Fact Check: Daylight robbery? Staged video of woman getting drugged and robbed goes viral as the real deal
India Today
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that CCTV footage of a woman getting robbed by a gang was a scripted video, filmed to create social awareness.
A video purportedly showing CCTV footage of a woman getting robbed by a gang after consuming “prasad” or holy offerings laced with sedatives has been making the rounds on social media.
In the video, we see a woman waiting at a bus stand being offered the supposedly drugged “prasad” by two other women. After eating it, the woman visibly loses consciousness. Following this, she is seen being robbed by the two women and a third man.
Several people on Twitter and Facebook shared the video with captions that warned people to remain vigilant and not accept “prasad” or strangers, adding that the location of the incident was not known.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that this was not a real incident caught on camera — it was a scripted video, filmed to create social awareness.
The viral posts have been archived here and here.
With the combination of InVID and keywords searches, we found the same video uploaded to a YouTube channel named “3rd Eye” on April 9, 2022. The title of the YouTube video read, “BE CAREFUL WITH STRANGERS | UNBELIEVABLE THINGS CAUGHT AT CCTV | Social Awareness Video By 3rd Eye”
The YouTube channel provided a disclaimer with the video that read: “Thank you for watching! Please be aware that this channel features scripted dramas and parodies to aware people [sic] in different situations. This channel brings social awareness videos. These short films are for entertainment purposes only!”
