Man says he paid $250 for a stranger’s baby formula at Walmart. Then he realizes it was a scam and confronts her: ‘I’m gonna need that receipt’

A man said in a video that a woman approached him at Walmart and asked him to pay for baby formula. David Aji, who posts as @davidajibodu, shared the story on TikTok under the caption “Watch out for this scam!” The video has gained over a hundred thousand views.

Aji explained that the woman was with a child and said she had three more kids at home, including an infant who needed formula. He said he agreed to help even though he does not have a baby and did not know the cost. According to him, she took him to the baby formula aisle while he waited outside with her child, so he did not see the prices.

He stated that she selected three cans of formula and other small items. At the register, the first can scanned at $77 and the second at about $62. Aji said the total reached $360 before he asked her to remove one or two cans. He claimed the bill still came to around $250, which he paid. She thanked him and said, “God bless you,” and he replied the same way.

The creator says he grew suspicious after she stayed in the store

Aji said something did not feel right because the woman took the receipt but did not leave. He noted that he had stopped his own shopping to help her. When he saw her again, he said he wondered why she was not rushing home if her baby needed the formula right away. Requests for formula have drawn scrutiny elsewhere too, including one woman’s experiment of calling 40 churches asking for formula to see how each would respond. 

He stated that he searched online for “Ukrainian baby formula scam” and found information about a known scheme. Aji said he decided he needed to get the formula back. While he was in line to pay for his own groceries, he saw her leave the store. He said he dropped what he was doing and went after her outside. 

Outside, he told her, “Yo, I’m gonna need that receipt. I’m gonna need everything I bought.” He described her as saying she did not have it while she held one bag and her daughter held another. According to him, the bags contained at least six cans of formula. She told him to look in one bag, where he found a receipt for $160. He said he insisted he needed the one for $250.

Aji stated that she kept saying she did not have the receipt. He said he decided to take the $160 receipt and one bag and go back inside. At that point, he claimed she began yelling and accused him of stealing. He replied that he was the one who had paid. According to him, she then pulled the $250 receipt out of her bra and said he would not get it unless he gave her the other receipt.

He described a crowd of about six people watching as she made a scene. Aji said she eventually threw the $250 receipt on the ground. He stated that he recovered the receipt and the bag of formula, then went to customer service to report what had happened. He ended the video by advising people not to buy baby formula for strangers in big stores. 

Viewers responded to the video with their own stories and opinions. One commenter claimed the people in these situations return the formula and get the money. Another wrote that a similar thing had happened to them and that the woman only approached Black people. A third person said the story made them feel better about ignoring such requests.

Someone else simply stated, “never buy a stranger baby formula.” One commenter focused on the longer-term effect, writing, “The worst part of this is, you were kind enough to help a mother and child in need – but now you’ll think twice and possibly say no to those who really need it because she tainted your experience.”