Spammers and other unscrupulous advertisers are always looking for new ways to get you click on their pages. One of the latest tactics is to steal popular and useful stock images—like the kind you sometimes see in news articles—and re-upload them elsewhere.

垃圾邮件发送者和其他不道德的广告客户一直在寻找使您点击其页面的新方法。 最新策略之一是窃取流行且有用的图片，例如您有时在新闻文章中看到的图片，然后将其重新上传到其他位置。

If part of your job is finding and using images, and more importantly, making sure it’s legal to use them and to properly attribute them, this can be a serious problem. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself.

如果您的工作之一是查找和使用图像，更重要的是，确保使用和正确分配图像合法，那么这将是一个严重的问题。 幸运的是，有一些方法可以保护自己。

为什么要伪造免费图片？ (Why Fake a Free Image?)

So why would someone try to fake a free stock image if even the original photographer isn’t getting paid for it? It’s actually the free part that makes it lucrative: spammers are looking for stock photos that are posted with licensing terms that allow them to be used freely and modified, especially if that includes for-profit applications.

那么，即使连原始摄影师也没有得到报酬，为什么有人会伪造免费的库存图片呢？ 它实际上是使它赚钱的免费部分：垃圾邮件发送者正在寻找带有许可条款发布的股票照片，以使它们可以自由使用和修改，尤其是在其中包括营利性应用程序时。

The hook, as it were, is in the credit. A responsible writer or publisher always credits their photos in the article. Spammers are taking advantage of that courtesy: on popular sites like Flickr, they’ll upload other people’s photos and insist that you credit to a link to an external website. And that website is what they actually want to drive traffic to.

钩子确实是值得的。 负责任的作家或出版商总是将其照片归功于文章。 垃圾邮件发送者正在利用这种礼貌：在Flickr等受欢迎的网站上，他们将上传其他人的照片，并坚称您相信指向外部网站的链接。 而该网站正是他们实际想要吸引访问量的地方。

In fact, the traffic is secondary: by building up a network of links all going to a third-party site, they can enhance its search engine optimization and drive it up the rankings on tools like Google, irrespective of its actual content or value. It’s a dishonest way to create traffic for the web, and it’s built upon the theft of images from honest stock photographers.

实际上，访问量是次要的：通过建立一个链接均链接到第三方站点的链接网络，他们可以增强其搜索引擎的优化能力，并提高其在Google等工具上的排名，而无需考虑其实际内容或价值。 这是一种为网络创建流量的不诚实方法，它是建立在诚实的股票摄影师盗窃图像的基础上的。

阴暗的归因链接是无用的礼物 (Shady Attribution Links Are a Dead Giveaway)

Take this image, for example. I used it as a in an article last year. , and using the site’s tools, it’s tagged with a . That means that it’s free to use and modify for use in any other project, even if that project is part of a for-profit enterprise. The only restriction is that attribution (credit) must be given to the original photographer.

以这张图片为例。 去年，我在一篇文章中将其用作的。 ，并使用网站的工具为它标记一个。 这意味着，即使该项目是营利性企业的一部分，它也可以自由使用和修改以用于其他任何项目。 唯一的限制是必须对原始摄影师赋予出处(信用)。

And there’s the rub: the Flickr user isn’t the original photographer. I didn’t find the image on Flickr, , originally uploaded by Eric Bailey in 2014. The Flickr image, from someone calling themselves “Hamza Butt,” was uploaded to the site on June 28th of 2017. It’s a fake.

麻烦的是：Flickr用户不是原始摄影师。 我没有在Flickr上找到该图片，找到了该图片，该图片最初由Eric Bailey于2014年上传。该Flickr图片来自一个自称为“ Hamza Butt”的人，于2017年6月28日上传到该网站是假的

Now here’s the real kicker. The Flickr description says to credit a third-party website instead of Flickr, or even the photographer. That site advertises a series of treadmills from a single manufacturer, and what a coincidence: the article is dated just a few days before the copied photo was uploaded to Flickr. And of course, the site itself doesn’t even include the image in question.

现在是真正的踢脚者。 Flickr说明说要归功于第三方网站，而不是Flickr甚至是摄影师。 该网站刊登了来自一家制造商的一系列跑步机的广告，这是一个巧合：该文章的日期仅是将复制的照片上传到Flickr之前的几天。 当然，网站本身甚至不包含相关图片。

Looking through the other photos uploaded by “Hamza Butt,” you can see that every single one includes generous licensing terms (searchable with Flickr’s filters) and an insistence that any use of the image must be attributed to cheap advertising sites. The entire profile is nothing but a link farm, and it’s perpetuating itself by uploading generic, useful stock images that can be spread around the web.

