The freelance writing market is enormous — and so is the pool of fraudsters trying to exploit it. Fake writers submit plagiarized or AI-generated content, steal the identities and portfolios of real writers, and collect payments for work they never deliver. Whether you are hiring a content writer for your blog, a copywriter for your marketing campaigns, or a technical writer for your documentation, you need to know that the person behind the keyboard is who they claim to be. A face search engine like facesearching gives you a fast, reliable way to verify a writer's identity. By running a reverse face search on their photo, you can find someone by photo and confirm whether their professional identity is genuine. This tutorial walks through the verification process step by step.
Step 1: Collect the Writer's Photo
Start by gathering the writer's photo from their professional presence. The best sources are their portfolio website, their LinkedIn profile, their author bio on platforms like Medium or Substack, their freelance platform profile (Upwork, Fiverr, Contently), or their social media accounts. Writers often use professional headshots or author photos on their websites and bylines. If the writer has no photo anywhere — no portfolio site, no LinkedIn, no author bio image — that is unusual for a professional who markets their services online. A clear, front-facing image with good lighting produces the most accurate reverse face search results. If the only photo available is a generic avatar or a stock-style image, proceed with caution.
Step 2: Run a Reverse Face Search
Upload the writer's photo to facesearching. The face search engine will analyze the facial features and scan over 100 social platforms, professional networks, news sites, and video sources. In under a minute, you will see a list of every public web location where that face appears. A legitimate writer should appear in professional contexts — their own portfolio site, publication bylines with their photo, LinkedIn, and possibly conference speaker pages or podcast appearances. If the face only appears on unrelated social media, stock photo sites, or under a completely different name and profession, those are warning signs. For a comprehensive understanding of the technology, read our complete guide to reverse face search.
Step 3: Verify the Writer's Portfolio and Bylines
A writer's portfolio is their most important credential, and it is also what fraudsters most commonly fabricate. For each claimed publication, go to the publication's website directly and search for the writer's byline. Confirm that the article exists, the date is correct, and the byline matches the writer's name. Be wary of writers who claim to have written for major publications but whose bylines cannot be found through the publication's own search function. Also check the writing samples themselves — do they match the writer's claimed expertise and quality level? A writer who claims to have written for The New York Times but whose samples read like they were written by a non-native speaker with no editorial oversight is almost certainly misrepresenting their work. The face search results should be consistent with the writer's byline identity across platforms.
Step 4: Check for Plagiarism and AI-Generated Content
A growing problem in the writing industry is the submission of AI-generated or plagiarized content as original work. Run the writer's samples through plagiarism detection tools like Copyscape or Grammarly's plagiarism checker. If the samples are available online under a different author's name, you have caught a plagiarist. Additionally, use AI content detection tools to check whether the samples appear to be generated by ChatGPT, Claude, or similar tools. While AI detection is not perfect, a high AI probability score across multiple samples should raise questions — especially if the writer claims the work is original. A legitimate writer will be able to discuss their writing process, research methods, and editorial experiences in detail. For more on verifying professional service providers, see our guide on verifying a marketing consultant's identity.
Step 5: Request a Video Call or Writing Test
Before committing to a long-term engagement, schedule a live video call with the writer. A genuine writer will be able to discuss their areas of expertise, their writing process, their experience with different editorial styles and style guides, and their approach to research and fact-checking. The video call also confirms that the person matches the photo you verified through face search. Consider offering a small paid trial assignment — a single blog post, a landing page, or a short article — to evaluate the writer's skills, communication style, and reliability before committing to a larger project. A legitimate writer will welcome a trial assignment as a fair way to demonstrate their abilities. A fraudster will make excuses or demand full payment upfront for untested work.
Red Flags When Hiring a Writer
- The writer's photo appears on a stock image site, belongs to a different professional, or is linked to a different name in the face search results
- The writer's claimed publications cannot be verified — the articles do not exist on the publication's website, or the bylines belong to a different person
- Writing samples show signs of plagiarism or AI generation when checked with detection tools
- The writer's rates are significantly below market — extremely low rates often indicate plagiarized, AI-generated, or outsourced work
- The writer refuses to do a video call, avoids real-time communication, or only communicates via email or messaging apps
- The writer demands full payment upfront, refuses a trial assignment, or cannot provide verifiable references from past clients
How facesearching Helps You Hire Genuine Writers
facesearching streamlines the writer verification process by giving you a comprehensive view of a writer's public online identity with a single photo upload. The tool scans over 100 platforms — including professional networks, news sites, blogs, and social media — and returns results with confidence scores in under a minute. This makes it easy to confirm that a writer's photo is genuinely connected to their claimed bylines, publications, and professional history. Photos are deleted immediately after processing, so you can verify writers without creating a privacy risk. To try it now, visit the facesearching home page and upload a writer's photo — you will know within seconds whether their professional identity holds up to scrutiny.
A writer's words may persuade you, but their photo tells the truth. One face search confirms whether the person behind the portfolio is the professional they claim to be.