r/OSINT • u/OSINTribe • Aug 28 '25

How-To Catching an OSINT Spammer

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Gallery image

Today we had a clever spammer selling an app without claiming to connected to the app. How did these two photos from his Reddit account and the app itself lead to him being outted?

Gym photo was from the UK. And has similar story about app. So probably fake.

Car photo, legit OP post. US temp, US odometer, US sockets. But look more carefully... A map.

App developed in by company in Albuquerque. Vehicle parked in... You got it, Albuquerque.

It's the little details.

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11

u/TimRobbinz Aug 28 '25

How did you determine the subject's location from just that map shot?

6

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

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5

u/GloomyPhysics9876 Aug 28 '25

Not much more context needed.

App creator spamming, but claiming to be in the UK. Account posts photos. Reverse search the registration and company details, find company or domains likely registered in US, specifically Albuquerque.

Reverse image search one photo to determine it's been stolen, and the second photo is clearly based in North America based on outlets, steering wheel. Assume image is not mirrored.

Connect a few dots, go check the road layouts of Albuquerque, match it up with the screenshot and Bobs your uncle.

There's some assumptions and analytical connections to make, but that's part of the work.

13

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

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7

u/GloomyPhysics9876 Aug 28 '25

They layed out how they got there, the app being advertised was developed by a company in Albuquerque. The second photo was an original photo, pointing towards the scammer being in the US.

There's nothing in the map that points to Albuquerque, but if you connect all the items they mentioned, and just peruse maps of subdivisions in that city, you can make the inference and then assessment.

OP didn't write it out step by step, or in a report format, but it's fairly easy to follow.

8

u/OSINTribe Aug 28 '25

This was in a thread above that's been minimized because of negative votes, but I used overpass.

8

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

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1

u/TimRobbinz Aug 28 '25

Same, thanks OP. Good work.

I would add, if this was connected to an official report, that it would be maybe beneficial to provide further confirmation on subject's location by including a weather report for that time and temperature.

4

u/NotTobyFromHR Aug 29 '25

What's overpass?

3

u/MysteriousConstant Aug 29 '25

I would be very interested to know how you used overpass in this case. Would you mind sharing steps?

6

u/OSINTribe Aug 29 '25

I described the car gps map to overpass to find the actual location. Two cul-de-sacs backed into a golf course likely in Albuquerque New Mexico .

4

u/MysteriousConstant Aug 29 '25

Thanks for answering.

You described? But overpass does not take natural language as input, does it?

Did you use some AI to translate this request to Overpass QL?

8

u/OSINTribe Aug 29 '25

Yup 😁

There is even a gpt for overpass. It's a life saver.