4 November 2026 · 7 min read
Black Friday: How to Spot Fake or AI-Generated Product Photos
Fake shops and AI product renders peak around Black Friday. Checks to run before you buy: reverse image search, mismatched details, seller history and more.
Before you pay, check three things: whether the product photo appears elsewhere (reverse image search), whether the details in the photos agree with each other and with the description, and whether the seller has a real, verifiable history. Fake, stolen or AI-generated product photos tend to fail at least one of those. Black Friday is when this matters most: a flood of new ads, countdown timers, and some shops that may not exist in January. No single check is conclusive, but together they catch the obvious problems in a few minutes.
Why are fake product photos common around Black Friday?
Discount season rewards urgency. Ads push 'last few hours', new storefronts are quick to set up, and image generators can produce a polished product shot in seconds. Problem photos usually fall into three groups:
- Stolen photos: genuine images lifted from a brand or another seller, used to sell a different and often cheaper item — or nothing at all.
- AI renders: a product that looks great but may not exist in that form. Sometimes they are honest mock-ups; sometimes the item that arrives looks nothing like them.
- Over-edited photos: a real product, edited beyond flattering — size, material or colour that do not match reality.
Not every AI image is a scam. Plenty of honest sellers use renders or AI-generated backgrounds. The question is simply whether the photo shows what you will actually receive.
How do you reverse image search a product photo?
- On a computer, right-click the product image and choose the option to search the image with Google (Lens). On a phone, long-press the image, or save it and upload it to Google Lens, Bing Visual Search or TinEye.
- Look for the same photo on the brand's own site. If it is there at a much higher price, or showing a different product, ask why this shop has it.
- Look for the same photo across many unrelated shops at very different prices. That usually means resellers using shared supplier images — not necessarily a scam, but the photo is not of their own stock.
- Look for it on stock-photo or AI-art sites. A 'real customer' photo that turns up on a stock library is a red flag.
- Try a crop of just the product, without the background. Sellers sometimes swap the background to dodge searches.
Which details give fake or AI product photos away?
| Look at | Red flag |
|---|---|
| Text and logos | Warped or misspelt brand names, labels covered in nonsense lettering, care tags that are not quite text |
| Consistency between photos | Design changes from one photo to the next: stitching, buttons, ports, number of pockets, the shape of a handle |
| Scale | No photo with a hand or everyday object for size, or a size in the description that does not match the pictures |
| Materials | 'Leather' or 'wood' that looks like a perfect plastic render, with no grain, creases or wear |
| Lifestyle shots | Hands or fingers that look wrong, the product merging into the model's body, garbled signs in the background |
| Review photos | 'Customer' photos that look like studio shots, the same photo reused across reviews, or no customer photos at all |
| Video | Only stills, or a video where the product looks noticeably different from the photos |
How do you check the seller, not just the photo?
- Domain age: look the website up with a WHOIS service. A domain registered a few weeks ago offering huge discounts deserves extra caution.
- Contact details: a real postal address, a phone number, and company details. In the EU, online traders are generally required to show who they are and how to reach them.
- Returns policy: specific, with a return address in a country you would expect, rather than vague promises.
- Payment: if the only options are bank transfer, gift cards or crypto, walk away. Pay with a method that offers buyer protection, such as a credit card.
- Off-site reviews: search the shop name plus 'reviews' or 'scam'. Look at independent sites, not the testimonials on the shop itself.
- Social presence: a brand-new account, comments switched off, nothing but ads.
- Price: a discount far beyond anything the brand itself offers on a current, popular product is the classic lure.
Save the product photo and check it for AI generator tags or Content Credentials — in your browser, nothing uploaded.
Open the AI Image CheckerCan an AI image checker tell me if a product photo is fake?
Partly. Skrubly's AI Image Checker reads markers embedded in the file — C2PA Content Credentials and generator tags. If it finds them, you know the image was made or edited with an AI tool. That is useful, but it is not the whole story:
- Shop platforms and social networks often re-save images and remove metadata, so 'no markers found' is common and proves nothing.
- An AI marker does not prove the shop is a scam. A legitimate seller may use an AI background on a real product.
- A stolen genuine photo carries no AI marker at all. That is what the reverse image search is for.
Use the checker as one piece of evidence alongside the photo details and the seller checks. If several signals point the same way, believe them.
More visual tells for spotting AI images of any kind.
How to tell if an image is AIQuick checklist before you buy
- Reverse search the main product photo.
- Compare every photo for consistent details and readable text.
- Check the domain age and look for a real address and company details.
- Read the returns policy properly.
- Search for independent reviews of the shop.
- Pay with a method that offers buyer protection.
- Screenshot the product page and your order confirmation.
- If it feels rushed, wait an hour. Real deals rarely vanish in the time it takes to check.
What should you do if you have already paid?
- Contact your card issuer or bank quickly and ask about a chargeback or dispute. Time limits apply, and the rules vary by country and provider.
- Keep evidence: screenshots of the ad, the product page, the order confirmation and any emails.
- Report the ad to the platform where you saw it.
- Report the shop to your national consumer protection or fraud reporting body.
- If you created an account on the site, change that password and any other account where you reused it.
Most Black Friday shopping goes fine. A few minutes of checking on unfamiliar shops is what keeps it that way.