Claim
A video showing the police making public awareness campaigns, alerting people not to answer calls from phone numbers beginning with '140', has revived with false claim that it happened in Bengaluru. The video on Facebook has been captioned as, “Plz pass it to ur family & friends also. This happened in Bangalore today.” BOOM also received the video on its WhatsApp tipline (7700906588).
Fact
BOOM had debunked this video earlier in July, 2020 when it was viral claiming receiving calls from phone numbers starting with '140' can wipe out your savings from banks. We found that these announcements were made by Mumbai police in response to a promotional campaign by SonyLIV, an online streaming platform, for its upcoming show Undekhi. As part of the promotional activity, several users received cold calls on the morning of July 10, 2020, with a recorded message about witnessing a murder. The calls were made from a number beginning with 140, a code commonly used for telemarketing purposes in India. SonyLiv had facedbacklash online and tendered apology following several social media users reporting the calls to Mumbai Police. Harish Baijal, DIG, Cyber Security Maharashtra Police, had confirmed BOOM in July, 2020, that after complaints against the SonyLIV promotional calls, police mobile vans patrolling made the announcements seen in the viral clips. The Maharashtra Cyber Police had also tweeted at that time clarifying that the videos showed public addresses by cops.