If a stranger approached you in a McDonald's parking lot and offered to sell an iPad on the cheap, how would you react?

For Ashley McDowell, the answer was an immediate yes.

Fake wooden iPad sold to a South Carolina woman. Credit:Spartanburg County

According to the sheriff's office in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, in the US, Ms McDowell, 22, was picking up food at a McDonald's on Monday night when two men approached her in the parking lot.

After showing her a new iPad, the police report said, they told Ms McDowell that they had bought the tablet computers in bulk and were reselling them for $US300 ($280) apiece.