Customer sent a photo of a damaged item? How to check it is real
A photo of a broken item is the most common evidence in a damage claim. Here are the checks your support team can do in two minutes before refunding.
Updated 2026-11-03 · Veriflied
Five checks you can do yourself
Is it the right item?
Is it the same model, colour and size the customer bought? Fake photos often use a similar product found online.
Search the image
Run a reverse image search with Google Lens. If the photo already exists online, it is not the customer's own.
Packaging and surroundings
Does the background look like an ordinary home? Does the packaging match what you ship in?
Ask for another angle
A real photo can always be followed by a new one from another side. An edited image cannot.
Customer history
Has the customer claimed before? Repeated claims from the same customer are the strongest single signal.
What the eye cannot see
Phone photos store camera, time and often location inside the file. If that information is missing, or shows the image was made in an editing app, it is worth a closer look. Many chat and email systems strip it, though, so missing data is not proof on its own.
The pixels can be analysed regardless. An AI detector assesses whether the image was generated and whether a single region was edited. That is how most fake damage is made: a real photo of an intact item with only the damage added.
Make it a routine
Reviewing every photo by hand is not realistic. Let a tool check the photos automatically, and spend time only on the ones that get flagged. The Veriflied app for Shopify does exactly that and posts the result straight into Gorgias or Zendesk.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to analyse a customer's photos?
Yes, when the analysis is done to handle the customer's own claim. Veriflied processes images in the EU.
What if the photo is flagged but the customer insists?
Ask for the item back and pay the shipping. If the damage is real, the customer gets the refund. If not, the claim usually goes away.
Does it work on video?
The analysis is built for images. Ask for a still from the video, or for a new photo.
Try it on your own document
Create an account and analyse your first 10 images or documents for free. You get a report with the concrete findings, not just a score. All processing in the EU.