- [Narrator] They say, "Never
judge a book by its cover." But even the best of us
are prone to judging people based on their appearance,
wealth, or societal status. Because of this, people
sometimes hide these things or even downright lie about them. So, from a secret millionaire
who pretended to be poor to a cop who pretended to
be a disabled homeless man, here are some people who
received very different treatment once they disguised themselves, and the weird and wonderful
reasons why they did so. (soft music) The Secret. If you're talking to someone
you've only met online, there's always a risk that they're not quite
who they appear to be. But when Vietnamese woman Nguyen Van Anh got talking online with a man
she'd met through Facebook, she could never have imagined
what would happen next. Like many of us, Nguyen had always dreamt of meeting the perfect person
to share her life with. Yet she'd stayed single through
all of her college years. It wasn't for lack of attention. A whole ton of guys had
tried to pursue her. Even so, nobody felt right for Nguyen. And so after graduating from college and securing herself a good job, she was still no closer to getting the one thing she really
wanted, a boyfriend. But love comes around
when you least expect it. One ordinary day back in 2016, Nguyen was scrolling through Facebook when she came across a picture of one of her favorite celebrities, stood with another man
she didn't recognize. The stranger was tagged in the photo, so out of interest Nguyen
clicked through to his profile. He just seemed like a normal guy. Maybe he knew her idol and would be able to
set her up to meet him. She excitedly messaged the man to ask and he responded almost immediately. His name was Dang Tuan, and
he was from Vietnam too, though he was currently living in Russia. Unfortunately, however, he didn't know Nguyen's celebrity idol. Despite the disappointment, she ended up chatting
to Dang Tuan some more, and the conversation evolved
onto all kinds of other topics. Dang was far from what
other girls she knew wanted. He didn't spend much, wore plain clothes, and seemed relatively, well, poor. But that didn't matter to Nguyen. She wanted someone for more
reasons than material wealth. Weeks went by, and the two
ended up in a whirlwind romance. Before she knew it, Nguyen was spending hours
chatting to Dang every day. After six months, the
pair called it official, and went on their first proper date. And only a few months after that, they decided to get married even though they'd only met a
couple of times in real life. Unsurprisingly, Nguyen's parents didn't approve of this one bit. How could the couple be so
sure they loved each other when almost their entire
relationship was based online? Disheartened at this, Nguyen told Dang about
her parents' opinion. So, eager to prove his
love for their daughter, Dang booked a flight and
flew to Vietnam to meet them. It took a bit of convincing, but they eventually came around. As far as they could tell, he
seemed completely legitimate. Oh, how little they really knew. Anyway, once Nguyen's parents
had given their blessings, the excited couple started
planning the wedding. Nguyen was prepared for a simple wedding. It was clear Dang didn't
have a lot of money, and she didn't need anything grand. But when it was Dang's
turn to voice his opinion, she was shocked. He insisted they needed all the works, including a lavish five-star
hotel to stay in afterwards. It didn't make any sense. Surely a big event would be
wildly out of their price range? But then, Dang told her something that gave her the biggest
shock of her life. He was actually an extremely
wealthy businessman and the manager of an
international fashion brand. In other words, she was
marrying a millionaire. As Nguyen struggled to
come to terms with this, Dang explained that he'd purposefully hid his wealth from her because he hadn't wanted it
to affect their relationship. If he hadn't concealed his money, he'd never have known if she
loved him or just his cash. Now he could be sure. Though still stunned, Nguyen
accepted everything Dang said, and in April 2017, the happy
couple finally tied the knot in serious style. Today, they live together
in Russia with their son, and the family couldn't be happier. (sighs) Why can't I
randomly stumble across a secret millionaire while
I'm scrolling my socials? All I ever get is Aunt
Mabel moaning about her cat. I'm afraid I can't bless
you with a secret fortune, but if you hit those Like
and Subscribe buttons, I can provide you with new, amazing videos almost every single day. All done? Great. Where were we? Un-ink-clusive. Tattoos tend to split opinion. You either love them or you hate them. So, if you love them enough to cover your entire body in them, some people will inevitably
be pretty judgmental of you. Jason, a heavily tattooed
Brit, knows this all too well. In fact, he once found
himself a prime suspect in a kidnapping case that
he had nothing to do with. Certain he was being
persecuted for his tats, Jason decided to take part
in a social experiment to find out how judgmental
people really are. So, he got a note and stood in the street asking if anybody could
swap him change for it. Almost every passerby
ignored his question. One man even asked if he
was about to be mugged. Then, Jason covered all of his
tats with skin-colored makeup and went out note in hand once more. This time, it went very differently. People happily stopped to help and treated him with way more
