A screenshot of the Facebook video
The altered Facebook video begins with footage of Nine News presenter Davina Smith. (Image by Facebook)

Manipulated Nine News report attempts to deceive

Meg Williams December 20, 2022
WHAT WAS CLAIMED

Nine News has spruiked a supposed money-making mobile phone app.

OUR VERDICT

False. The Nine News footage has been manipulated. The original report was about the late rugby league coach Paul Green.

A video shared to Facebook appears to show a Nine News report about a mobile app that has supposedly turned thousands of people into millionaires.

But the video has been manipulated. The Nine News footage has been taken from an August 2022 report about a ceremony held for late rugby league coach Paul Green.

The clip was spliced together with footage of a person playing a gambling app, a clip of person thumbing a bundle of cash and an interview with a Ukrainian esports personality.

The video had 75,000 views at the time of writing, and was shared by a Facebook page created in September with only two followers.

The video begins with footage of Nine News presenter Davina Smith, whose voice has been muted and overlaid with a voiceover saying: “New mobile app that has become the number one in Australia. Thanks to this app, more than 10,000 people become millionaires, and that number is growing every day.”

The video then cuts to footage of someone holding a mobile phone using what appears to be a gambling app.

The voiceover continues: “Tom Brown is one of the winners. According to him, he made a deposit only $20 (sic), and after five minutes he won the jackpot equalling $25 million. The reward immediately came to his card.”

The video then shows the person opening a Commonwealth Bank phone app to reveal a total balance of $25,083,502.

The voiceover continues: “The owners of this application said that new players are rewarded with bonuses, and they ask to hurry up because the registration is only available until the end of the month. If you want to become one of the lucky ones, we advise you to be quick. You can download this app with the link below.”

A person holding several 0 notes
 The Facebook video clip shows footage of a person thumbing a bundle of cash. 

At about the 26 second mark, the video cuts to an interview with a man, suggesting that he is the “Tom Brown” referred to earlier in the video.

This footage comes from an interview with Ukrainian esports player Vladimir ‘Noone’ Minenko.

The altered Nine News report used in the post can be seen here. The August 30 report features a segment on a farewell ceremony held for late rugby league legend Paul Green.

AAP FactCheck has previously fact-checked similar Facebook videos that used manipulated footage of Australian media (see here and here).

The Verdict

The claim that Nine News aired a segment about a mobile app that has turned thousands of people into millionaires is false.

The news report has been manipulated using unrelated footage and a voiceover. The original Nine News story was about a farewell ceremony held for late rugby league coach Paul Green in August 2022.

False – The claim is inaccurate.

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