This all started when I learned that an older acquaintance on Facebook was being taken in by a fake account. He really believed he had a special friendship with a beautiful young woman half way across the country. I was not able to convince him he was being scammed until I showed him the photo and the account of the real person whose photo had been stolen to create the fake account. “But she is so nice,” he said. In his head he got it, but in his heart he still wanted to believe it was a real woman that really liked him.

Since then, there have been more occasions that I showed someone the “real” person and their account to prove they had a friendship with a fake Facebook account that was using the real person’s stolen photo. Which brings us to the most recent example. I will be sharing several screen captures.

My first step was to grab the profile photo from this fake account and do a Google image search to find the real person.

The first result is “AZ – YouPic”. (I blurred out his name for reasons that will become apparent later. I am calling him AZ.)  I clicked on the link to find the name of the real person whose photo that was used on the Evelyn Lee account. It is obvious from the Google image search that the same photo has been used to create one or more fake accounts. I doubt Lily Yang, Julie Chong, and Winnifred Lee look exactly alike with photos taken in the exact same location.

Unfortunately, AZ (I blurred out his real name, face logo, and URL) does not give this woman’s name. He does say the photo was taken 5/13/2023 and gives Los Angeles County, California, USA as the location. A quick look at the site information told me YouPic is a place for photographers to share their own copyrighted images, and not the images of other photographers.

I did another Google image search to try and figure out the name of this woman. I found her Facebook page.

This is Nancy Tsai. This is the same exact photo AZ posted, and it is the same photo stolen for the Evelyn Lee Facebook account. Nancy posted this image on her Facebook page October 25, 2020. As I looked through more of her Facebook photos, I found 20 images that were all taken in this room in her home in Taiwan. Obviously, the location and date do not match the location and date posted by AZ at YouPic.

Nancy Tsai in the same room in her home in Taiwan. Posted April 24, 2021. The reference to “KD Hair Salon” in Taiwan was puzzling until I figured out she is an “influencer” and she makes references to favorite products and places in her Facebook posts.

Nancy and her children in the same room in her home. Posted February 27, 2021.

Nancy’s family in the same room. May 17, 2020.

As I went back in time through time looking at her photos, I came to this one. She posted this photo of her new home on October 21, 2019. In this screen capture (upper right, above her name) there is a link that says “This photo is from a post.” At Facebook I clicked on the link to see the post.

When I got to the post I clicked on the link to show the English translation of her post. She is writing about furnishing her new home.

I could post more screen captures of photos taken in this same room, but you get the idea.

With 20 posts taken in the same room in her home in Taiwan, including herself and her family, it is clear the photo at the top of this article was not taken by AZ on 5/13/2023 in Los Angeles, California.

This is the top of Nancy’s Facebook page. If you go to her page and click Photos, and then choose Nancy Tsai’s Photos, you will see a lot of beautiful images. Most of them are promoting products, places, and events. For more personal, casual, slice of life images, choose Tagged Photos.

Moving on . . .

On a hunch, I chose another photo posted by AZ at YouPic.

There is no name for this woman, or date for this photo, but the location given is Chicago, Illinois.

A Google image search turned up the same exact photo on Facebook.

Super.polki posted this image on her Facebook page, 9 January 2023. The location is Miami Florida.  The location does not match the location posted by AZ at his YouPic page. I suspect he did not take this picture either.

I checked out a 3rd photo by AZ, but my Google search that began with “his” image led me to a long list of links to porn sites, and I am not going to go there to see where he got the photo.

I have come to expect stolen photos to create fake accounts on Facebook, and there are a lot of fake accounts created at LinkedIn using stolen photos. But I don’t expect photographers to grab photos on the internet and post them as their own. That is so disappointing. I prefer to think of most photographers as honest people.