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Multiple misleading posts on Facebook shared by Sri Lankan users feature a YouTube video by a Korean travel blogger who visited Sri Lanka. The posts claimed the tourist was scammed by train station staff who charged him a higher price when he purchased a ticket to travel from the capital Colombo to the southern Sri Lankan town of Galle. The blogger later clarified that the situation had stemmed from a misunderstanding and that he had not been scammed. The country has revised train fares but had yet to print updated tickets with the new price, instead continuing to use the old ones, a fact corroborated by the railway authorities. The video clip shows a Korean YouTuber filming himself buying a train ticket at a railway station in Sri Lanka. He asks the ticket counter operator why he was charged 500 rupees ($1.40) for a second-class ticket from Colombo's Fort railway station to Galle when the price written on the ticket reads Rs. 240 ($0.70). Later in the video, the YouTuber, travel blogger Yoon Heechul, complains that he was scammed by station staff who charged me a foreigner rate. Why would tourists even think of visiting Sri Lanka? reads a Sinhala-language Facebook post that shared the video on November 22, 2022. Look at what's happening here. Even while the tourist is filming, the Rs. 240 ticket is sold at Rs. 500. Screenshot of the Facebook post captured on November 28, 2022 Similar Facebook posts shared the video, including here and here , claiming it showed Yoon being scammed. Some social media users appeared to believe the claim. Wow! I've seen tourists being scammed by tuk-tuks but shame on our public transport system for doing this, one comment read. Another wrote: They scam tourists and expect them to bring us revenue! However, the posts are misleading. Miscommunication Yoon left a comment on the video he posted on YouTube on November 16, saying he later realised that he had not actually fallen victim to a scam. He said he became suspicious when the ticket counter operator appeared to quote him a price of 240 rupees, but then suddenly changed the price to 500 rupees. However, the ticket operator was actually referring to the train's departure time when he said 2:40, and not the ticket price. The Sri Lanka Railways website shows that there is indeed a daily service departing from Fort railway station at 1440 hours . Yoon adds that there was further confusion as the ticket price written on the ticket -- 240 rupees -- did not reflect the genuine price, which had gone up following a hike in train fares. I thought he was lying, Yoon wrote in Korean. But I was since told that the country did not have any money, so they continue to use old tickets instead of printing new ones as they have run out of paper. I misunderstood. There was a mistake in the ticket price. It's not a scam, he wrote. The price of a second-class ticket from Colombo Fort to Galle is listed as 500 rupees on Sri Lanka railways' website . Sri Lanka's railways department announced a revision of train fares in July, local media reported . A representative for Sri Lanka Railways confirmed that the price indicated on tickets did not necessarily match the updated price. He was not scammed, W.A.D.S. Gunasinghe, general manager of Sri Lanka Railways told AFP on November 28. Due to a paper shortage, we did not print tickets with revised rates, he explained. The island is currently gripped by its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, with surging prices of food, fuel and essential medicines hitting its 22-million-strong population. Fact-checking organisation Fact Crescendo Sri Lanka also debunked this claim.
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