#FactCheck-AI-Generated Video Falsely Shows Mishandling of Baggage at Indian Airport
Executive Summary
A video is being widely shared on social media claiming to show baggage handlers in India carelessly unloading passenger luggage from an aircraft cargo hold. The clip allegedly shows a handler ignoring standard procedures and throwing bags directly onto the tarmac instead of placing them on a motorized conveyor belt. CyberPeace Research Wing research found the video to be entirely fake. The clip has been generated using artificial intelligence (AI) and is being falsely shared as a real incident from India.
Claim
An X user, I.P. Singh (@IPSinghSp), shared the video on June 25, claiming it shows baggage handlers unloading luggage from an aircraft in India. The post criticized the alleged mishandling of passenger baggage and questioned aviation authorities over poor service standards.
The accompanying post read:
“When will the DGCA and the Civil Aviation Minister finally pay attention? Despite high airfares, this is the state of passengers’ luggage. The Ministry of Civil Aviation should learn from Japan and China how luggage should be handled.” https://x.com/IPSinghSp/status/2070164107551273109?s=20 , https://archive.ph/heiHA
Fact Check
A detailed analysis of the footage revealed multiple visual inconsistencies suggesting AI generation. Notably, even after the baggage handler seen initially tossing the luggage exits via the conveyor belt, bags continue to emerge from the cargo hold and fall onto the tarmac on their own. This physically impossible sequence strongly indicates digital manipulation. To verify these findings, the video was analyzed using the AI detection tool Hive Moderation. The results indicated that a significant portion of the footage was generated using artificial intelligence.
Conclusion
Our research confirms that the viral video is entirely fake. It has been generated using AI and is being misrepresented as a real incident from India involving baggage handling at an airport.
Related Blogs
Executive Summary
A video is going viral on social media showing a massive building engulfed in flames and collapsing into debris. It is being widely claimed that Iran launched a powerful attack that destroyed Israel’s army headquarters. However, research by CyberPeace reveals that this claim is misleading. The viral video is AI-generated and has no connection to any real-world event.
Claim
An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the viral video with the caption: “Iran has targeted Israel’s army headquarters. It seems Israel’s dream of becoming ‘Greater Israel’ will remain unfulfilled.”
Post link:
- https://x.com/KAMESHKUMAR96/status/2039009484069368083
Archived version:
- https://archive.ph/HKXkK
- https://x.com/KAMESHKUMAR96/status/2039009484069368083
- https://archive.ph/HKXkK
Similar videos have also been shared by other users on social media:
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. During this process, we found several credible media reports confirming that Iran has carried out drone and missile attacks on Israel and the Gulf regions in recent times. However, none of these reports featured the viral video, indicating that it is not authentic footage.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxDBX90bYng
A closer examination of the video revealed multiple visual inconsistencies commonly associated with AI-generated content. For instance, a building on the left side appears to bend and collapse in a rubber-like manner—something that is physically unrealistic for structures made of concrete and steel. Additionally, the smoke and flames appear unnatural and lack realistic dynamics.
To further verify, we analyzed the video using the AI detection tool Hive Moderation, which classified it as 99.9% AI-generated.
We also tested the video using the Deepfake-o-Meter platform.The AVSRDD (2025) model detected it as 99.5% AI-generated
Conclusion
Our research clearly establishes that the viral video claiming Iran destroyed Israel’s army headquarters is false and misleading. The footage does not appear in any credible news coverage of recent attacks, which strongly indicates that it is not real. Moreover, multiple AI detection tools consistently classify the video as artificially generated, with extremely high probability scores. Visual anomalies in the clip further support this finding.
A video is being widely shared on social media showing a monkey, with users claiming that the animal is immersed in devotion to Lord Hanuman. The clip is being circulated with assertions that the monkey was seen participating in Hanuman Aarti. Cyber Peace Foundation’s research found that the viral claim is fake. Our investigation revealed that the video is not real and has been generated using artificial intelligence tools.
Claim
On January 6, 2026, Facebook users shared the viral video claiming, “A monkey was seen immersed in devotion during Hanuman Aarti.”
- Post link: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1261813845766976
- Archived link: https://archive.ph/anid5
Screenshots of the post can be seen below.
FactCheck:
When we closely examined the viral video, we noticed several visual inconsistencies. These anomalies raised suspicion that the video might be AI-generated. To verify this, we scanned the video using the AI detection tool Hive Moderation. According to the results, the video was found to be 97 percent AI-generated.
Further, we analysed the video using another AI detection tool, Sightengine. The tool’s assessment indicated that the viral video is 98 percent AI-generated.
Conclusion
Our investigation confirms that the viral video claiming to show a monkey immersed in devotion to Lord Hanuman is AI-generated and not real. The claim circulating on social media is false and misleading.
India’s Rapid Digital Expansion
Over the past decade, India has experienced a rapid digitalisation process. The rise of digital financial services, affordable internet costs, and the penetration of smartphones have transformed the way people communicate, transact and do business online.
Online payment systems, including Unified Payments Interface (UPI), have enabled real-time transactions between banks and financial systems. As much as these systems have enhanced access to finance and efficiency, they have also created new opportunities for cybercriminals.
Cybercrime has evolved alongside the shift of financial and social interactions to digital platforms. The fraud attacks on online payments, online banking, and personal information have become common and increasingly costly.
To analyse the scale and trend of cybercrime in India, this analysis will use the datasets released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and financial fraud data released by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Rise of Cybercrime in India
The Rise of Cybercrime in India
Source: National Crime Records Bureau – Crime in India Reports
The data released by the NCRB documents cybercrime incidents registered by the police at the national level under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) and criminal provisions covering offences such as cheating, impersonation, and digital fraud. In the past, the offences were listed in the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Following criminal law reforms in India, on 1 July 2024, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the IPC, came into force. Section 419 (cheating by impersonation), IPC, would be related to BNS Section 319 and Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), which would be related to BNS Section 318(4). Similarly, crimes involving forgery and use of forged documents or electronic documents, which were previously contained in the IPC Sections 465-471, are dealt with in BNS Sections 335-340.
