Police arrest London Apple Pay TikTok prankster

A TikTok video maker filmed a prank of pretending to take cash from people's iPhones using Tap to Pay. It didn't end well for the prankster.

Whether it's Tap to Pay on iPhone when you're with a merchant, or you're just paying a friend who also has an iPhone, there is a distinctive sound. That sound, but not the actual payment, is now central to what's claimed to be an increasingly common prank of pretending to take money from strangers.

The prankster holds their iPhone close to the stranger's one, plays the sound, and then typically thanks that person for their generous donation. There's usually someone else filming all of this for a hilarious TikTok video — but there isn't usually a police presence nearby.

@bku.backup Notification prank got him arrested #news #breakingnews #latest #britain #fyppp original sound - BKU Backup

According to the UK's Daily Mail, that's what happened to one such TikTok user in London. He initially claimed to take ten thousand pounds (approximately $13,500) from a man walking by the River Thames, although then said it was only 1,000 pounds. The man grabbed him by the arm, however, and another stranger joined in to hold him back, while both looked around for police.

Two plainsclothes police officers then took over and, upon the TikTok man resisting arrest, handcuffed him. One officer informed the prankster that he was now going to be searched for evidence of articles being used in suspected fraud.

Throughout the process, the incident was filmed by the TikTok user's friend, who inanely keeps asking if he should carry on recording. It's TikTok. They obviously did.

There is no detail of what subsequently happened to the TikTok pair, and we couldn't find anything this morning. This being the Daily Mail, there is no explanation of how the prank works, there isn't even any detail of when this happened, and the publication got the 10,000 amount wrong.

Apple Pay won't let money be taken

London's Evening Standard has more of an explanation along with other examples from across the city. It's important to note that no actual money is taken in these pranks, and Apple Pay requires the payer to confirm any transactions before they happen.

What this prankster was pretending to do was use Apple's Tap to Cash, but this requires Apple Cash — which is not available in the UK. The UK and most of Europe does have the similar Tap to Pay on iPhone, but that's expressly for paying merchants, who even then must be using particular payment apps.

In the US where Tap to Cash is available, there are still multiple steps involved. The user who wants to pay someone must first open either Messages or Apple Wallet.

To pay using Messages, the user has to hold their iPhone near the recipient's and then the simplest route is to:

Start or continue a Messages conversation with the person
Tap the plus icon, then tap Apple Cash
Then enter the amount to send
Tap Send
Double-click the iPhone's side button to pay
Confirm the payment with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode

As well as these basic steps, there are options along the way for changing the payment card — but that's not that relevant to the prank at hand, here.

And, the prank can't drain from Apple Cash either.

In the Apple Wallet app, tap the Apple Cash card
Choose Send
Select the recipient and tap Next
Enter the amount
Tap Send and confirm it
Double-click the iPhone's side button to pay
Confirm the payment with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode

Seriously, though, it was funny when Steve Jobs placed the first-ever prank call on an iPhone, but it gets very old, very quickly.

8 Comments

puiz666 8 Years · 28 comments

About 2 weeks ago

Increasingly grumpy "get off my lawn you bloody lot" boomer vibes from this author. You sound like you hate TikTok, kids these days, pranks, The Daily Mail, and likely yourself. Cheer up, bruv! You're being quite the downer.

2 Likes · 13 Dislikes

Panner_Nudding 3 Years · 25 comments

About 2 weeks ago

puiz666 said:

Increasingly grumpy "get off my lawn you bloody lot" boomer vibes from this author. You sound like you hate TikTok, kids these days, pranks, The Daily Mail, and likely yourself. Cheer up, bruv! You're being quite the downer.

You are correct. He’s really bad on the podcast. He doesn’t understand tech, software, tech products. He can’t hold a conversation about current events in the news like Fortnite and the App Store he knows about the App Store but doesn’t know what Fortnite is. He can’t tell the difference between iPhones, iPad and Apple Watch models and refuses to upgrade his old stuff because he thinks the new stuff is exactly the same as the old stuff. It’s time for him to give up on being in tech, I’m not saying it’s time for nursing home but let someone else who is passionate and up on tech take your spot here. It would be great for this site and especially Wes the other guy on the podcast. William is really dragging him down. Wes is great and William is actively driving people away from the podcast with his lack of knowledge and inability to intelligently discuss current events and tech.

