Many people use the same profile photo on LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, or Telegram. Those platforms may not have the same guard.

The glow of the laptop was the only light in Elias’s cramped apartment. On the screen, a tab was pulled up to a site that looked like it belonged in 2005:

By entering a target's profile URL, you might be feeding data to a phishing site.

If the person uses the same photo on other social media platforms (like Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter) and those platforms are public, you can use a reverse image search. Take a screenshot of the small profile picture.

This public link is valid for 7 days and shares a thread, including any personal information you added. This link or copies made by others cannot be deleted. If you share with third parties, their policies apply. Can’t copy the link right now. Try again later.

The most common scam is phishing. A site may ask you to "log in with Facebook to verify you are human." This doesn't verify anything; it sends your username and password directly to the scammers. Once they have your credentials, they can take over your account, scam your friends, or mine it for sensitive personal data.