kindness than they had before, even though Jason had
acted exactly the same. So, yes, the tats really
did make a big difference. I'm ink-redulous. The Long Game. People do crazy things for love and money. But as we've already seen, this can make the quest for true love pretty tricky if you're wealthy. Ordinary Londoner Joe Johnson
found this out the hard way. Back in 1998, Joe
couldn't believe his luck when he won a staggering jackpot of over $12 million in the lottery. That's over $21 million today. He bought the best cars, splashed out on the most
grandiose properties, and it seemed like he could
get any girl he wanted. Joe felt like he had it all. But fast forward just a short time and he'd spent almost $2
million of his winnings on women that had gone on to dump him. Joe felt used. His money might've brought
him material wealth, but it sure hadn't made him happy. So, he decided to do something drastic. He'd pretend to be dirt poor
to the next woman he met. Well, one day as Joe was enjoying a coffee at his local cafe, he got chatting to a blonde
waitress that worked there. Her name was Lisa, and Joe
decided to ask her on a date. Delighted, she accepted his offer, expecting a romantic dinner
in some fancy restaurant. What she got was pretty different. Before meeting Lisa, Joe
donned his shabbiest clothes. Then, he took his excited
date to a cheap noodle bar and despite its cheapness, he even insisted on
splitting the bill with her. Joe knew he was pushing his luck, but incredibly, Lisa didn't seem to mind. In fact, she said she had a great time. So, the two carried on dating,
and Joe kept up his facade. For their first vacation together, he took her to a two-star hotel that turned out to have cockroaches. Ugh. Amazingly, Lisa still didn't complain. Sure, Joe was poor, but she'd
fallen in love with him. A year later, Joe proposed, and Lisa, over the moon, said yes. Now, Joe knew it was
finally time to be honest. So, he sat Lisa down, took a deep breath, and revealed the truth. Far from being overjoyed at
her partner's immense wealth, Lisa was devastated. The past year had been nothing but a lie. But when he explained
to her why he'd done it, she eventually understood. He'd been used so many times for his money that he needed to know for sure if someone liked him for who he truly was. Crazy as it sounds, the women that knew Joe was
rich had ended up rejecting him, but the one who thought
he was poor, didn't. Well, Joe didn't waste any time
before making it up to Lisa. The very next day, he took her
on a designer shopping spree. Then, he whisked her off to the Ritz, where he proposed again. Not long after, they got
married in Mauritius, and the couple now have a son together. But man, talk about playing the long game. If I was Lisa, I'd have
left after the cockroaches. Biker Bias. What do you think people find scarier than a heavily tattooed man? A bunch of heavily
tattooed bikers, of course. In an amusing social experiment
by beer company Carlsberg, just such a group of
bikers were told to occupy all but two seats in a theater screening. Then, staff led unsuspecting
couples to the same screening. When the couples entered
the room, the results were, well, as you might expect. (upbeat music) But not everyone was so judgmental. And those that did sit down
got a pretty warm welcome. (people cheering) The ruse was designed to discourage people
from being so judgmental. And you know what, it worked. In fact, I reckon I'll start actively seeking out movie theaters
filled with big burly men. And I definitely 100% didn't
used to do that before anyway. (coughs) Holy Homeless. It's often said that in
life you get what you give. Well, one Catholic priest
from Lexington, Kentucky, set out to prove this saying
in a very novel fashion. One day in December 2015, the priest, called Father Jim Sichko, tossed away his gown and
donned shabby clothing instead. Then, he made a cardboard
sign asking for change and proceeded to wander the
streets as if he were homeless. Unbeknownst to passersby though, the priest actually had
a tasty sum of money hidden away in his pocket. And I'm not talking a
couple of hundred dollars. Oh no, I'm talking 5,000
of the smackaroonies. Every time some generous person stopped and offered him money, he'd refuse and hand them $100 in return. Thus proving that you
really do get what you give and much more. Astonishingly, one of the people who offered Father Jim change
was actually homeless himself. When the priest rejected his selfless gift and handed the homeless man $100, the man was almost brought to tears. Which just goes to show, even when we're at some
of our lowest points, humans still have a remarkable
capacity for compassion. Now, remember that because
my birthday's coming up and my current TV isn't quite big enough. Woah-man. Nowadays, many of the world's
best doctors are women. But back in the early
19th century Britain, a female doctor was completely unheard of. So, when Margaret Ann Bulkley decided she wanted to
pursue a career in medicine, she knew she'd have to
go to extreme lengths to make her dream a reality. Her solution? For the next 56 years,
she'd become James Barry and adopt all the
characteristics, dress sense, and mannerisms of a man. Okay. But surely nobody could get away with disguising their voice, figure, and, well, everything about them for so long without being caught, right? Well, remarkably, wrong. Margaret, now James, successfully
