How to reveal fake Facebook profile pics

Have you ever received a friend request on Facebook from a person you don't even know? Then seeing the person's attractive profile photo you confirm the friend request without a second thought? Earlier this year I received such a request from a lady. So, late last night or rather early this morning, at around 01.00hrs, she appeared online and I decided to initiate conversation with her. I had to be careful lest spoil future opportunity.

As we were chatting, I was busy scanning her profile info to find out more about her. I was amazed. She had more than 400 friends. Majority of who were men from various regions in the country. They were also drawn from various universities within the country. None of them from the University she attends.

Sometime back a friend of mine called to ask me whether I knew the lady I am telling you about. This is after he had also received a friend request from her and seen that she was my mutual friend on Facebook. I told him I knew nothing about her. My friend accepted the friend request without delay. How many of you have declined such requests before?

Brazilian Actress, Taís Araújo

Continuing the story regarding my chat with the lady in question. She responded positively to my chat messages. I also enjoyed the way our conversation was going. I am not that naughty though. You know how conversations with friends you don't even know go? Just before I asked her about the authenticity of her profile picture, she begged to log out because she was sleepy. Grrrrrrh!

This question regarding the authenticity of her pic bothered me so much. I am the kind of person who hardly sleep having questions in my mind. Google came in my mind. But how can one paste a picture into Google's search box and get results? I decided to copy the profile picture from Facebook and paste it on Google's search box. I know this is the most stupid idea I have had lately.

Funny enough my attempts took me to Google image option, but no results were forthcoming. This is the reason why I am sharing with you steps I took to find out the authenticity of Facebook profile pictures. Especially those images downloaded from the internet. The next few steps will help you find out:

Go to your Facebook account and select the photo to find out whether its genuine or not. Let it appear on the screen. Right click on the image then select, 'copy image URL' option.

Go to www.google.com then on the task bar on top of the page select images. After displaying Google images in the search box click on the camera icon. Paste the URL into the search box that is indicated paste image URL. Click search.

Coming back to the lady we were talking about, it happens that her profile picture is of a Brazilian actress by the name of Taís Araújo. Funny enough most of her updates received comments from men; complimenting her of her beauty. None came from her lady friends. So next time you see that beautiful profile picture, take a moment and think about it. Better still follow the above simple steps.