Fake Stats Screen Shots

I thought I'd post this as a lot of people ask for screen shots for proof of stats/earnings. Most people on these forums are honest but occasionally people try to rip off others by trying to sell crap sites to members.

"Can you supply screen shots" seems to be a common request but unless you can validate that that screen shot has not been doctored, what kind of proof is it?

Here's and example: (screen shots have been zoomed in photoshop to about 400%)



If you look at the numbers of this gif (important) you'll notice pixelation around them. Why would a gif have this? Reason: Because it had a jpeg pasted into it before out putting the gif file.

Here's another example of stats without tampering:



You'll notice that the numbers don't have any artifacts around them.

NOTE That's not to say that the second example isn't fake too. A good photoshop user would never have made the obvious mistake in example 1.

Just beware that screen shots don't amount to proof of earnings, unless of course the user is a well known and trusted member.

I know that most here don't trust screen shots and will always check into site's validity for themselves but just incase I thought I'd add this.

 

Thanks elkiwi, gr8 advice, will definitely keep it in mind.

 

Very nice detective work. So much for seoguru

 

Excellent work, thanks for the heads up.

Pit

 

bookmarking this.

thanks

 

Just to add the originals of both so you can see them at the original resolutions...hard to see any tampering.

the fake originally spotted by TommyD: from this thread http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=60999&page=3



The real:

 

ooh, so it even wasn't neccesary do zoom in the USD/$ difference already should have made us aware of something strange... mmmmm

 

I think that's coz I was looking a different (advanced) report.

 

man, i could just change the html of the adsense site and no one could every say my screenshot was fake...

 

You all need to learn how to save and download a page, then open it up and edit the numbers.

Then preview it in Firefox/IE whatever take a screenshot.

Absolutely impossible to trace, because in fact you didn't tamper with the image.

 

Just do your own research and take screen shots w/ grain of salt. (for sites over $100 lol)

 

I agree, if a seller is serious and it is a lot of money they should always let you log in and see the stats first hand.