VestigeForensics

For private users

Is that photo real? Get a straight answer.

No jargon required. Upload the picture that's bothering you and get a clear verdict in plain language, with the honest fine print underneath, because you deserve that too.

When people use it

Moments a photo shouldn't be taken on faith

Dating

The profile that's a little too perfect

Generated portraits are the workhorse of romance scams. Check the photos before the conversation gets expensive, emotionally or financially.

Buying & renting

The listing you can't visit

An apartment abroad, a car in another city, a deposit “to hold it”. If the photos are synthetic, you just saved yourself the wire transfer.

Messages

The “family emergency” picture

A relative in trouble, a hospital, an accident. Scammers add photos because photos feel like proof. Sixty seconds of checking beats a panicked decision.

Sharing

Before you forward it

The outrageous news photo in the group chat. Check it once, and either share it with confidence or quietly break the chain.

What you get back

Three possible answers, all in plain words

Behind each verdict sits the full technical report (detector scores, thresholds, hashes) for anyone you want to show it to. But the top line is written for humans.

Not flagged

“Nothing tripped the alarm at the setting you chose.” That's genuinely useful, but it's not a certificate of authenticity, and your report says exactly how much it's worth.

AI-flagged · ≤5% FPR

“This image looks AI-made, at a setting that's wrong about real photos at most 5% of the time.” Treat it as a strong reason to slow down and ask more questions.

AI-flagged · strict ≤1% FPR

“This image looks AI-made even at our most cautious setting, which is wrong about real photos at most 1% of the time.” Don't send money. Don't share it onward.

Your photos stay yours

Private by construction, not by promise

The photos people check are often the ones they'd least like to share; that's the whole point. So the pipeline is built so we couldn't be careless with them if we tried.

No human ever sees your photo

Software does the analysis and removes your photo once the report is written. It exists on our server for seconds, in memory only, and never touches a disk, a log, or a training set.

Verified, not just promised

Your browser fingerprints the exact bytes before upload and rejects any report that analyzed different bytes. TLS covers the trip.

Nothing left to delete

The report comes back to your browser and is kept nowhere else. Clear it and the last copy in existence is gone: no purge request, no backup window.

Full details on the privacy page.

The honest fine print

What we can't tell you

Companies that promise certainty about AI images are lying to you. Here's where our tool's limits are, in the open, like on every report.

We can't prove a photo is real

“Not flagged” means nothing tripped the alarm; the report tells you how often real fakes slip through at your setting.

Tiny, ancient, or heavily edited images are harder

A 100-pixel thumbnail or a tenth-generation meme carries little signal. The report estimates the image's condition and adjusts its claims.

Brand-new generators can fool anyone

A model released last week may not be represented in our calibration yet. That caveat is printed on the report, not hidden in a blog post.

Further reading

Guides from our benchmark work

Written from published results, limits included.

How to tell if an image is AI-generated

Reverse image search, visual tells, provenance, then calibrated detection: the order that works, what each step misses, and the real numbers from our benchmark.

How accurate are AI image detectors? The measured answer

Vendors say 99%. Our benchmark measures 55 to 64% detection at a 5% false-positive cap, and 36 to 45% at the strict setting. Where the gap comes from.

How to spot AI-generated photos in dating profiles

The most common fake profile uses real photos of a real person, which no AI detector will flag. What works instead, and the check that ignores pixels.

How to check rental and marketplace photos before you pay

Most fake listings reuse real photos stolen from a genuine one, which no detector flags. The checks that work, and the payment rule that ignores photos.

Is that AI image detector accurate? Judging a vendor's claim

A checklist for any AI detection tool: the four disclosures a real accuracy claim makes, and how to test one in twenty minutes with photos you already have.

AI image detection glossary: forensics terms, plainly defined

Thirty-five terms from AI-image detection and digital forensics in plain language: false positive rate, calibration, base rate, chain of custody.

Your first check is free

Create an account, upload the photo, read the answer in plain words. The free trial covers 2 checks a week; if you need more, Vestige Pro is $2.99/month for 100. You can delete everything whenever you like.