[Guide] What to do with fake images?

[Fisher]

Hey everyone,

So I'm not going to go into much detail here on how to actually create a fake image. I'll give you a few tips, but basically - learn how to work with Photoshop. Here's what you should keep in mind:

- stamp is your friend
- many layers to apply "effect" is your new best friend
- never blur anything
- never leave anything for comparison (better to remove all text and add again than to just modify one word)
- best fake image is the one created from scratch


That being said, once you complete your fake image, there's a couple of steps you will need to take if you want your image to be "bullet-proof". This is not a 100% protection, but in most cases, company or person willing to check the image authenticity will confirm it's real. Once you make your fake image, right click it and go to "Properties" > "Details" and BOOM! "Program name - Adobe Photoshop". You will want to avoid that. Here's how:

1) Download abylon EXIF-CLEANER (find it yourself, it's not free)

It's pretty straightforward. The software looks like this:



Pretty simple to use, drag & drop your image, hit "Remove all EXIF informationen from the image files" and you are done. This will remove most of the garbage, like program signature etc. Now, you can't just leave a file without any EXIF info. You need to use a reference here. This is what EXIF information of an image file taken by HTC One S looks like (right click image you want to use for reference, "Properties" > "Details" > scroll down to "Camera")



So after you are done cleaning your file, fill this information in and anyone who takes a look at your EXIF will think that image you originally made was in fact taken with HTC One S, or any other phone/camera you'd like.

2) Download GeoSetter here (it's free)

GeoSetter will tag your image with coordinates, making it appear as if it was taken in a location of your choice. In under 1 minute! Once you install GeoSetter, run it once and update whatever needs updating (you'll get a pop-up asking for it). After that, it will be integrated in your right-click menu, so find the image you just cleaned with abylon and right click it > GeoSetter > Browse as shown on the image below.



Now, you'd want to match the tag with the location you are using the image from. If you'd like to upload it to some website from Italy lets say, set the tag to Italy and make sure you use a proxy or VPN when you send the image so it looks like you are sending it from Italy (if you are uploading it to some site, they can see your IP)

Once GeoSetter is open, you'll see your image in the browser-like window. Bottom right, you will find "Search" option. Search for location you'd like, we'll use "Paris, France".



Hit "Add/Edit" button once you find your location. This will save it for later use, as well as get some info about it. You'll get a window like this, where you hit "Get from web" button and name your location.



It will ask you to pick a province, pick any you'd like, doesn't really matter. Once you do, your form should look like this



And hit okay.

Now, double left click your image from the GeoSetter and under "Location" tab, select your location and hit okay.



And there you go. Your image will now appear to be taken in Paris.


3) Download FileDate from here

Pretty straightforward software, add a file where you want to modify date created/modified and change them, hit Change file date.




Disclaimer, tips & tricks

This guide is for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. Please don't go right ahead and forge something and send it to your government, you will be arrested. Do not use this guide to scam anyone, do not use this guide to try and present the file as evidence in a court of law. Actually, just read this guide and feel happy about reading it.


- It matters in which order the programs are used. These should be performed in this order: Abylon, GeoSetter, FileDate.
- Companies/people that do this for a living - they will see this and know it's a fake
- Companies/people that don't do this for a living wouldn't tell it's fake in a thousand years
- Use the appropriate folders to save your images too. If you make an image and save it to c:\photoshop\fakestuff\ doesn't matter that you follow the guide, if you send the image to someone, they will see file origin as "c:\photoshop\fakestuff\" ^^
- If you are using the HTC EXIF I supplied, you should keep the images at My Pictures > HTC Sync folder, as that's where HTC device copies images when connected to the pc


Some fun facts

- Using a simple ELA tool found online, someone informed can determine if a picture is fake or not, unless you created the entire image from scratch (FotoForensics)
- People that fake images for a living have special software and take a very different approach to creating fake documents
- A fake document was presented to Blizzard, in an attempt to unlock an account that belonged to a game master. The fake document was completely wrong, wrong citizenship, wrong fathers name, but it had good EXIF and geo tag. It worked.
- Forging documents (even if it is only an image) is a serious crime, no matter where you live and what your laws say, any half-decent prosecutor can pin "identity theft" on you and you're gone from that point on.
- In under an hour of googling, and under 20 minutes that will take you to read this guide and set it up, you learned how to create a fake image that will pass as "authentic" when used in 60% of the cases, which represents a huge security threat, especially for companies that require image proof that you are who you say you are

Now, simply reverse this guide and you will never be tricked by a fake image again =)

That's it, hope you enjoyed the tour!
Peace!

[Shameless]

Great Guide! +rep.

[Fisher]

Great Guide! +rep.

Thank you, glad you liked it! =)

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[Duenaslinc]

Great guide to catch fake images man I wish I could give you +rep. But here's an imaginary +rep :P

[Duenaslinc]

- People that fake images for a living have special software and take a very different approach to creating fake documents

BTW: What do you mean by this sentence? what kind of an approach? or what kind of a program is it like GIMP or something?

[Fisher]

BTW: What do you mean by this sentence? what kind of an approach? or what kind of a program is it like GIMP or something?

He's banned but I'll answer anyway in case anyone else is interested. There's people that create fake images for specific websites, such as PayPal. They can help you with your account being limited etc. These people know the exact checks PayPal will do on your images, meaning they can fake it. For instance, if PayPal only checks for GeoData on cellphone images, these people will only fix that and create a "real fake" image. Usually, they have software to make modifications necessary to the image file automatically. That's what I meant.


Again, do not abuse the guide, do not scam people with fake images, DO learn how to fight the images, DO check out FotoForensics (not always good for you, but might help sometimes, if people trying to scam you are semi-braindead)

Peace!