MOST air travellers are familiar with this desperate scenario at the terminal gate.

Our phone or tablet battery is plummeting and we plunge headfirst for the nearest available power outlet, hoping to inject some juice into the dying device before the call for boarding.

To weary travellers, a free power point in an airport waiting area is like an oasis in a very dry desert: rare and necessary.

Sadly for us, pranksters are taking advantage of our desperation.

In an evil-genius move, people have been placing stickers of fake power outlets at airport gates and watching with amusement as power-starved strangers try, and fail, to plug in their chargers.

The stickers are so realistic, and their placement so convincing, people are falling for the simple trick over and over again. It’s happening at airports all over the world.

“Whoever put up this fake sticker of an open outlet at the airport, you are now my enemy for life,” one person said on Twitter.

Another person said: “Will the person who’s putting fake outlet stickers all over the airport please die already thanks.”

Some stickers have also been spotted on garbage bins — although to be fair, whoever fell for that probably had it coming.

There are even YouTube videos of people being cruelly pranked and they’re racking up big view counts.

According to The Sun, the fake power point stickers can be bought for cheap online — not that we encourage anyone to contribute to this sick perpetuation of human misery.