Fake Payment Screenshot Detector
A payment screenshot is not proof of payment: if the money is not in your own balance, you have not been paid. Our fake payment screenshot detector checks the picture for AI generation and AI edits, and your first check needs no account.
Upload the image you were sent. It is deleted after the check.Drop the screenshot here or click to upload. It is deleted after the check.
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Why trust the answer, and where it stops
How it worksWhat it cannot tell you
Forwarded and heavily compressed screenshots hide some of the signs we look for. A clean result is about the image. It does not mean a payment or a person is genuine.
We read the AI watermark
OpenAI and Google hide a watermark in images their AI tools make. When it is there, the report names whose tool made the image.
You see the evidence
Each result lists what was found, with a link you can send to the other person, a marketplace or your bank.
How to check a payment screenshot before you hand anything over
Open your own app or bank
Type the address or tap the app icon yourself, never a link the buyer sent. If the amount is not in your balance or activity, the screenshot is describing money you do not have.
Read the clock in the corner
A status bar showing a time earlier than the payment itself is a red flag. A later time is normal, since people often take the screenshot afterwards. An iPhone status bar sitting on an Android app layout is a giveaway.
Zoom in on the figures
Hand-edited amounts tend to sit a pixel high or low, look slightly bolder, or leave an uneven gap next to the currency sign. Compare them with the digits in the date or the balance on the same screen.
Check your details letter by letter
Your name, username, email and the last digits of your account. Templates reused from someone else’s scam often get one of them wrong.
Stop at any request to pay first
A fee to release the money, an upgrade to a business account, a refund of an overpayment. No payment app charges you to receive money this way; the request is the scam.
Scan the file itself
Ask for the original screenshot rather than a copy forwarded through a chat app, and upload it at the top of this page. A flag means stop. A clean result means the picture shows no sign of AI, and nothing more.
What a fake looks like
We made this example with an AI image tool for this page. No real person or payment is involved.
How the scam plays out
You list a couch for $400. The buyer agrees without haggling, says the money is sent, and forwards a screenshot: your name, the right amount, sent four minutes ago. They are on their way to pick it up.
The money never lands. By the time you notice, the couch is gone, or you have already refunded an "overpayment" that did not exist. The screenshot works because it borrows the trust people have in their bank, and because it only has to survive a glance while someone is waiting at the door.
What our check looks at, in order
First the file's own record: content credentials and metadata, which sometimes name the tool that made or last saved the image. Then the invisible watermark OpenAI and Google put in images their AI tools create; when it is detected, the report says which company's tool made the picture. Then a detection model scores the pixels for AI generation and AI editing. The report shows which of these decided the result.
Where it stops
Two common fakes leave nothing to find. One is made by opening a payment page in a web browser, changing the amount, and screenshotting the edited page. The other comes from websites that render fake payment confirmations to order. Both produce a genuine screenshot of a fake screen, and no image check can see through that. A real screenshot of a payment that was later reversed passes too.
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The check also gets weaker on shrunken copies. In our own test in September 2026, an AI-made image inside a phone screenshot was caught at full size and missed once we shrank the screenshot the way messaging apps do. That is why the original file matters.
How payments arrive, app by app
Venmo and Zelle payments land without you doing anything. Cash App can hold a payment from a new sender until you accept it, which costs nothing. PayPal sometimes holds funds, but a real hold shows in your own Activity. A UK Faster Payment usually arrives within two hours and an Australian PayID payment within a minute, while a US ACH transfer can take days, which is exactly the gap a fake screenshot fills. The pages below cover each one.
Got a screenshot to check?
Related checks
Frequently asked questions
Check your own account first: if the money is not there, you have not been paid, whatever the screenshot shows. Then look at the clock, the figures and your details, and scan the image for AI generation and editing.
No. It can show that a screenshot was made or altered with AI. A real screenshot of a payment that was reversed, or a genuine capture of a doctored web page, passes every image check.
Yes. Messaging apps shrink and re-compress images and strip their metadata, which removes some of what the check looks for. Ask for the original file. A buyer who will not send it is telling you something.
Yes. The check reads the image, so it works the same on Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm and other UPI apps, Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Zelle, Wise, Revolut, Interac e-Transfer, PayID and bank app confirmations, and on receipts and invoices.
FauxLens deletes its copy after the check and does not train on uploads. To run the check, the image is processed by third-party detection providers. If it shows more than you want to share, you can crop it, though an untouched original gives the most reliable result.
As supporting evidence, not proof. The report shows which signals fired and why, which is more useful to a bank, a marketplace or a small claims process than an unexplained accusation. Pair it with your own account statement, which is the document that settles the question.
Sources
Updated
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