✎ Key Points:
» You can identify a fake WhatsApp screenshot by examining for tampered areas within the image and verifying details such as last seen date, time, and contact names.
» Ask the user to physically show you the chat or cross-referencing the profile details with the registered WhatsApp number to ensure authenticity.
How to identify fake WhatsApp screenshots:
Look at these things below to identify fake WhatsApp screenshots:
1. Find tempered areas of screenshots
When you’re trying to identify whether you’ve received a fake WhatsApp screenshot or not, you need to follow certain tips to identify it. You need to look at it very carefully to notice the difference.
Although a fake screenshot may look very similar to an original screenshot, it can never be the same. If you look at it carefully, you’ll notice the difference in finding the tampered areas of it. When someone sends a fake screenshot, he or she edits it before sending it.
You need to zoom into it to find the edited part. The edited part of the screenshots looks very messy and uneven, you’ll be able to find it only when you look at it carefully by zooming in.
2. Ask to check the chat live
When someone sends you a screenshot of a chat and you find it suspicious, you need to ask the user to show it to you by coming to you physically and opening the chat on the device in front of you.
Certain technologies allow users to create fake chats and take fake screenshots for free. Therefore, anyone can be easily fooled by these apps and tricks these days which is why it’s better not to rely on screenshots and check the chats from the device by telling the user to show it to you physically.
You can take over the user’s device and check it with his permission to see if he’s faking the chats or not.
3. Find Name of Chat & Last Seen
The minute details of screenshots are very important in finding whether the screenshot is fake or real. You need to check the last seen of the user in the chat to see if there’s one or not.
You may not get to see the last seen always if the person last seen was not turned on. But you’ll always need to look for the name of the user at the top of the chat. Even check for the date and time of the chats to see if it’s proper or not.
4. You can’t see the number behind
You should know that anyone can save any number and create a chat that he or she wants to show you on WhatsApp. The user can use a few clever tricks to make a profile look like a genuine WhatsApp number by changing the display picture and name and then taking a screenshot of the chat.
You need to check the profile by yourself on other social media apps by searching for the user by his or her name. From these social media profiles, you’ll need to find his number.
Next, you need to check the registered WhatsApp under it to find whether it’s real or fake.
How to identify a fake text message on WhatsApp:
Look at these things below:
1. Fake messages are mostly tagged as forwarded
When a message is fake, it gets forwarded from one user to another. When you get a fake message, you’ll notice that it has a Forwarded tag on the message which means that this message was originally not written by the sender but by someone who composed and sent it to the sender which the user has sent to you.
2. Search the fact on Google to Check if it’s real
When you get a message about any fact on WhatsApp about which you get confused and you’re not sure if the fact is real or fake, you need to immediately search the fact on Google to check whether it’s fake or real. On Google, you’ll be able to read tons of articles and debates about it to know what others think about it.