1 Like · 7 Dislikes

danielchow 20 Years · 149 comments

About 2 weeks ago

And “boomer” is a bad thing? You realize that this was just a label, one of several dated media constructs? It’s so passé.

You shall age too, and the next generation could label you a grump because you dis and whine about other generations.

Be kind, and it is not difficult to be respectful to other human beings. I’m sure you desire that too: kindness and respect.

7 Likes · 1 Dislike

Xed 5 Years · 3228 comments

About 2 weeks ago

puiz666 said:

Increasingly grumpy "get off my lawn you bloody lot" boomer vibes from this author. You sound like you hate TikTok, kids these days, pranks, The Daily Mail, and likely yourself. Cheer up, bruv! You're being quite the downer.

Panner_Nudding said:

puiz666 said:

Increasingly grumpy "get off my lawn you bloody lot" boomer vibes from this author. You sound like you hate TikTok, kids these days, pranks, The Daily Mail, and likely yourself. Cheer up, bruv! You're being quite the downer.

You are correct. He’s really bad on the podcast. He doesn’t understand tech, software, tech products. He can’t hold a conversation about current events in the news like Fortnite and the App Store he knows about the App Store but doesn’t know what Fortnite is. He can’t tell the difference between iPhones, iPad and Apple Watch models and refuses to upgrade his old stuff because he thinks the new stuff is exactly the same as the old stuff. It’s time for him to give up on being in tech, I’m not saying it’s time for nursing home but let someone else who is passionate and up on tech take your spot here. It would be great for this site and especially Wes the other guy on the podcast. William is really dragging him down. Wes is great and William is actively driving people away from the podcast with his lack of knowledge and inability to intelligently discuss current events and tech.

Just to clear, you two are saying that William Gallagher of AppleInsider doesn't understand technology despite the fact he detailed the prank and explained how Apple Pay and Apple Cash's tap to pay doesn't actually transfer funds without user interaction, and did a step-by-step walkthrough of what is required for the payment to be sent? You're claiming William doesn't understand technology because he didn't laugh at the victims of harassment and didn't support some asshole harassing people on the streets for likes and views? So does that mean you're OK with tricking people into feeling like they've been robbed but not OK when that ignorant little cunt gets stopped by police to get it sorted out after claiming he stole money? Does that about sum it up?

What you call "technology" isn't technology at all. It's definitely a result of current technology that can allow anyone with an internet connected smartphone to get attention actively trying to ruin people's days and even lives, but it's just harassment. The real question is why you think it's so entertaining to see people make fun of and hurt others online for attention. To quote Joey Swoll, "You need to better! Mind your own business."

Personally, I look forward to more FAFO moments in the world. As the saying goes, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.PS: On the notion of technology, I would argue that the younger generations have considerably less technological knowledge than the older generations. What you call technology is really just using an app... and one you didn't write. The older generations actually had to know how to fix things. I'm not a boomer and I'm not Gen Z, but I did have the privilege of learning from great people who came before me on how to understand how machine works. What nearly all people seem to fail to understand — and not just 20yo pranksters with severe alopecia — is that technology is considerably more widespread and diverse than the latest shiny object being offered up by Apple or Google. Granted, it's not the younger generations's fault that the microchip has become
omnipresent in products that never had that previously and so intricate that it's not an easy or even a reasonable task to replace such small components, but it doesn't mean that you understand technology better... you just understand how to use different technology and that all comes down exposure and nothing else.

So what do I mean by that? Well, technology is defined as "the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes." That means that learning when, where, how to plant a crop is a technology being applied — and that's even before we get to tools that were made to make it easier. Or, a branch of that being animal husbandry, were we're bred animals to product specific traits such and meat, milk, strength. These are technologies that most people will never fully grasp — myself included — but you should understand that technology is more than a consumer electronic you use to get negative attention.