applied for medical school with her false identity. And whilst her classmates
suspected something was off, the rumors centered on her being a super-intelligent
pre-pubescent boy. Ah, of course. Not for a second did they suspect that James was actually a woman. The idea of a female doctor was so absurd it never crossed their minds. Successfully fooling
classmate and teacher alike, James swept through her exams, and after graduating, went on to enlist as a top surgeon within the British Army. She even performed the first recorded caesarean section by a European in Africa where both mother and child survived. And James took her gender-bending secret all the way to the grave. The truth was only discovered post-mortem. I can only imagine the
shock that must've been for whoever made the discovery. Wheely Touching. Sometimes, police come up with some pretty unconventional
ways of tackling crime. After hearing a number of disabled people had been attacked in Vancouver, the local police department
had a pretty wacky idea to catch those responsible. Their plan? To dress a cop as a disabled homeless man, position him on a street corner, and hope that the criminals
would take the bait and attack him. Then he'd jump up out of his
wheelchair and arrest them. Yeah. Told you it was unconventional. The police officer picked for the job was Sergeant Mark Horsley. He dressed the part,
got in the wheelchair, and, to appear more convincing, spoke with passersby about
his apparent situation. But in doing so, he
realized a startling truth. Far from trying to attack him, people were overwhelmingly kind to him. As well as giving him change,
one man even prayed for him. Leaning into the role more, the undercover sergeant
began asking people if he could buy their food or cigarettes for what little change he had. But he also told them he couldn't count, fully expecting them to short-change him. To his surprise, however,
not a single person did. In fact, some even charged him less. By the time Horsley left the wheelchair, he was no closer to
catching the criminals, but he'd learnt a lot
about human kindness. He may not have caught
the bad guys that day, but he definitely crossed
paths with the good ones. Poor Pretender. It goes without saying that everyone deserves
to be treated equally. But unfortunately, what we
deserve isn't always what we get. And sadly, that applies to children too. In a social experiment
held in Georgia, in the US, a six-year-old child actor called Anano got dressed in clean,
expensive-looking clothes and then stood in the
streets, apparently alone. When she dressed well, people stopped and concernedly
asked where her parents were. Some even offered to call for help. So far so wholesome, right? But then, the same actress
dressed up in ragged clothes and smeared dirt on her face before going back to the same spot. This time, no one even looked at her, never mind stopping to help. And it only got worse when the experiment was
trialed in a restaurant. When Anano entered the eatery
dressed in clean clothes with her hair tied in a bun, people greeted her warmly
as she wandered through. But later, when she returned
disguised as a homeless girl, visitors didn't want
anything to do with her. She wasn't just ignored either. Diners literally shooed her away. The only difference? The way she looked. I don't even think a juicy steak would be enough for me to ignore a child so obviously in need, and I love a juicy steak. What do you think you'd have done? Let me know down in the comments below. Iconic Trio. Victorian England was a man's world. Back then, society saw
women as weak, passive, and less intelligent than men. So, if you were a woman with aspirations beyond trying to secure a husband, you had a steep hill to climb. But three 19th century women
were willing to climb it. Their names? The Bronte Sisters. And as well as being sisters, they were also incredibly
talented writers. There was just one problem: publishing houses were
prejudiced against women. So, the sisters just had to
pretend to be men. Right. Luckily, that didn't
mean dressing in suits and wearing fake beards. No, they simply ensured
they only corresponded with publishers in writing. So, by going under the male pseudonyms Ellis, Acton, and Currer Bell, they fooled publishers into
thinking they were male. It worked, and all three
sisters got the green light. Charlotte Bronte, also
known as Currer Bell, was particularly successful with her second novel, "Jane Eyre", becoming an instant best-seller when it was released in 1847. Despite this monumental success though, it wasn't until three
years later, in 1850, that Charlotte would finally
tell the world the truth, to great shock. By this point, both her
sisters had sadly passed away, so there was no need to hide
their identities any longer. And just five years later,
Charlotte passed away too. But though they might be gone, the Bronte sisters
certainly are not forgotten. To this day, all three sisters' works are still studied and
admired all over the world. So go on, name a more
iconic trio. I'll wait. It's A Rap. As everyone's grandma will tell you, rap music is about gangsters,
violence, and not much else. Of course, that's not actually true, but back in 2010, this outdated stereotype helped the police catch a
whole load of criminals. How exactly? Well, by setting
up a fake record label. The cops, based in Washington D.C., named the so-called
label Manic Enterprises, and they pulled out all the
