6 ms·

The lawyer profile faces instantly give the site a fake vibe as they look like those generated by GANS AI.

bt1a 5y ago
What characteristics signal this to you? I took a glance at the lawyers'* photos and can't easily determine that they're AI generated. I probably wouldn't give it a second thought if I didn't know ahead of time that they were generated.
- nsp 5y ago
  I'm not great at this but in general - Eyes exactly centered in the middle of the photo - Earlobes/ears are different, e.g. attached vs unattached lobe on either side - Boundaries of hair are confused/fuzzy
  - simcop2387 5y ago
    Along with that, the single texture background always blurry, sometimes with discontinuities are usually a good give away too.
- sdflhasjd 5y ago
  The teeth and lips is an easy one, noticable on the "Brian Dodd" image. "Chris Donnelly" has weird skin texture around his mouth.
- larwent 5y ago
  It's the typical GANS face layout, with a blurry background, eyes centered and cropped to the face. It's certainly possible those are could be real people, but in my experience law firms usually have upper-body shots of the lawyers with their arms folded, or standing together as a team or with a client. I wouldn't catch these at first glance, but the older gentleman specifically stands out to me with the 1. tuft of hair above the right eyebrow 2. teeth far offset from center 3. soap-bubble colored noise around the hair features These aren't unusual on their own (except #3 maybe) but all together they make the photo seem fake.
  - hwers 5y ago
    A really easy clue (as is the case on that site) is if the location of the eyes are aligned almost perfectly as if to the pixel.
  - kzrdude 5y ago
    The crop is super unusual for professional photos. No photographer is going to cut into the subject's chin
- gruez 5y ago
  I remember seeing a guide on how to detect generated faces, and the signs to look for were: * glasses looking weird (ie. the inside of the frame not matching with the rest of the face, or optical effects not being replicated) * hair * teeth I looked at the pictures and they look reasonably real. Maybe the neural networks gotten better?
  - kzrdude 5y ago
    the follow-ups and improvements have been impressive for sure, and posted here at some point.
- tyingq 5y ago
  "Kara Morgan" has mismatched earrings. That's typical.
  - zapdrive 5y ago
    Her image name is "lady01.jpg" https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/lady01.jpg https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/lad...
- Antipode 5y ago
  Hannah Shields' left (our right) earring is particularly egregious.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/ https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/ I thought it was the worst one as well
- MrStonedOne 5y ago
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  This one is easy to tell. Look at her earrings, they don't match and the one on the right side of the photo seems to be blending in with something https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/ https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/
  - bhartzer 5y ago
    Also I thought this was a woman: “ Hannah has spent the past twelve years making New York City his home.”
    - throwawayboise 5y ago
      These days you can't assume anything.
greenyoda 5y ago
You don't even need to look at the faces to see that the site is fake. Look at the phone number on this page: https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/contact https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/contact (212) 555-1979 The 555 prefix is used for directory assistance or for fictitious phone numbers (e.g., in movies): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number) When I called the number, I got the expected intercept message: "We're sorry, your call can not be completed as dialed..." It gets even better... If you search for the two phone numbers on that page together, you'll find them on a whole bunch of sites, all presumably fake businesses: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=(800)+555-2840&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=(800)+555-2840&ia=web
- DaveExeter 5y ago
  That's the contact info for Mason Donald King! https://www.masondonaldking.com/ https://www.masondonaldking.com/
  - tzs 5y ago
    It gets even better. On the front page of Taylor Wilson Smith it says > Davis Robbins is a leading independent international law When they were making their fake Taylor Wilson Smith site someone apparently had a copy paste error and included some text from their fake David Robbins site [1]. The fake Taylor Wilson Smith firm and the fake Mason Donald King firm both say they are at One Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10119. It is easy to find the tenant list for that building and there is, or course, no tenants with either of those names. Another thing they botched when making up these firms is that none of the fake attorneys at Taylor Wilson Smith are named Taylor, Wilson, or Smith. Similar for the fake attorneys at Mason Donald King. Davis Robbins, which has the same fake phone numbers as the other two, is at least at a different address, 12 Fremont Ave, Staten Island, NY 10306. That's not even an office. It's a single-family house in a residential neighborhood. Like the other two fake firms, none of their fake attorneys match the names of the firm. [1] https://www.davisrobbins.com/ https://www.davisrobbins.com/
    - DaveExeter 5y ago
sacrosancty 5y ago
It really doesn't matter how obvious it is if you follow the easiest rule of not getting scammed: - If anyone initiates contact with you, don't trust any claims they make about their identity. If you only trust real law firms, verify that independently with whatever authority determines which law firms are real. People need to stop using "can make a professional-looking website" as a proxy for "not a scammer".
weq 5y ago
In each scam group, a member of team specialises in, making websites, for instance. Others are good at phishing, talking like a call center worker, and the list goes on. The info on how todo this is sold on dark web. So those scammers likely didnt even build these fake websites, they bought the templates.

