Romance scammers rely heavily on stolen photos and lately, some faces are being used more than ever.

This report from ProFaceFinder is based on real, anonymous image searches collected throughout early 2025. It highlights the 72 most commonly used photos linked to fake romance profiles on dating apps, social media, and scam sites.

If you’re unsure whether someone is real, this list shows the exact types of photos scammers are using right now.

Most Used Male Romance Scammer Photos

ProFaceFinder analyzed hundreds of the most frequently searched photos of men tied to romance scams across dating apps, WhatsApp, and social media.

Key Traits Spotted in Male Romance Scammer Photos:

• Age: Most appear young early 20s, with a few closer to 30 or older. The youngest was around 19.
• Race: 27 out of 35 were white or mixed-race.
• Profession hints: Few clues overall. A couple looked military, one seemed medical, and some resembled influencers or fitness models.
• Expressions:
  • 20 had serious or neutral looks
  • 11 smiled (showing teeth)
• Pose or props:
  • 5 featured dogs (for trustworthiness)
  • 5 showed off physique, some shirtless

These types of images make others feel comfortable, appreciated or even excited  – leading to trust and engagement.

Most Used Female Romance Scammer Photos

Using data from real searches, we identified the most commonly used photos of women in romance scams. They’re usually stolen from social media or dating apps, then used to trick victims into emotional and often financial, traps.

Key Traits Spotted in Female Romance Scammer Photos:

• Age: 31 of the 35 women appeared to be in their late teens to mid-20s. The rest were slightly older but still youthful in appearance.
• Expressions:
  • 18 were smiling
  • 16 had neutral or emotionless expressions
• Clothing & framing:
  • Some photos were dimly lit, cropped, or zoomed in (hiding key features)
  • A few were bright, professional-looking selfies
  • Some subtly revealed more of the upper body
• Style & impression:
  • A few women appeared successful, stylish, and “approachable” ideal for catfishing

These photos are picked to hit your emotions, pull you into long chats and fake relationships.

Why Do Scammers Choose These Photos?

Scammers don’t just pick any image they choose ones that serve a purpose. Whether it’s building trust, attraction, or sympathy, every picture is designed to get a reaction fast.

Here’s what our ProFaceFinder data and user reports revealed:

• Attractive faces – Beauty draws attention, especially on dating platforms.
• Highly feminine or masculine features – To appeal to emotional or romantic preferences.
• Pets in the photo – Dogs or cats help create a trustworthy, “safe” image.
• Uniforms (military, medical) – Scammers often claim they’re overseas or too busy to meet. The outfit supports the lie.
• Revealing or seductive selfies – To trigger interest and keep the target emotionally hooked.
• Low-quality or dim images – Makes it harder to verify the person or run reverse image searches.
• Wealth-signaling images – Cars, luxury backgrounds, or expensive clothes help scammers pretend they’re rich but “stuck” in a temporary crisis.
• Photos of older people – Used to bait younger victims into sugar-daddy or inheritance scams.
• Young-looking selfies – Often used to attract older, generous targets.

Why does the same picture keep showing up?

Accounts get deleted often, so most catfishes don’t even bother – they recycle random faces for speed, or run many accounts at once.

Skilled scammers however, do the opposite: they pick high-believability identities and photos that fit the script.

Identity choices scammers exploit:

• Anonymity – Public profiles with lots of photos, but low online activity
• Common names – Makes reverse searches harder
• Inactive or abandoned accounts – Less likely someone will notice the identity theft
• AI-generated faces – Increasingly realistic, with zero digital footprint
• Gullibility filter – If someone falls for a profile that obviously shows a famous actor, they’re almost guaranteed to ignore red flags later so scammers weed out cautious users.

Methodology & Privacy Statement

ProFaceFinder allows users to search images and check where else they appear online.

For this report, we analyzed image match frequency specifically, which photos triggered the highest number of matches across public platforms.

The scammers mentioned could be from:

Dating apps, social media, open websites and scam forums where fake profiles often appear.

No usernames, IP addresses, search terms, or identifying metadata were collected, stored, or reviewed.The report focuses solely on image patterns, not individual users or search behaviors.

Methodology & Privacy Statement

Findings are based on anonymized, aggregated image data and meet strict privacy and ethics guidelines. 

Readers get to check the most used images of romance scams, submitted by users suspicious of romance scams, catfishing, and identity misuse, without exposing anyone’s identity.