‘Apple Pay Prank’: Why TikTokers are using sound effects to wind up strangers
12 May 2025, 14:50 | Updated: 12 May 2025, 14:51
The “Apple Pay Prank” has gone viral on TikTok and Instagram this month, in which users post videos of themselves pretending to virtually rob strangers. But is everyone as amused as the pranksters?
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We all know the sound: the characteristic “DING” of a contactless iPhone payment.
You may be used to hearing this sound from your own phone, whether it’s slogging to Tesco to get some bread, or enjoying a bout of relaxing retail therapy.
But one instance you definitely don’t want to hear it is when a stranger taps their phone to you.
Contactless payments may offer more convenience than their chip and pin counterparts, but they also come with more risk.
As well as being easier to use if stolen, cases of scammers tapping portable payment terminals against pockets in crowded areas is on the rise.
Read More: This Is How Easily You Can Have Money Stolen From Your Contactless Card
Read More: Man, 18, arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance over TikTok 'prankster' clips
But numerous videos are starting to surface online of young people playing the sound out loud to trick strangers into thinking they’ve fallen foul of a scam.
The sound will play after tapping against a stranger’s phone or wallet in public, alerting victims to think they’ve just lost money. The more brazen among these pranksters will then follow up with a “thank you”.
Amzs Jallah, a comedy TikToker in his twenties, went viral this month for joining in on the prank.
In one of the videos, which gained 19.6 million views, he tricks a passenger on the Elizabeth Line with the noise.
Using the sound effect, he repeatedly taps his phone against a passenger’s phone in a near-empty carriage. Every time he taps his phone, the TikToker thanks the passenger for another £50.
However, the scene soon erupted into an argument.
“I’m calling the police,” the passenger shouts. The two then nearly come to blows as they run back and forth along the carriage.
“I did the video ‘cause it’s funny!” Amzs says, speaking to LBC. “I knew it would amuse me and other people online. It’s a harmless prank.”
“I knew I was looking for an angry reaction with this video. I’ve seen other videos of this, but they weren’t that funny because they didn’t get a big reaction.”
“I always look for people who I think I’ll get a big reaction out of. I also think the tube setting really worked ‘cause it limits where we can both go.”
“But in fairness, that guy’s reaction was reasonable - I think the prank is way more effective right now because the cost of living is already so high.”
“If you’re already stressed about money, imagine I’ve just come up and made you think you’ve lost £100?”
Other incarnations of the prank have gone viral, with some brave TikTokers even performing the prank on uniformed police officers.
But, as ever with discussions of online pranks, the debate lies in where we draw the line between entertainment and harm. In the Apple Pay prank, no physical or financial harm is actually dealt - but it does cause visible stress.
Some comedians on traditional media formats have made their fortune by engaging in public pranks, and many TikTok pranksters may have grown up watching their shows.
But traditional media is bound by regulatory bodies like OfCom, who keep pranksters in line with strict broadcasting laws and release permission from prank victims.
Online platforms like TikTok have no such bodies - just codes of conduct that rely on user reports. Without bodies like OfCom to keep harm to a minimum, some online pranksters have fallen foul of the line between entertainment and harm.
Online prankster Mizzy, hit the headlines in 2023 at eighteen years old after he was taken to court over some of his videos.
The TikToker was then sentenced to 18 weeks in jail, after he violated a court order which forbade him from sharing footage of people without their consent.
Read More: LBC Investigates: What a 13-Year-Old Girl Sees on TikTok
So, on a platform where online pranksters are in charge of regulating themselves - how are users like Amzs navigating potential harm they could cause?
“I do think there should be boundaries on public pranks,” Amzs says. “Nothing that’s going to cause proper harm. I always ask the people I prank how they feel after I do the video.”
“At the end of the day, I could do this prank to someone who’s in debt - then all of a sudden, I’m pretending I stole money from them and they’ve gone viral? That’s not on.”
“I’m actually still in contact with the guy in the video - he asked me to collaborate when I checked in with him after!”
LBC's Online Safety Day on March 10 addressed issues of children's safety online. Read our guides on keeping your children safe online.
