OSINT At Home #1 - Starting an investigation with image reverse search

This tutorial is part 1 of the OSINT At Home series. It covers how to do an image reverse search to find more information about an image, or the screenshot of a video.
The image reverse search is a great way to start any piece of research as it allows you to take an image on the internet and not only find where else it has been used, but also by who, in what context, and what location. Through such a quick act you are able to identify much more open source information out of that simple act.
By mastering this investigative skill, using tools like Yandex image reverse search, Google, Bing, Baidu or TinEye, you can identify the origin of logos on a piece of clothing, military symbols, store signs and sometimes faces.
While this tutorial only covers an introductory use of the image reverse search, it is recommended that further research be done on specific use cases to help you in your research.
The OSINT At Home series is useful for those looking to find digital breadcrumbs and pick up some methods of open source intelligence (OSINT), digital investigations and good old plain research. No matter who you are, or where you are in the world, you can follow these tutorials from home with publicly available information to answer questions such as who, what, where and when.
TOOLS
GOOGLE IMAGE REVERSE SEARCH: www.google.com...
YANDEX IMAGE REVERSE SEARCH: yandex.com/ima...
INVID VERIFICATION PLUGIN: www.invid-proj...
BING IMAGE REVERSE SEARCH: www.bing.com/v...
TINEYE: tineye.com/
DUPLICHECKER: www.duplicheck...
PHONE: APPLE - Google & Amazon
MORE RESOURCES
www.bellingcat...
uk.pcmag.com/m...
support.google...
SUPPORT ME:
Please do consider supporting this content so I can create more and keep it free, independent and accessible to everyone in the world: ko-fi.com/bend...
CREDITS FOR THIS TUTORIAL
MUSIC INTRO: World’s Fair - God Mode
MUSIC END: Dhaka by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/
FOOTAGE: Therry_FX/Shutterstock.com/ Alexander Steam/Shutterstock.com
FOOTAGE FROM SYRIA: • Syria, Syrian Army Col...
FOOTAGE FROM MYANMAR: Myanmar Army via AP: apnews.com/art...

[@magma2680]

it's amazing how useful this was and how youtube started recommending me this sort of stuff that is simply invaluable to learn. I'm using it to find out more information about my missing gf

[@Negi155]

Is she OK now?!

[@Negi155]

You founded her?!

[@bhargavaithal]

Did you find her?

[@zurgesmiecal]

​@@bhargavaithal she was hiding from him...well, too bad he was able to find her

[@DonnyDarko5]

Just watched the first episode. I know I'm very late but I'm thankful to you for providing these really informative and resourceful videos to all those who want to learn about OSINT. Thanks a lot Ben!

[@Bendobrown]

You are never late!

[@charliejaay3858]

just watched your first episode, which I discovered today. Really useful. Thanks Ben. Will do some practice now and watch episode 2 tomorrow. Thank you!

[@Bendobrown]

Very welcome 🙏

[@AndrewWayneV]

I must say this is kind of scary. I took a picture I have had on my pc for years. Came across it on the internet and thought it was cute but had no context. Using the google search and after reading a couple of posts that were linked in the search found the exact location of the image in less than 10 minutes on google maps. Wild.

[@Bendobrown]

Well done - and yes, it's definitely scary what you can do with a little bit of 'good googling'.

[@elliotalderson6769]

Fun stuff. OSINT/infosec Twitter brought me here. Keep it up.

[@Bendobrown]

Awesome, thank you!

[@samaxe6495]

A friend sent this link to me. Thanks Ben, this is very useful.

[@Bendobrown]

Happy to help Sam

[@MacMcCaskill]

Excellent tutorial. Easy to follow and using readily available apps & tools to do interesting & useful stuff. I'm hooked! 👍🙂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@Bendobrown]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@maciej5866]

Google had taken down the option of image search replacing it with Google Lens, way inferior tool. Its results are way worse, it has no option to filter by resolution or sort by date.

[@majdnadour4210]

Try yandex browser

[@RuonaJMeyer]

Thanks SO MUCH, Ben! We really appreciate this.

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you so much Ruona. I'm really glad and I hope it helps!

[@SoundzAlive1]

Thanks Ben, I used your profile pic as a test and boy it was hard to find out where it was taken but I did it. Using Google and Yandex but capturing a result of the bigger part of the building from another photo I was able to save it as a JPEG and put it back into the search engine. Sounds easy but took an hour so you could give it to someone who is new to see if they have got what it takes. To prove I found it without giving it away. There are two by the same name. André in Sydney

[@jheimissantos8682]

I'm watching all the videos. It is help with my academic paper that is about OSINT and War Ukraine.

[@adritoghosh8839]

You are a real god my friend keep making these video

[@Bendobrown]

Thanks, will do!

[@brianr6457]

Very informative. Good presentation. I am looking forward to the next one.

