Beyond the screenshot: Why you should verify what you see

Digital Security

The screenshot may look convincing, but it doesn’t necessarily prove that the payment, booking or conversation is genuine

30 Jul 2026 • 6 min. read

Someone sends you a screenshot showing that a payment has gone through. It carries the right logo, amount, timestamp and transaction status. Yet the money never arrives.

What passes for proof today can generally be very different from just a few years ago. Screenshots, often commonly treated as a convenient record of a payment, message or online conversation, are hard to take at face value. To be sure, they have always been open to manipulation, but generative AI and other readily available tools have made convincing fabrications even quicker and easier to produce. Everything from bank transfers and bookings to social media posts and corporate chats can be easily created to order.

That’s bad news for consumers already facing a massive surge in...

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