Under Romania’s 2021 law aimed at protecting forests, every truckload of wood or timber products must be photographed and uploaded to an electronic tracking system (SUMAL) to ensure that they are being logged with permission, so that inspectors can confirm that loggers are only harvesting wood from authorised species. However, SUMAL cannot detect fake images, and reporters have recently uncovered that some drivers, instead of submitting legitimate photos of their wood or timber, are instead uploading fake or unrelated images (including drinking parties), reusing the same photo multiple times, or taking photos of photos. This raises significant questions on the integrity and reliability of the monitoring system, increasing the risks for companies of buying illegally logged wood, with repercussions on financial institutions financing timber purchases or facilitating related transactions.