On LinkedIn, Samuel Oluwagbemiga is a brand photographer, a virtual and remote photographer, and a storyteller who is inspiring others to take up virtual photography and earn in foreign currencies across the world – a brand which would have been nothing short of aspirational if it wasn’t a bogus lie.

What is true is that Oluwagbemiga has been claiming copyright over photos belonging to other photographers to pass himself off as a virtual photographer, misleading his unsuspecting audience into paying him to teach them about virtual and remote photography or contracting him for a virtual photo session.

About a month ago, Oluwagbemiga posted photos of Chef Love who, according to him, was Nigerian and resident in the United Kingdom. He claimed that the photos were a result of one of his virtual photography sessions shot using his phone and even posted a snapshot of messages exchanged between him and the said client.

“Chef Love (a Nigerian), who resides in the UK, had her first virtual session with me for her brand, and she’s yet to get over the experience. She was so surprised at how easy it was to get her images taken from a distance, while I was at my end creating clean and authentic virtual shots. And seeing the final image, she couldn’t tell the difference,” Oluwagbemiga wrote on his LinkedIn page.

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FIJ found that the person in question was not Chef Love but Sandra Brooks, a clinical psychologist who championed plant-based nutrition, and she was photographed by Meg Marie, a San Diego-based brand photographer.

Similarly, in another LinkedIn post, he claimed to have shot ‘Valerie’ for her birthday, but it was in fact a photograph of Tina Barr, a Ukrainian actress and journalist, which was shot by Nastya Boreiko, a female Ukrainian photographer professionally known as photobypinkfox, who had the photo pinned on her Instagram page.

Oluwagbemiga also had Barr’s pictures as one of his pinned images on Instagram.

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There were also photographs of soon-to-be-wed couples Shelby Alvarez and Fabian taken by Utah wedding photographer Mady, alias visuals.jm, and a family photoshoot taken by BreAnne Weston, a Utah-based photographer, which Oluwagbemiga claimed to have shot virtually.

FIJ noticed that Oluwagbemiga only lifted photos shot by female photographers, among whom were Aubrey Burman, a Michigan-based wedding and brand photographer whose Instagram pinned photo he claimed to own; Utah photographers Hannah Mack, Breanne Weston, and Mady; and San Diego photographer Meg Marie.

FIJ contacted Oluwagbemiga through WhatsApp for comments on our findings, and he admitted to obtaining the photos from Instagram, adding that he had given due credit.

“All these pictures were later given credit that they are from Instagram. And all pictures I snapped, I have it in my portfolio on the app shot virtually (sic).”

FIJ confirmed that Oluwagbemiga had yet to acknowledge any of the original photographers on his LinkedIn posts or admit that the images he claimed to own were taken from Instagram.

Those photographs were still on Oluwagbemiga’s LinkedIn and Instagram pages at press time.