Scamdigger is based on a technology called CBIR (Content Based Image Retrieval). This is a relatively new technology, still under research and not widely used on the Internet yet. Only a few sites utilize this technology. Tineye is the first search engine that uses CBIR. The CBIR web applications available for websites are currently very limited. This search is not perfect, but at least it is a start. We make all possible efforts to make it easy to use and useful for your research.

One downside of this search is that it cannot re-index pictures during the runtime. This means that in order to add new pictures to the database, we have to turn the search facility off. This is why we have the "updates to forum" collection. Instead of reindexing the whole forum collection everytime we need to add a few pictures and keeping the search page down for a long time, we add these new images to the small "updates to forum" section, for faster re-indexing and to reduce the search downtime. We are currently working on possibility of re-indexing pictures in the runtime.

From time to time we will merge the "updates to forum" section with our major forum collections. This takes some time. Here we will announce when the merger is done, when it is coming, as well as other news and updates.

What is new:

• June 20, 2009 - we finally moved to a new more powerful server. Scamdigger should work much faster now. We also put all our collections back. There is still a problem with keeping it up all the time. If you see a message "Connection refused" that means the search server is down at the moment. Please try later. We are working on it.
• June 05, 2009 - we temporarily brought back romancescam image search. Other sites will be available after we move to a new better server (somewhere around June 20).
• May 26, 2009 - we are in the process of moving to a new server. During the move, scamdigger will be temporarily unavailable. Thanks for your patience.
• April 8, 2009 - merger of all pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection is complete. The Russian collection now contains images from former Russian Detective forum. The blog collection and new pictures from other sites are also updated.
• April 5, 2009 - planned merger of all pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection, scamdigger will be unavailable for some time. This merger will include pictures of Russian scammers aquired from Russian Detective.
• March 16, 2009 - merger of all pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection is complete. The new pictures from other scamlists are updated.
• March 14, 2009 - planned merger of all pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection, scamdigger will be unavailable for some time.
• February 26, 2009 - merger of all pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection is complete.
• February 18, 2009 - to provide users with better search results and in effort to unite our forces to fight scammers, we've also included few other popular quality scamlists in the search engine. If you are a scamlist owner and wish to be included into/excluded from search, please contact us via romancescam website contact page.
• February 17, 2009 - we brought the old fast algorithm back for those who need speed. You can access it here: here. But please note: this search is of much lower quality, it only recognizes the same exact pictures, doesn't handle altered pictures good, usually cannot find other images of the same person and similar results are quite irrelevant. Use it only if you are sure somebody is listed and need to locate a picture fast.
• February 16, 2009 - added the ability to save uploaded images for the next search. Now, if you want to search through several collection with the same image, you don't have to repeatedly reupload it. Simply check the box and your image will be saved for the next search.
• February 13, 2009 - fixed the filename bug. Now you don't have to worry about the filenames of your uploaded images.
• February 10, 2009 - merger of Russian pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection is complete.
• February 9, 2009 - merger of Nigerian males pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection is complete.
• February 9, 2009 - search results number is increased from 5 to 10. More results means more possibility of finding other pictures of the same person.
• February 8, 2009 - blog collections are updated.
• February 8, 2009 - merger of Nigerian females pictures from updates to forum with the main forum collection is complete.
• February 8, 2009 - search algorithm is changed. You might notice the search is slower now, but better quality. The new algorithm works a bit slower, but is more accurate at finding pictures. If we can find a sponsor for a faster server, it might help speeding search up :)

Scamdigger is a part of the romancescam.com website. If you have any questions or suggestions, please use the romancescam forums.