浏览“ Hamza Butt”上传的其他照片，您会发现每个照片都包含慷慨的许可条款(可使用Flickr的过滤器进行搜索)，并坚持认为对图片的任何使用都必须归因于廉价的广告网站。 整个配置文件不过是一个链接服务器场，它通过上传可以在网络上传播的通用，有用的库存图片而得以延续。

检查图像信息并反向搜索伪造的图像 (Check Image Info and Reverse Image Searches for Fakes)

So asking for links to an unrelated website is an obvious clue that a stock image is a fake. But how else can you protect yourself when looking for legitimate images to use and credit? First of all, just be wary in general: since this new spamming and link farming technique has sprung up, popular sites like Flickr have been inundated with fake uploads, nearly all of them including free commercial use, free editing, and compulsory attribution in their licensing terms. Whenever you’re searching for something with those parameters, be extra careful.

因此，要求链接到一个不相关的网站是一个显而易见的线索，即股票图像是伪造的。 但是，在寻找合法图像以供使用和信誉时，您还能如何保护自己？ 首先，总体上要保持警惕：由于这种新的垃圾邮件和链接农业技术如雨后春笋般出现，像Flickr这样的流行网站已被伪造的内容所淹没，几乎所有内容都包括免费商业用途，免费编辑和强制归因于其内容。许可条款。 每当您搜索带有这些参数的内容时，请格外小心。

Second, check the tags: in order to maximize visibility in search, spammers will tag these photos as broadly as possible. Hamza Butt sometimes includes more than 20 tags on photos for this reason. Now, there are plenty of legitimate photographers who do the same thing for the same reason, high visibility, so don’t take this one indicator as immediate proof of nefarious intent.

其次，检查标签：为了最大程度地提高搜索的知名度，垃圾邮件发送者将对这些照片进行尽可能广泛的标记。 为此，Hamza Butt有时在照片上包含20多个标签。 现在，有很多合法的摄影师出于相同的原因和高度的知名度而做同样的事情，因此不要将此指标作为邪恶意图的直接证据。

Third, download a copy of the photo and use a reverse image search tool, like or . If it shows up on a different site with a different photographer giving credit, and especially if that version of the photo is significantly older and has different terms, you’ve probably found a fake. Look around for the oldest copy you can: if any one of them includes terms that don’t allow re-use or restrict corporate use or editing, it’s probably safest just to look for a different image.

第三，下载照片副本并使用反向图像搜索工具，例如或 。 如果它出现在不同的站点上，并且由不同的摄影师表示感谢，尤其是如果该照片的版本明显较旧且具有不同的术语，则可能是您发现了假冒产品。 环顾四周，寻找最旧的副本：如果其中任何一个包含不允许重复使用或限制公司使用或编辑的字词，则寻找另一张图片可能是最安全的。

Let’s try another one of “Hamza’s” images for example. of a man doing a pushup could be perfect for almost any general fitness page, and what do you know, it hits all of our alarms at once. It’s licensed for free corporate use and editing with attribution, it’s stuffed with general tags, and it begs users to credit a fake site for rowing machine reviews.

例如，让我们尝试另一张“ Hamza的”图像。 男人俯卧撑的几乎适用于所有常规健身页面，您知道吗，它会立即触发我们的所有警报。 它已获得免费提供给企业使用和带归属进行编辑的许可，里面塞满了通用标签，并且恳请用户将虚假网站归功于划船机的评测。

Downloading a copy of the photo and re-uploading it into Google Image search shows it’s being used on a lot of fitness sites like Nurse Buff and Minneapolis Running…and also on , where it’s posted with the same terms and no attribution necessary. It’s also in an album with many similar photos using the same model, and it was uploaded more than a year before the Flickr version, making it much more likely that this is the original uploader. If you’re in any doubt, be sure to .

下载照片的副本并将其重新上传到Google图像搜索后，表明该图片已在许多健身网站(如Nurse Buff和Minneapolis Running)上使用，并且在中使用相同的术语发布，并且无需注明出处。 它也存在于相册中，其中包含许多使用相同模型的相似照片，并且在Flickr版本之前已上传了一年多，这使其更有可能是原始上传者。 如有任何疑问，请务必。

When you’re looking for stock images, be aware of this new spamming technique. It’s getting harder and harder to spot the genuine article.

当您查找库存图像时，请注意这种新的垃圾邮件发送技术。 发现真正的文章越来越难。

Image credit (a real one):

图片来源(真实)：

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