Uncovering Deception in Online Romance

A client had reached out to me because she had some suspicions about her boyfriend. They had met online and things were getting more serious, but he wouldn’t tell her where exactly he lived or worked. She felt something was off so she wanted me to confirm he was who he said he was.

She gave me his name, DOB, and phone number. When I searched my databases with this information, there were no matches. I broadened the search to just his name and age, and no results. I searched only the phone number, and still no results.

So I put his number in my phone and checked a very popular Korean messaging app called KakaoTalk. Sure enough he had an account and a profile photo. I saved the photo and searched him in PimEyes.com, which is “an online face search engine that goes through the Internet to find pictures containing given faces. PimEyes uses face recognition search technologies to perform a reverse image search.”

After I searched his photo, I got a few hits – a photo of him on his company’s website and some photos of him at his church. When I checked his company’s website, the name for him did not match the one she gave me. He had given her a fake name! It was a pretty common Asian name so I searched my database with his name + work address/phone number and still didn’t get any results.

The job he had required him to have a state license, so I checked the state licensing board and found his license, and there was a middle initial and a zip code. Perfect! So I searched my database again with this new information and I found him. He had lied to her about his name AND age.

I didn’t get a good feeling about him so I checked his criminal and civil history. He had an active divorce case and after reviewing some of the documents, I learned he had kids, which I suppose is why he never brought her back to his place.

I presented her with this information and she was understandably shocked and hurt. Not so much that he was divorced with kids, but because he had been lying to her from the beginning.

My client’s story is a reminder that you should always trust your gut and if you feel something is off, it probably is.

As a private investigator, I'm grateful for the tools and skills I've gained over the years, helping me find the truth for my clients, no matter how challenging or painful it may be.