[@Bendobrown]

Awesome, thank you!

[@tonyyarbray]

decided I better start with #1 I think I watched #9 first but it made me want to watch the whole series...I wish everyone that uses social media would at least watch #1 or at least my family ...well they wont even do a google search about anything they think is true and start blathering about it I guess reverse photo search may be beyond them as well

[@TellurdogIsayhi]

This is SO sick! Thank you so much for uploading this series! Can’t wait to watch the remaining videos and soak up some good knowledge. I’d love an OSINT analyst job of some sort; doing this type of stuff would be so fun. Really wish yandex wasn’t primarily in russian. Would be a lot more useful.

[@Bendobrown]

Very welcome 🙏

[@ThaiRyder]

Hi Ben, thank you for the tutorial, I enjoy learning from you. Keep it up.

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you! 🙏

[@Koptanjozif]

لا اعرف كيف اشكرك .. انا متاخر جدا اعلم ذلك وهذا ليس مجالي بالمرة لكني احب التحقيقات منذ الصغر واحاول التعلم كهواية ليس اكثر ولذلك وصلت الي هنا لمحاولة آلفهم والتعمق... اود ان اشكرك لاني لا أفهم الانجليزية جيدا لكن فهمت من شرحك المبسط.. ممتن لك واتمني ان تزور بلادنا وتستمع بالاثار وسوف اكون رفيقك

[@zebecuro]

Allah abdul

[@DanMworia]

Good work Mr. Bendo. Please do an investigation on the mining of minerals in Tsavo National Park Kenya. The contractors are unknown.

[@way4708]

Great resource especially with the numbering system. Thanks' Ben

[@Bendobrown]

Glad it was helpful!

[@chigeryelam4061]

This is brilliant, keep up the good work dude.

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you 🙏

[@avocadoman6038]

Open source intelligence is wild

[@Bendobrown]

Indeed it is!

[@nitish3616]

Love watching your videos

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you 🙏

[@davidmarcus9871]

Solid explainer Ben. Thank you!

[@EmmanuelAnthony-c7h]

This information is so superb

[@Bendobrown]

Thanks a lot 🙏

[@RishiKumar-nz1tp]

Thanks.. so much learning information!!

[@Bendobrown]

Very welcome 🙏

[@southerncomfortuk]

Great explanation thank you 🙏

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you!

[@gr8bkset-524]

Very useful tutorial Ben. Were you able to authenticate the banh mi?

[@jamesryan5682]

Very nice tutorial Ben

[@Bendobrown]

Thanks James 🙏

[@OSINTtechniques]

This is excellent - thank you!

[@Bendobrown]

You are most welcome 🙏

[@oybekbotir]

Good job, Ben! Thnx!

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you too!

[@JohnJohn-tl7sr]

Thx a lot ben! It is really great content!

[@Bendobrown]

Thanks John! Really appreciate it!

[@goldengoatfilms9059]

Thank you Ben for making these videos. I’m an absolute beginner so is your #1 video the place to start to learn beginner friendly stuff ?

[@geoffreyzziwambazza7862]

Do these images have original residual meta data or have they changed hands so much that this would be considered unreliable (such as a screenshot, would reset the meta data)? Also are Google and Yandex using cross image comparison and recognition?

[@qj1eo]

Awesome ! Thank you so much man

[@Bendobrown]

No problem!

[@deathmakesmoresense5354]

thanks for clean video .

[@Bendobrown]

You are very welcome!

[@RicTokatic]

Hi Ben - Great vid, but it seems a bit has changed since you uploaded it.. is the only option to use google lens? it doesn't seem as powerful as the methodolgy you appear ro be using... am i missing somewthing -Yandex seems to still provide a reasonable selection of options.. anyway, thx for your hard work mate. Maybe you can recommend some other options for reverse searches?

[@Bendobrown]

Google Lens is still great, but it's good to keep in mind these things are always altered depending on policies that might lead to harms or other issues. For example, Yandex used to be amazing for facial recognition. But now it's not not great at all.

[@murtalaabdullahi5878]

Excellent

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@benreece7640]

Great work.

[@nomannoman2492]

Thank you 👍👍👍

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you!

[@hamedfathi4516]

Thanks, very useful

[@Bendobrown]

Glad it was helpful!

[@tzz615]

Terrific!

[@Coral_pepe]

thank u for using our arakan,btw im a rohingya

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you 🙏

[@qmoonwalker3847]

Amazing!

[@CristianoSilvestrecs]

Excelente. Muito obrigado.

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you!

[@jeremybrews2521]

Great Stuff

[@Bendobrown]

Cheers Jeremy!

[@KahbodSharif]

great video thanks ♥

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you too!

[@genesis5864]

learned a lot thanks!

[@Bendobrown]

You're welcome!