bt1a 5y ago

What characteristics signal this to you? I took a glance at the lawyers'* photos and can't easily determine that they're AI generated. I probably wouldn't give it a second thought if I didn't know ahead of time that they were generated.

nsp 5y ago
I'm not great at this but in general - Eyes exactly centered in the middle of the photo - Earlobes/ears are different, e.g. attached vs unattached lobe on either side - Boundaries of hair are confused/fuzzy
- simcop2387 5y ago
  Along with that, the single texture background always blurry, sometimes with discontinuities are usually a good give away too.
sdflhasjd 5y ago
The teeth and lips is an easy one, noticable on the "Brian Dodd" image. "Chris Donnelly" has weird skin texture around his mouth.
larwent 5y ago
It's the typical GANS face layout, with a blurry background, eyes centered and cropped to the face. It's certainly possible those are could be real people, but in my experience law firms usually have upper-body shots of the lawyers with their arms folded, or standing together as a team or with a client. I wouldn't catch these at first glance, but the older gentleman specifically stands out to me with the 1. tuft of hair above the right eyebrow 2. teeth far offset from center 3. soap-bubble colored noise around the hair features These aren't unusual on their own (except #3 maybe) but all together they make the photo seem fake.
- hwers 5y ago
  A really easy clue (as is the case on that site) is if the location of the eyes are aligned almost perfectly as if to the pixel.
- kzrdude 5y ago
  The crop is super unusual for professional photos. No photographer is going to cut into the subject's chin
gruez 5y ago
I remember seeing a guide on how to detect generated faces, and the signs to look for were: * glasses looking weird (ie. the inside of the frame not matching with the rest of the face, or optical effects not being replicated) * hair * teeth I looked at the pictures and they look reasonably real. Maybe the neural networks gotten better?
- kzrdude 5y ago
  the follow-ups and improvements have been impressive for sure, and posted here at some point.
tyingq 5y ago
"Kara Morgan" has mismatched earrings. That's typical.
- zapdrive 5y ago
  Her image name is "lady01.jpg" https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/lady01.jpg https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/lad...
Antipode 5y ago
Hannah Shields' left (our right) earring is particularly egregious.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/ https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/ I thought it was the worst one as well
MrStonedOne 5y ago
netizen-936824 5y ago
This one is easy to tell. Look at her earrings, they don't match and the one on the right side of the photo seems to be blending in with something https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/ https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/attorneys/hannah-shields/
- bhartzer 5y ago
  Also I thought this was a woman: “ Hannah has spent the past twelve years making New York City his home.”
  - throwawayboise 5y ago
    These days you can't assume anything.

greenyoda 5y ago

You don't even need to look at the faces to see that the site is fake. Look at the phone number on this page: https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/contact https://taylorwilsonsmith.com/contact (212) 555-1979 The 555 prefix is used for directory assistance or for fictitious phone numbers (e.g., in movies): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number) When I called the number, I got the expected intercept message: "We're sorry, your call can not be completed as dialed..." It gets even better... If you search for the two phone numbers on that page together, you'll find them on a whole bunch of sites, all presumably fake businesses: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=(800)+555-2840&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=(800)+555-2840&ia=web

DaveExeter 5y ago
That's the contact info for Mason Donald King! https://www.masondonaldking.com/ https://www.masondonaldking.com/
- tzs 5y ago
  It gets even better. On the front page of Taylor Wilson Smith it says > Davis Robbins is a leading independent international law When they were making their fake Taylor Wilson Smith site someone apparently had a copy paste error and included some text from their fake David Robbins site [1]. The fake Taylor Wilson Smith firm and the fake Mason Donald King firm both say they are at One Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10119. It is easy to find the tenant list for that building and there is, or course, no tenants with either of those names. Another thing they botched when making up these firms is that none of the fake attorneys at Taylor Wilson Smith are named Taylor, Wilson, or Smith. Similar for the fake attorneys at Mason Donald King. Davis Robbins, which has the same fake phone numbers as the other two, is at least at a different address, 12 Fremont Ave, Staten Island, NY 10306. That's not even an office. It's a single-family house in a residential neighborhood. Like the other two fake firms, none of their fake attorneys match the names of the firm. [1] https://www.davisrobbins.com/ https://www.davisrobbins.com/
  - DaveExeter 5y ago

sacrosancty 5y ago

It really doesn't matter how obvious it is if you follow the easiest rule of not getting scammed: - If anyone initiates contact with you, don't trust any claims they make about their identity. If you only trust real law firms, verify that independently with whatever authority determines which law firms are real. People need to stop using "can make a professional-looking website" as a proxy for "not a scammer".

weq 5y ago

In each scam group, a member of team specialises in, making websites, for instance. Others are good at phishing, talking like a call center worker, and the list goes on. The info on how todo this is sold on dark web. So those scammers likely didnt even build these fake websites, they bought the templates.