Fake AirPods Pose Serious Safety Risks
AI concept image of fake AirPods in flames
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The popularity of Apple’s products has created a huge market for counterfeits, and nowhere is this more prevalent than with AirPods. After all, cheap wireless earbuds aren’t hard to manufacture, especially if all you care about is making them look like AirPods.
It’s a multi-billion-dollar scam, but while counterfeiters are getting more savvy — even replicating Apple’s pairing features to dupe buyers into thinking they have the real thing — there are still some good ways to check if your AirPods are real or fake.
Of course, not all AirPods lookalikes are attempting to deceive you. AirPods have a certain cachet, and plenty of cheap electronics manufacturers have taken advantage of this by creating “True Wireless Earbuds” that are blatant ripoffs of Apple’s design. They can get away with this because it’s basically impossible to enforce patents against thousands of overseas factories, and inspectors are less likely to pay attention to packaging that isn’t using any of Apple’s logos or trademarks.
Still, if you’re thinking you’ll get a better deal by picking up one of these knockoffs, a recent cautionary tale might make you reconsider.
As noted by iPhone in Canada, Health Canada has issued a recall notice for a set of True Wireless Earbuds due to burn and fire hazards. While this is slightly less alarming than it sounds — there’s no evidence these earbuds will spontaneously combust in your ears — it’s still a serious safety issue that comes from cutting corners.
This recall involves the True Wireless Earbuds. The product UPC is 774223568363 and SKU is 1545426 which can be found on the packaging. The recall applies only to products purchased between July 17, 2025 and October 14, 2025. Products purchased before July 17th, 2025, as well as those that show a label indicating lot number 11012025, are excluded from this recall.
Health Canada recall notice
In this case, the flaw is with the USB charging cords, which Health Canada says were “manufactured with the wrong wiring material.” This could cause the cords to overheat when plugged in for charging, potentially catching fire. The agency says that there have already been three reports of incidents in Canada, although thankfully, no one has been injured.
The earbuds in question were commonly sold at Giant Tiger stores, a discount retailer with locations across the country, mostly concentrated in Ontario and Quebec.
As the images shared by Health Canada show, these earbuds were clearly packaged in a way that should make it obvious to any buyer that they’re knockoffs, but once they’re out of the box, they appear to be indistinguishable from AirPods Pro, at least at first glance.
Health Canada is telling consumers to immediately stop using the recalled product and return to a Giant Tiger store for a refund. It also reminds everyone that Canada’s Consumer Product Safety Act “prohibits recalled products from being redistributed, sold or even given away in Canada.”
While these knockoffs were sold at brick-and-mortar retailers, it’s even more common to find similar earbuds on sites like Aliexpress and Temu, where they may not even be properly cleared to North American safety standards. As we reported last year, several reports showed that even products like children’s pyjamas and padded crib bumpers sold on Temu were potentially dangerous. If these are failing to meet what are relatively basic physical safety standards, it’s even easier for ticking electronic firebombs to bypass regulators when they’re being shipped to customers directly from China.