[@Sbatushe]

nice video, and good ending song

[@Bendobrown]

Cheers! And yes it's a really good track. It's called Dhaka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400003)

[@GG-ve1hv]

I am being bullied and I suddenly got paranoid a certain person pointing his phone video at me... So thankful, I found this vlog... Can I find photo of my face even I took photo/find of my clothing?

[@JonahRakitt]

Hey! Late to the party IK but how would you suggest we practice these skills?

[@Bendobrown]

You can watch my ‘let’s geolocate tutorials’ and my other osint at home videos to practice these steps. I also regularly post these things on Twitter/X at Bendobrown, and I always cite the source so you can try to follow along with the geolocations/verifications

[@InfosecGeekz]

Awesome TuT ben

[@Bendobrown]

Thank you!!

[@V34035]

Hello there. So I had a Q, I do graphic designing, and I just got scammed. Whenever I put the design on google Images, etc. All it shows is similar images but not mine. So how do I find if someone is using my stuff?

[@Bendobrown]

You can try entering text in the image reverse search as well for things such as objects you use in your images, or other text describing it - it's helpful to narrow down the results. The biggest thing is to diversify your image reverse search, so try yandex, tineye and others as well.

[@aryhelanna996]

Ben, do you work GEOINT for the public sector?

[@Bendobrown]

For an NGO on human rights actually!

[@brucewalker1908]

What does the part of this video have to do with geolocating

[@Bendobrown]

Well wouldn’t it be great if even before you start geolocating, you could do a simple image reverse search and see if someone else already did it. Also, an image elsewhere on the internet might have a location in the context…

[@trizzy2k165]

There is a fake image that doesnt pop up on any of these sites... what do i do???

[@Bendobrown]

Looking at things in the image such as shadows, whether it's cropped, whether there are signs of photoshopping such as cut and paste techniques might help. It's really a case by case basis.

[@unboxingreviewvlog7009]

Under*Time* I do not see the Custom Range in my laptop here in India. How do I do that?

[@MTKBull]

Hello, can you tell me how to Zoom-in and zoom-out with magnifier ?

[@Thevick___]

Bro i want to search the location using video

[@ilektrokioydio]

Could you please upload the original picture with the fire in the village so we can follow along? Thx :)

[@DANVIIL]

Looking forward to using this to find crimes against Gazans, thanks for your work.

[@annoyed707]

I used image reverse search to expose fake personal ads.

[@tuurblaffe]

what about the metadata of the picture? all modern camera's include gps coordinates in those, and if it is not removed it will stay in the metadata of the picture even if the picture is modified afterwards. and yes facebook might delete that data before exposing the picture to the rest of the world; that doesn't take away that there is no copy of the original image with the metadata still attached to it. you can always try to find the person that took the picture first place if it comes it depends on what you need to investigate in the first place if the picture is taken by a reporter or journalist you always should be able to ask them more information...

[@malau5704]

Thanks for the tutorial, very clear. Sadly when i'm going on my google image page and put an image it doesn't give me the same page as you with the website according to the image but it rather looks like the phone version. Any idea how to change it?

[@StyngRay1]

Why do I always get google lens and I get all the crazy clothes ads

[@jfmezei]

You forgot the possibility that Veronica was actually part of quintuplets so it is normal that you have 5 different people who look exactly the same :-) When investigating images, one also need to look at photoshop artifacts. (adding fire to the village for instance). Having multiple different images of the event helps corroborate its authenticity (and gives more details on its location). Recent image of floods in Germany had an expensive BMW with derogatory sticker in back window against Greta Thunberg. Turns out that this was added by comeone who made that version go viral, while the original source was seen only in one newspaper and didn't have that derogatory sticker (and the photoshop was excellent so hard to say it was a fake).

[@the-pot]

Why does yandex say it’s syria

[@Thevick___]

Can u make that video please broo ❤️

[@Bendobrown]

I did :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKDUiJWmj7qCidE

[@rushmore100]

Text in Image (Yandex) is that still available?

[@Bendobrown]

Yes it is

[@HighStrangenss]

TIL chrome-google+yandex

[@raihanr2985]

Yandex is not working, "The service is under construction. We will be back soon."

[@nai8374]

It has been sold (to Russia). I wonder if Ben would still recommend using it?

[@JonathanClayman-h3g]

you casually just blurt out that you can tils the camera and get a 3d imagery... it would be quite useful if you start by explaining how to actually get this done as I have no tilting option on my Google maps.

[@Unknown-rm4yq]

how did you install the macintosh

[@usernamemykel]

InVID is not working - anybody else?

[@thatguy7085]

Looks fun… however… in the US it is a crime to do this in most cases, unless you are a licensed private investigator.

[@Bendobrown]

I doubt Google would have these products if it was illegal in the US…

[@user-allah_God]

😂😂😂😂😂it dont work for me😂😂😂with respect, with google pic i see wrong pictures

[@fabulouslyfeline8238]

1k