We've all seen spam social media profiles with avatars from stock photos, real users' profiles, and random images.
For some spammers, that has perhaps become too much work. What if you could instead click a button, right click to save, then repeat? Generative Adversarial Networks are what you need.
1. One morning, I received this message:
Hi David D., I’d like to join your professional network / Emma Coker / Franchise Coordinator at Momentum Franchise Partners / Washington DC-Baltimore Area
2. The headshot looked suspiciously like outputs from thispersondoesnotexist.com, especially the generic, out-of-focus natural background:
3. I pulled the source file URL out of network panel to see the full image:
What's with that ear?
4. Back to the message. I searched emma coker franchise - the first two results present then had a very familiar look.
Very familiar:
5. Like the original, result one shows certain hallmarks of procedurally-generated images. The eyes are different colors:
6. Result two shows another giveaway: the ears are not quite level:
7. Google Lens shows a number of instances for both images:
9. For the second (brunette) result, the Find other sizes of this image > All sizes option reveals other profiles with other name:
10.\ Many other instances of the blonde avatar exist, too:
Why?