The data published by the NCRB represent the number of crimes that reached the point of the First Information Report (FIR) registration, meaning they reflect only cybercrime cases that were formally presented to the law enforcement system to investigate, rather than all complaints reported. The data shows that cybercrime cases increased from 27,248 in 2018 to 86,420 in 2023, a 3.17-fold increase in 5 years.
Two structural shifts are visible: the post-pandemic jump and subsequent acceleration.
However, these figures likely underestimate the true scale of cybercrime because many incidents are reported only through online complaint portals and may not result in FIR registration.
The Financial Scale of Digital Fraud
The Financial Scale of Digital Fraud
This dataset tracks financial fraud complaints reported through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and the estimated financial losses associated with those complaints.
The financial losses reported between 2021 and 2024 increased by 41 times over four years, compared to 2021, from 551 crore to 22,848 crore. At the same time, the number of complaints rose from 262,846 to over 1.9 million, an increase of ~623%, indicating both rising victimisation and greater public awareness of reporting mechanisms.
The contrast between these two trends is striking:
While complaints increased by around 7 times, financial losses increased by over 40 times.
Distribution of Cyber-Fraud Complaints and Financial Losses by Fraud Type
This divergence implies an uneven relationship between the number of incidents and the financial damage that they inflict. Most cyber fraud incidents involve relatively small transaction values; however, a smaller group of fraud categories result in disproportionate numbers of financial losses.
Distribution of Financial Losses Across Major Cyber-Fraud Categories in India
As reported by The Indian Express, based on the data compiled by the I4C, investment-related scams alone account for roughly 77% of reported cyber-fraud losses, followed by smaller shares from “digital arrest” scams (8%), credit card fraud (7%), sextortion (4%), e-commerce fraud (3%), and malware or app-based fraud (1%). This distribution means that even though scams with lower values, like phishing, OTP fraud, and small payment fraud, produce a high proportion of complaints, few categories of fraud produce most of the financial losses.
Analysis
1. Cybercrime is expanding faster than most traditional crimes: The fact that cybercrime cases have tripled in five years shows that cyber offences are presently becoming a significant element of Indian crime. Unlike conventional crimes that require physical proximity, cybercrime can be conducted remotely and at scale, enabling perpetrators to target large numbers of victims simultaneously.
2. Financial losses are concentrated in a small set of fraud categories: As cases of cybercrimes have been on the increase, the monetary losses of digital fraud cases have been increasing at a higher rate. The fact that the number of reported financial losses has increased 40 times in 4 years indicates that cybercrime has a very high economic impact.
3. Complaint volumes and financial damage follow different patterns: When comparing complaints and financial losses, it is evident that cyber fraud losses are unevenly distributed across types of incidents. Most of the prevalent scams reported, including phishing or OTP fraud, involve relatively small transaction values but yield a high portion of complaints. Conversely, fewer categories of fraud, especially investment-based schemes, contribute a significantly higher percentage of total financial losses.
4. Digital financial infrastructure has expanded the attack surface: India’s rapid adoption of digital payment systems, mobile banking and digital financial systems has dramatically increased the number of potential victims of cybercriminals. The scale of online transactions creates new vulnerabilities that organised cybercrime networks take advantage of.
5. Reporting improvements reveal previously hidden crime: The expansion of national reporting systems has enhanced the transparency in the trends of cybercrime. The increase in the number of complaints recorded is partially due to improved reporting systems and not necessarily to the increased criminal activity, meaning that previous data might have understated the magnitude of cyber fraud.
Recommendations
1. Move from reactive policing to proactive cyber-risk monitoring: The conventional models of policing focus on investigation of crimes that have already taken place. With such a magnitude and pace of cyber fraud, India should have systems that are designed to detect and prevent the fraud at its early stages, such as real-time observation of suspicious patterns in transactions by financial institutions.
2. Strengthen financial intelligence sharing across institutions: There are a lot of instances of cyber fraud that use more than one bank, payment system, and telecommunication provider. To detect new networks of fraud sooner, it can be suggested to establish more information-sharing measures between the financial institution and law enforcement agencies.
3. Target organised cyber fraud networks rather than individual incidents: Many digital scams operate through organised networks that coordinate phishing, mule accounts, and fake payment channels. The solution in regard to this involves dismantling these networks through investigative procedures instead of treating incidents on a case-by-case basis.
4. Improve recovery mechanisms for stolen funds: The recovery of the funds lost is one of the most difficult issues in cases of cyber fraud. Expanding systems such as the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) can improve the speed at which fraudulent transactions are frozen or reversed.
5. Strengthen digital financial literacy: A significant percentage of cyber frauds are based on social engineering methods that take advantage of user behaviour as opposed to technical weaknesses. Victimisation can be greatly reduced through specific public awareness efforts on typical scam schemes.
Conclusion
India’s experience illustrates a broader global trend: as economies digitise, crime increasingly follows the flow of digital money. While cybercrime incidents are rising steadily, the much faster growth in financial losses suggests that cybercriminals are becoming more organised, technologically sophisticated, and economically motivated.
References:
- https://indianexpress.com/article/india/indians-lost-rs-53000-crore-fraud-cheating-cases-six-years-maharashtra-2025-10452185/
- https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2226441®=3&lang=2 -
- https://www.ncrb.gov.in/crime-in-india.html
- https://i4c.mha.gov.in/index.aspx
- https://i4c.mha.gov.in/index.aspx
