‘People send that guy money to help people’: Target shopper catches influencer ‘blessing’ a customer with money. There’s just one problem
A Target shopper has gone viral after appearing to catch a staged viral video at the supermarket. The TikToker, named Steph (@stephs.studios), begins by telling viewers how she heard a man and woman talking in the adjacent aisle at Target. The man asked the woman what she did for work, and the woman replied that she took care of her grandma. The shopper noted how the woman seemed "nervous."
"I go to the next aisle, and I see that I'm interrupting something," Steph said. "This guy had one of those phone holders that was like, across his chest. And I was like, 'Oh, he's filming her. ' And so then I went back to my … aisle, nonchalantly. And I started listening even closer to, like, see what they're filming. That's when I caught on that this was like a script that this woman was saying because the guy would say, 'Wait, let's redo that.' And I heard the girl say so many times the same thing over and over."
This, Steph added, went on for a while, with the woman continuing to repeat that she'd never received a "blessing" like this before. "I probably listened to them go over her sad story and his like blessing to her five times," she added.
"It just really upset me because I love that kind of content. And I'm not saying that content is always scripted, but these people were friends," she alleged.
@stephs.studios I hope l’m wrong and it was genuine but from the way it seemed it was scripted and they were friends. I know its really not a big deal but why don’t people actually go help people instead of faking it for views? What do you guys think? Scripted or real?
♬ original sound - steph ????
Cut and roll
The TikToker then revealed that she put her phone in the cup holder to record the pair. The video then cuts to footage of the pair seemingly filming the clip. At one point, the man counted down with his fingers, appearing to give the woman a cue to start speaking. At another point, the woman appeared to snap "out of character" and began laughing as Steph mouthed "liars" to the camera. By the time Steph was leaving, the pair appeared to start filming the video all over again. Steph's video amassed 558,100 views.
Steph didn't immediately respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment via TikTok comment and email.
In the comments section, viewers claimed the TikToker who bestows "blessings" is Peter Vu. His TikTok account, Peter Vu and Friends (@petervufriends), has 718,100 followers and 5 million cumulative likes. Many of his videos feature similar, random acts of kindness and apparent generosity. According to one commenter, viewers send Vu money in order to fund random acts of kindness like this, claiming, "People send that guy money to help people."
While Vu hasn't commented on Steph's accusations, the comments on his latest, unrelated video were full of users referring to "the Target video."
"How many takes?" one commenter asked. "Are you sure she's a 'random stranger'?" another queried. While a third added, "You've been caught."
The Daily Dot was unable to find "the Target video" on Vu's profile. Vu didn't immediately respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment via TikTok comment.
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