stops to make it seem real. That meant having a
custom recording studio built with all the bells and whistles, then dressing up in disguise
and staffing it themselves. Sergeant Dale Sutherland posed as rap label owner Ritchie Valdez, while the other officers pretended to be his girlfriends and bodyguards. Okay, but how does all
this have anything to do with catching criminals? Well, just wait and see. At first, Sutherland invited
local musicians to the studio, shared expensive tequila, and, err, pretended he
was a criminal kingpin to gain their trust and respect. Soon enough, word spread, and the real criminals
began visiting the studio, looking to sell all kinds of things from firearms to illicit substances. As soon as they began
showing off the goods though, they got a rather arresting shock. Sutherland and his squad
quickly revealed themselves and put the offenders in handcuffs. Ingeniously, they didn't even need to hide their surveillance equipment. They were in a literal recording studio. The sting proved to be a roaring success, and they even managed to catch members of Mexico's La Familia cartel, one of the country's biggest
criminal organizations. Though, not all the crooks
they caught were so big-time. One local criminal
accidentally butt-dialed one of the undercover officers while planning to rob the swanky studio, and the police caught the whole
conversation over the phone. What an idiot. In total, 70 arrests were made, and a colossal $7 million worth of illegal items confiscated. And all thanks to a wacky idea
and some convincing costumes. Yeah, it's safe to say those criminals won't be spitting bars anytime soon, but they will be locked behind them. Doctor Disguise. The COVID-19 pandemic has put
a huge strain on hospitals and medical staff worldwide. So, when Siberian Sergei Samborsky suspected staff of neglecting
his ill grandmother, he decided to take matters
into his own hands. Sergei's grandma had Alzheimer's and had been taken into
hospital the day before, after her health had taken
a turn for the worst. But when Sergei visited, he
was told he couldn't see her. So, he got the number of the
patient in the bed beside hers and called the following day
to ask after his ill relative. When he did, he found out
some unbelievable news. Apparently, nobody had washed her, tended to her, or even fed her. Without hesitation, Sergei
rushed straight to the hospital, but the no visitors policy meant he wasn't able to get inside. So, he walked up to a parked ambulance and, incredibly, persuaded the drivers to sell him some protective clothing. There was no security on the door either, so once he'd got into the
gear, he strode straight in. He headed through to his
grandmother and was shocked. She was tied to her bed,
covered in bruises and filth. Why had anyone thought the 84-year-old needed to be restrained? Still disguised, Sergei untied her and began tending to her properly. And for three whole days,
he got away with it. But eventually, his luck ran out. Hospital staff grew suspicious, and Sergei knew he had to flee. Before he did though, he
revealed himself to his grandma, and despite her Alzheimer's, she recognized him for the
first time in three years. Then, Sergei left and some time later his
grandma passed away. But he never forgot, and
has since worked tirelessly to expose the terrible conditions his grandmother had been living in. Man, I need to go wipe my eyes. It must be all the onions
I'm chopping or something. Fake It til You Make It. Who hasn't dreamt of
being rich and famous. I mean, they've got it easy, right? But 23-year-old art student
Zou Yaqi, from Beijing, decided to prove just how easy. Her idea? To ditch her normal get-up and
pose as a wealthy socialite. Then, she'd see if she could
live in Beijing for three weeks without spending a dime. Instead, she'd rely solely on
her perceived societal status to net her enough freebies to live on. For the look, she bought
a fake Hermes bag, a fake Vivienne Westwood necklace, and even donned a faux diamond
ring, worth a whopping $3. Then, once she was fully kitted
in her counterfeit costume, she headed to the local airport, where she used a forged pass
to get into the VIP lounge. Sure, the pass seems
like a bit of a cheat, but it was only valid for three hours. Due to her extravagant outfit, however, nobody questioned her
for three whole days. During that time, she gorged
on complementary food, slept on the plush couches, and stocked up on snacks before leaving and heading for a high-end hotel. She easily got in there too and used the private sauna
without anyone batting an eye. And after that, she
spent over two more weeks going from place to place
living the high life. She attended exclusive
jewelry auction parties, talked her way into free
food at fancy restaurants, and all in all netted almost $1,500 worth of free products and services. Because of her fancy get-up,
nobody questioned her once. And when the three weeks were up, she turned her whole
experience into an exhibition, designed to show just how much preferential
treatment you get the higher on the social ladder you are. Would Zou have gotten away
with any of her wild antics without her faux socialite status? She certainly doesn't think so. So, I'm off to get myself one
of those fake designer bags. I could do with a spa day. Alright then, that's all for now. While I'm grabbing that bag, let me know down in the comments which of those stories
surprised you the most. And thanks for watching. (mellow music)
