FALSE: OFW positive for coronavirus raped by camel in Riyadh

Claim: An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) positive for the coronavirus was raped by her employer’s pet camel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to multiple website links shared on Facebook. 

The links came from websites global.topnews-p0rtal.xyz, t0daysfastn0w.xyz, news-stat1st1cs.xyz, and uslivebr0adcast.xyz. All 4 websites posted the claim that said “COVID-19 Positive na OFW sa Riyadh, PINA-GAHASA ng Amo sa Alagang CAMEL, KRITIKAL pa rin (Employer of COVID-19-positive OFW in Riyadh left to her to be raped by pet camel).”

The links redirect to different websites: headlines.tubetv.club, gl0balp0rtalsp0t.xyz, newscentral.newsregistry.xyz, and usn0w.xyz. The webpages all have an embedded video that look like a news clip from GMA News’ evening news program, 24 Oras.

When clicked, the videos only play for a few seconds then stop to ask the viewer to share the link on their own social media accounts to “uncover” the rest of the clip.

A reader sent a link to the claim to Rappler’s email for verification. Claim Check also flagged at least 44 unique links from the 4 mentioned domains that carried this claim. Claim Check is Facebook’s monitoring tool that identifies suspicious posts shared across the platform for fact checkers to verify.

YouTube channel simple aveshnekov uploaded the video embedded by the websites on June 9. As of writing, the video had 865,127 views on YouTube.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The video embedded in the webpages is a doctored clip. The original report from GMA News was about an OFW raped by a policeman in Kuwait and was aired in October 2012 – over 7 years before the first case of novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China.

There were also no recent reports from any legitimate news organization about a COVID-19-positive OFW raped by a camel in Riyadh.

Rappler found the original clip of the report uploaded by GMA News’ verified YouTube channel. There was no mention of the preposterous claim involving a camel in the 24 Oras report.

YouTube channel simple aveshnekov, the channel that uploaded the doctored clip, is also not listed as a featured channel in GMA News’ verified account. It had uploaded other videos containing false information in the past, such as a death hoax involving Dwayne Johnson. The videos it uploaded all lasted under a minute.

On June 2, Rappler debunked a similar claim that said an OFW who tested positive for coronavirus was beheaded in Saudi. The same clickbait method was used in this claim, where users are asked to share the link on social media first before the whole clip can be viewed. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

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