After helping out a person in need of groceries, TikToker Allison Marie (@allisonmarie2134) finds herself skeptical about the encounter. She says the woman she bought groceries for insisted on gifting her AirPod Pros to pay for the goods. Allison says she declined and explains why she’s glad she did in a now-viral video.
According to Allison, while she was grocery shopping at Ingles in Dallas, North Carolina, “a very well-dressed woman” approached her and asked for help buying some basic necessities such as bread, water, and tomatoes. Allison says she agreed and followed the woman to the register, expecting her husband and children to be close behind.
Then, the TikToker says a woman claiming to be the other woman’s sister appeared and insisted Allison take a pair of AirPod Pros in exchange for buying the groceries. Allison says she refused, but the sister became more insistent and tried to get the TikToker and her husband to pay for her groceries as well. Allison says the sister remained insistent about giving away the AirPod Pros—even after her husband told them they were only paying for one person’s groceries—going as far as trying to convince Allison’s son to take the earbuds.
The women reportedly left quickly after Allison’s husband paid for the groceries. Allison says her son later told her it was a good thing that she didn’t take the AirPod Pros because sometimes people use them to track people’s location.
“I got home; we looked it up on Google. I didn’t really see much, and then I came here on TikTok, and it was everywhere,” Allison says about what her son shared.
The video had 977,000 views and almost 4,000 comments at the time of publication of this article.
@allisonmarie2134 Generating awareness. Be careful out there!! #airpods #humantraffickingawareness #apple #awareness ♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs – Skittlegirl Sound
Viewers in the comments section shared similar experiences with AirPod Pro scams and disappointment about the woman’s actions.
“This happened to me!” one commenter wrote. “She approached me in the Target parking lot and was so insistent about the iPods. My baby was screaming so I asked her to give us some space and she finally left. I noticed there was another lady doing the same thing in the parking lot…”
“That is so scary,” another said. “I will refuse to help anyone sadly because you don’t know who you’re dealing with out there.”
Others have also shared concerns about AirPods being used to track them. One article by Fox 26 in Houston tells the story of one woman who says she was being followed via the tracking on her AirPods. After going to the Apple store for support, the Apple store representative mentioned that similar tracking concerns have come up before with other customers.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Allison for comment via TikTok direct message and Apple via email.
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