NEED TO KNOW
Mahlet Abadi, 29, came up with a last-minute Venmo Halloween costume after her friends used the payment app to collect money for a party
She printed her real Venmo QR code onto a blue dress, never expecting strangers to actually send her money
After earning around $250 in one night, Abadi shared the story on TikTok, where viewers have been eager to recreate her costume
Mahlet Abadi was running out of time to find a Halloween costume when she came up with an idea that would end up paying for itself many times over. With a blue dress, a printed QR code and a little creativity, the 29-year-old dressed as Venmo and walked away from a Halloween party with around $250 from strangers.
“I grew up in Ethiopia and didn’t celebrate Halloween growing up, so it’s funny to see a costume I put together last minute get this much attention,” Abadi tells PEOPLE. What she thought would be a simple outfit for a night out has since become a hit on TikTok, where she shared how her homemade costume unexpectedly earned her money.
The idea came about a few years ago, when Abadi’s friends were collecting money through Venmo for entry to their Halloween party. With no costume planned and little time left to order one, she decided to dress as the payment app itself.
Mahlet Abadi making her costume
Credit: Mahlet Abadi
“I did that thing where you think you have plenty of time to order something, then suddenly Halloween is a week away and everything takes two weeks to arrive,” she recalls. “I think a lot of people can relate to that last-minute scramble.”
Abadi kept the costume simple, adding a large “V” to a blue dress to resemble Venmo’s recognizable logo. But she worried the letter alone wouldn’t be enough for people to understand what she was supposed to be, so she printed out her actual Venmo QR code and attached it to the outfit.
The code appeared on both the front and back of her dress, allowing anyone with the app to scan it directly from her costume. It was intended as a finishing touch, not an invitation for people to send her money.
That changed before Abadi even made it to the party, when strangers began stopping her to ask whether the QR code actually worked. One person decided to find out for themselves and sent her money on the spot.
“The first payment came from a stranger before I even arrived, and I was shocked because I’d gone into the night with no expectation of receiving anything,” she shares. As the evening continued, more people scanned the code, complimenting her creativity and telling her they wished they’d thought of the idea themselves.
By the end of the night, Abadi had received around $250 through Venmo, including one particularly generous payment. “The largest payment someone sent was $50, which I never would have expected from wearing a homemade costume,” she says.
Mahlet Abadi in her Venmo costume
Credit: Mahlet Abadi
Years later, Abadi revisited the experience in a TikTok video, explaining how she had turned a last-minute costume into an unexpected payday. In the clip, she showed off the dress and recalled encouraging curious partygoers to scan the code to see that it was connected to her real account.
The response to her video has brought a new wave of attention to the costume, with viewers praising its simplicity and sharing plans to try it themselves. Some have even told Abadi they wish they’d come up with the idea first.
Not every interaction has involved someone wanting to send her money, however, as sharing her Venmo information publicly has also led to some unusual requests. “Now that my Venmo is out there, I’ve gotten requests from people asking me to send them money, which I think is funny,” she says.
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Despite those messages, Abadi says the experience has been overwhelmingly positive, and she would happily recommend the costume to anyone looking for an inexpensive, last-minute Halloween idea. She hasn’t tried to outdo it in the years since, although the renewed attention has her thinking about what could come next.
“Based on the response to my TikTok, it looks like we’re going to have a lot of people dressed as Venmo this year,” she says.
Read the original article on People