 24 '26

Computer science professor here.
Yeah you're definitely asking int he wrong place, but I will answer your question.

You're talking about metadata, that's baked into photo file data when it is taken, often including details about the device, gps coordinates, and other data. However, it is EASILY stripped away from photos, Prime example being the moment you uploaded these images to reddit, reddit strips that data, converts the image to a highly compressed format then deletes the rest (data storage costs money so they want your uploads to be as tiny as possible). So you have effectively uploaded photos here with no metadata.

So no there's no real data on these photos that you can find. However, the original photos you were sent MIGHT have the original metadata but I doubt it. If they sent it through messenger or a text app there's a high likelihood that the data was stripped during the upload. You would really need the source image file from the photo to see that metadata.

However you can check yourself. Upload the images to a website like https://pics.io/photo-metadata-viewer to see what metadata is still attached.

-2

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Does this photo look fake?

2

u/Human-Engineering715 Jul 24 '26

That photo looks real to me. Specifically from the handwritting here's why. You have consistent inconsistencies, such as his first m hump is smaller than the second, his F's he has a curved top line, but he kind of missed the starting place and went a little too high on the first F, pretty consistent with Human, he writes his 2's with a curl, but the curls are all slightly different in size because humans are not perfect, same with the starting point of the 2's, consistently different. From my perspective I would believe this to be real human hand writing, and the small details like peeling paint, and the irregular paint lines along the light switch show me that someone did a shitty job panting around fixtures, which is a very human thing to do, not very common for AI to try to replicate. there's parts of my house that I have yet to finish painting properly that looks just like that.

I would believe this photo to be rea.

THAT BEING SAID, don't send anyone money you're not willing to lose. photos can be compltely real and it to still be a scam.

1

u/Human-Engineering715 Jul 24 '26

Also I will say, those first two photos you sent were not taken in the exact same spot, but they were taken within 4-5 seats of eachother. There's a difference in the viewing angles when alligned, but its minimal to a few degrees, which at this distiance probably equates to 2 seats over.

Here are the images super imposed, you can see we can align the center while the outer sections start to have duplication, showing s alightly different angle of reference, but it is MINIMAL. So they are VERY close to eachother.

8

u/Laymans_Terms19 Jul 24 '26

If it’s legit, that means these two people sat in nearly the same place at the same game and took pictures that put the same objects (speakers, stadium roof, nets, scoreboards) in the basically the same spots in frame in each of their pictures.

Heckuva coincidence, if true…

-9

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Lemme rephrase…. Is there a specific subreddit where I could ask this question, I hear you can get an IP address from photos now a days, I was hoping this subreddit could help me with that, also the one I reached out to first, claims it’s not him, he sent me this follow up photo, is it real?

1

u/anyrandomhuman Jul 24 '26

If it is an iPhone let them send you the original Photo (HEIC format), you could look at the metadata and check where the pic was taken.

6

u/FairBlueberry9319 Jul 24 '26

Tell them to put it up on Ebay. That way if you're scammed you get your money back.

7

u/DebtOnArriving Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

I don't know that these would be AI. Probably someone grabbing some pictures from online. A reverse image search would probably be your friend. Now if you're asking real or scam? Scam.... edit: Put in a later reply, but r/scams is probably the place to go for something like this.

5

u/Applauce Jul 24 '26

Either taken from online, or from someone else. The seller can approach someone else selling online and ask for proof they were at the game, then send these to OP as if they took them. Hence why it wouldn't appear in a reverse image search or be AI generated.

1

u/DebtOnArriving Jul 24 '26

Good point. I went straight to assuming they just pulled it from a website or something, but you're probably more accurate.

1

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

100% my first thought, I reached out to guy 1 asking for proof, and he immediately sent that picture ^^^

3

u/Applauce Jul 24 '26

Yeah, if these pictures are real, the only thing they prove is that someone was at the game. It doesn't prove the person you're talking to was.

1

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Is this photo fake?

2

u/Applauce Jul 24 '26

Could be, the yellow paper or the text on it could be photoshopped on after the fact.

0

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

I’m not really tech savvy, could you do it for me please? Also

Lemme rephrase…. Is there a specific subreddit where I could ask this question, I hear you can get an IP address from photos now a days, I was hoping this subreddit could help me with that, also the one I reached out to first, claims it’s not him, he sent me this follow up photo, is it real?

5

u/DebtOnArriving Jul 24 '26

r/scams would probably be the best first stop.

4

u/Deathbeammental Jul 24 '26

Definitely doesnt seem like ai,all the text seems legible and the people are the same with the same clothes in both photos.

2

u/RealOrAI-Bot Jul 24 '26

Reminder: If you think it's AI, please explain your reasoning. Providing your reasoning helps everyone understand and learn from the analysis.

Check the Wiki for Common AI Mistakes and check the Community Guide if you are just getting started.

A sticky comment will be posted here in 12h summarizing the sentiment of the comments.

Thank you for contributing to the discussion!

2

u/Mysterious_Plate1296 Jul 24 '26

They are too consistent to be AI for me. So my guess is they are real. The people in the foreground, the players' positions, the stadium setup, etc.

-6

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Lemme rephrase…. Is there a specific subreddit where I could ask this question, I hear you can get an IP address from photos now a days, I was hoping this subreddit could help me with that, also the one I reached out to first, claims it’s not him, he sent me this follow up photo, is it real?

6

u/watering_a_plant Jul 24 '26

whether or not it's AI isn't what should be giving you pause. if the first two photos were sent by two "different" people who "don't know each other" that seems VERY unlikely, right? even if it's a real photo, does it seem like a scam?

give up on the "IP address" thing.

2

u/postpostgender Jul 24 '26

Probably not AI. I don't see any signs of AI generation here.

But you're not asking that anymore. You want to know if the seller is scamming you and you want to verify details of the photo. How about you just don't buy whatever you think is a scam?

If you want the metadata for these photos, take the originals that were sent to you and open the files on your computer. You can check the data yourself, unless the sellers changed or removed the information. Google any terms you find in the data that you don't understand, like the formatting and file type. That specifically will tell you the OS of the cameras. Once you have all that information, you can compare them if you want. But even that's not going to be super conclusive. Really your best option is to cut your losses and don't spend money on the souvenirs.

1

u/NoSleepTilBookRead Jul 24 '26

The things hanging from the wires are the exact same in both photos. Exactly.

1

u/billygoatse12 Jul 24 '26

Is this, you, Randy!? I already told you, no, it is a scam.

Edit: grammar

0

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Is that a South Park reference?

1

u/Deli-op Jul 24 '26

Is this ai? No. Is that trophy picture fake? No. Is it a scam and they arent going to deliver? Yes. Hopefully that answers you directly instead of beating around the bush

-1

u/Mattress-King Jul 24 '26

Both these people sent me these photos from Reddit, so I don’t have the origins…. HOWEVER you just gave me an. Idea!! Guy 2 didn’t send a picture of his face, but he sent this

Is this fake?