A scripted video showing a woman stealing a man's mobile phone seconds before the metro door closes and the train leaves the station, is being shared falsely claiming it is a real incident.
BOOM found that the incident in the viral video is staged and confirmed with the YouTube channel that uploaded the video.
In the viral video, we hear people recording the video commenting saying that woman is just standing near the metro door and not entering the train, and seconds before the train doors close we see her snatch a man's mobile phone from his hand and run away.
The video is being shared on Twitter with different captions. Anand Kalra, who states in his bio that he is the BJP District Social Media Head, Ghaziabad, tweeted it with the caption when translated reads, "Beware of such girls while traveling in the metro."
(In Hindi -"मैट्रो में सफर करते समय ऐसी लड़कियों से सावधान रहें......!!")
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The same video was also tweeted by the Twitter account Inferno (@SmokingLiberals) with a sarcastic caption when translated reads, "I'm a girl, I can rob"
(In Hindi - "Ladki hoon, chori kar sakti hoon…")
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is scripted and is not from a real incident of a robbery at a metro station.
Taking a cue from the video, we ran a relevant keyword search with keywords such as 'woman' 'robbing'' 'mobile phone' 'metro' and found a longer video - 6.20 minutes which has a brief text disclaimer stating that the video has been created for 'entertainment purpose'.
The original video was uploaded on August 6, 2022, by the YouTube channel - 'Karan Munda Punjabi Viog' with the title, ''Metro Mein Chori | Girl caught stealing at metro station || This can happen to you too."
(In Hindi - Metro Mein Chori | Girl caught stealing at metro station || This can happen to you too.)
The visuals and sequence in this video match with the viral video which is 45 seconds long. In this longer video, the men recording the video run after the woman who stole the phone and recover the phone.
A disclaimer appears at the 16 seconds timestamp, which only lasts for one second and has small text reading, "DISCLAIMER: This content made in this video should be considered for entertainment purposes only, information contained herein is not intended to be source of advice or credit analysis with respect to the information presented any action you take inspiring from this video is stricity at your own risk & we will not be liable for any losses, and damages in connection with the use of information available in this video"
It further reads, "We respect every individual, profession and organisation any roleplay we perform solely to entertain you and not intended to hurt the sentiments of any person or community. Investing is always subject to market risk: this is viewer's responsibility to verify their own facts before investing."
BOOM then contacted Karan Sahdev who runs the YouTube channel. Sahdev confirmed that the viral video is scripted and claimed that the viral video was sent to him by a 'friend' who produced the video and sent him after which he uploaded it on his channel. However, he declined to disclose who created the video.
Sahdev also confirmed to us that the viral video was shot in Noida, Uttar Pradesh at Sector 52 Noida metro station which name can be seen in the viral video at the 34 seconds timestamp.
BOOM has in the past few months debunked staged videos made by content creators, that have been shared as real incidents. The content creators claim the videos are for 'entertainment or educational purposes only' or to create 'social awareness', but such videos are often a ploy to go viral and attract millions of views and Likes on Facebook and/or YouTube.
