A woman said she was “humbled” after taking what she thought were her real AirPods to the Apple Store to get serviced. She didn’t realize until that moment that they were fake.
An Apple worker clued her in. She filmed the encounter and posted it to TikTok, where it was viewed 422,000 times.
“Unknowingly bought fake AirPods and got humbled at my Apple Service appointment,” TikTok user Kayla Bishop (@itskaylabishop) wrote in the text overlay of her video.
“So, the real ones,” the Apple worker starts, placing two real AirPod buds in front of each other.
Whenever he drags one bud close to the other on the table, the other moves away. That’s because they are magnetic, the worker explains.
“See, it runs away without touching it cause of the magnetics,” he says of the demonstration.
Bishop then tries this on her own buds. However, unlike the ones the Apple worker is working with, they don’t move away from one another.
“Those ones don’t,” the worker says.
Bishop added in her caption that she recently purchased these buds, and they stopped working within the week. “Well make sense that they stopped working after a week. I was mortified y’all! Count your days, scammers!!!!” she said.
@itskaylabishop Well makes sense that they stopped working after a week😅. I was mortified, yall! Count your days, scammers!!!! #embarrassing #applestore ♬ original sound – Kayla Bishop
Her video racked up over 422,000 views. Her video had viewers checking their AirPods.
“Not me running to get my AirPods and trying this out know good and well I brought [them] from the Apple Store,” one viewer said.
“Not me grabbing my AirPods to see if they have a magnet,” a second echoed.
“Just tested mine to be sure,” a third stated.
How to tell if your AirPods are fake
According to XDA, newer iPhone models have a feature that detects fake AirPods. Once they’re connected, a message will appear. “These headphones could not be verified as genuine AirPods and may not behave as expected,” the message should read, per XDA’s website.
Other ways of checking include verifying the serial number on Apple’s website.
The fake AirPods scam is common
Scammers trying to pass of fake AirPods as the real deal is actually quite common as they can be sold for a large sum of money.
Some viewers shared that they only buy their Apple products directly from the store or other stores that sell Apple products, like Target.
However, another woman previously went viral after allegedly discovering the AirPods she bought from Target were fake.
So even store-bought Apple products may not be safe. And this is because some scammers will sometimes buy the real deal, swap it out with a dupe, and return the dupe while holding onto the original.
The Daily Dot reached out to Bishop via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment as well to Apple via press email.
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