A TikTok video of a Waffle House employee with a baby on her hip while working in the kitchen went viral – and an Internet scammer jumped on the opportunity to use the controversy for personal financial gain.
The crafty woman claiming to be the highly-criticized Waffle House employee in the video ‘came forward’ to tell her story to TMZ.
She told the outlet she had to watch her four-month-old niece last minute during an overnight shift because the father, her brother, had recently died. She also said the child’s mother was hospitalized for a mental illness-related crisis, and they didn’t want the child to end up with child protective services.
While tragic, the story wasn’t the truth, TMZ later came out to say, amending their initial reporting.
Waffle House’s vice president of public relations Njeri Boss told the outlet that after investigating the TikTok, the company has ‘determined the media portrayals and social media posts are not accurate’.
The person who had reached out and shared the sob story, was not the highly-criticized woman in the original video. But she was sure to share her CashApp information to receive donations from unsuspecting victims.
The scammer also claimed she was suspended from her job for a week.
‘While an employee of ours was recorded holding a baby at work, she is not related to that baby in any manner, never identified herself as the person in the TikTok video, never provided a CashApp account to receive donations, never gave an interview to any media outlet, and never was suspended from her job,’ Boss said.
According to Waffle House, the employee in the video was holding the baby, who was the child of a co-worker, in an attempt to help stop the child’s crying. The employee has reportedly been reminded of proper safety guidelines following the incident.
The restaurant warns TikTok users to avoid supporting the apparent fraud account, which has yet to be taken offline and has more than 14,000 followers.
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