Q:

Was this video of a home made phone charger faked?

A friend of mine recently shared this video on his timeline about turning a cellphone charger into a wireless charger. 

I am certain that this video is wrong, but I don't know how to eloquently convince him of it; he is also not an engineer, but he is open minded enough that a good equation could convince him. However, I don't know how to relate the distance between wireless devices to the transfer of energy. 
Was this video faked?

A:

Any basic introduction to how wireless charging works and what it requires should make it immediately apparent that none of those elements are present. For example, here's a writeup on Qi with the obvious problems bolded:

Under the Qi specification, "low power" for inductive transfers denotes power deliveries below 5 W. Systems that fall within the scope of this standard are those that use inductive coupling between two planar coils to transfer power from the power transmitter to the power receiver. The distance between the two coils is typically 5 mm. It is possible to extend that range to at least 40 mm. Regulation of the output voltage is provided by a digital control loop where the power receiver communicates with the power transmitter and requests more or less power. Communication is unidirectional from the power receiver to the power transmitter via backscatter modulation. In backscatter modulation, the power-receiver coil is loaded, changing the current draw at the power transmitter. These current changes are monitored and demodulated into the information required for the two devices to work together.] Qi

Also, there is simply nothing to generate a signal that is capable of being sent wirelessly. There is nothing to aim this signal at the phone. And, most importantly, there is nothing to shut this signal down if the power is absorbed by something other than the phone, so this would be a serious fire hazard if it worked.

