Samsung nabbed passing off DSLR shots as camera samples of the Galaxy A8 Star

False advertising has become so prevalent in the smartphone market that users may as well get used to it. While Chinese OEMs are usually the culprits, companies from other countries tend to walk that dastardly path often too, with Samsung looking to be one of the more prominent names on the list. The South Korean giants were revealed to have used DSLR shots for promoting the Galaxy A8 a few months ago, and have now been caught doing the same thing with the A8 Star.

The source, a professional photographer, claimed that they took a picture and then had it listed on Getty Images. The stock photos were eventually purchased and a bout of curiosity led them to carry out a reverse image search, if only to find out where the images ended up at. The final destination? The Samsung Galaxy A8 Star’s product page.

It goes without saying that the device didn’t make it there without significant changes, as it had been heavily edited, and now sported a different background, color retouches, and bokeh. The last of which was the ultimate goal of the image, as it was meant to showcase the device’s bokeh abilities.

This isn’t anything new, though, and it’d be wise to assume that all implied camera samples are fake. We’ve had similar reports from Huawei and Xiaomi, and it’d be facetious to think most OEMs don’t walk the same path. If photographic prowess is a major factor in smartphone purchases for you, you’d do well to wait until the device gets into the hands of trusted reviewers—although even those seem to be rarer than unicorns these days.