Someone sent you a photo — a dating match, a DM from nowhere, a "model" who found your profile. Before you invest another minute, spend ninety seconds checking whether that photo belongs to the person sending it. Here's the exact procedure.
Step 1: Save or copy the image
On desktop, right-click → "Copy image" (or save it). On your phone, long-press and save, or screenshot the photo — a screenshot works fine for matching, though the original file is better because it can carry metadata.
Step 2: Run the AI check
Go to sealedrose.com/verify-image — it's free, no account. Paste the image (Ctrl/⌘+V works anywhere on the page), drop the file, or paste the image's URL. In a few seconds you get an AI-generation score (with the likely generator — Midjourney, Flux, Stable Diffusion…), a deepfake score for face swaps, and a camera-metadata read: real phone photos usually carry EXIF data; AI images and scrubbed reposts don't.
An AI score above ~90% on a "selfie" ends the investigation right there — the person in the photo does not exist.
Step 3: Reverse-search it across the web
On the result card, click "Search the web for this image." This reverse-searches the photo against the public internet and lists every page where it (or a crop of it) already appears. What you're looking for:
- The same face under a different name — the classic catfish signature. The photo belongs to an influencer or stock model; your "match" is neither.
- Scam-report and forum hits — popular stolen photo sets get documented by earlier victims.
- Nothing at all, on a "public figure" — someone claiming to be a known model whose photos appear nowhere is running a private set of AI generations.
One honest caveat: reverse search only sees the public web. It cannot look inside Instagram, paywalled platforms, or private accounts — so "no matches" is a good sign, not proof.
Step 4: Escalate to video
If the photos pass, ask for a short video saying your name. Then check that at sealedrose.com/verify-video — it scans frame by frame for face swaps and AI generation (Sora, Runway, Kling) and shows a heat strip of exactly which moments are synthetic.
Step 5: Make it a habit — one right-click
The free Sealed Rose Chrome extension puts the whole procedure on your right-click menu: any image or video, on any site → "Is this real?" → verdict in the side panel. Same detection, same free limits.
What the checks can't do
Detection is probabilistic, not oracular. Heavy compression and screenshots-of-screenshots lower confidence; brand-new generators can slip through for a while. Treat a clean result as one signal — and combine it with the behavioral tests in our guide to spotting AI in conversation and independent verification.