I received an email warning me against people in parking lot that ask you what kind of perfume you are wearing

Question

I received an email warning me against people in parking lot that ask you what kind of perfume you are wearing

Answer 1

mmm I have to wonder if its a prank, joke or warning. ask the email more about it if I were you or just be prepared to laugh when you think of it. lol

Answer 2

lol, ol' folk lore.

Check Snoops for answers.

Answer 3

I would be scared of people like that too.

Are they somehow related to dogs and just want to sniff you. Keep them out of your crotch for sure.

Answer 4

While likely a hoax, I think we should always keep in mind the wisdom "Everything I needed to know about life I learned in kindergarten"  I think we all learned that you shouldn't talk to strangers, no different for adults than 4 year-olds.

There is an excellent resource recommended by Toronto Police Services for unravelling email hoaxes and urban legends:  www.snopes.com

Answer 5

Hoax:

One of the more alarming urban legends making the email rounds for the past several years holds that bands of thieves in the U.S. and elsewhere are using ether-spiked perfume samples to render victims unconscious before making off with their valuables. This is assuredly false - at any rate, there's a dearth of confirmed incidents to substantiate the scare stories, the sole exception being the strange case of Bertha Johnson of Mobile, Alabama, who told police in November 1999 that she was robbed of $800 after sniffing a cologne sample offered her by a stranger and passing out in her car. Toxicological tests revealed no foreign substance in the victim's blood.

Hoax, rumor, urban legend

Though the details have morphed over time, versions of the story showing up in inboxes today are directly descended from rumors which, in turn, appear to have been based on early news reports about the alleged incident in Alabama. Instead of cologne, the soporific sample is now most often said to be perfume. Instead of an unknown, undetectable substance, the knockout drug is said to be ether. Interestingly, the moral of the story is no longer, simply, "Beware of parking lot scammers." It has evolved into, "If not for these email warnings, I could have been a victim too, and so could you!"

It's typical for the content of rumors, hoaxes, and urban legends to undergo changes as they pass from person to person (or inbox to inbox, though texts forwarded via email tend to vary less than orally transmitted versions). Variants emerge for a couple of reasons. For one, as anyone who has ever played the children's game called "Telephone" can attest, perception and memory can be fallible, and people tend to misremember and/or misreport what they've heard. For another, it's simply in the nature of storytelling and storytellers to "creatively enhance" the details of a yarn to make it more scary, more funny, or more believable. These processes can be seen at work in the evolution of "The Knock-Out Perfume."

Two Sniffs and You're Out

On November 8, 1999, the Mobile, Alabama police department issued a press release stating the following: On Monday, November 8, 1999, at approximately 2:30 p.m. Officers from the Third Precinct responded to the World of Wicker, at 3055 Dauphin Street. When the Officers arrived the victim, 54-year-old Bertha Johnson of the 2400 block of St. Stephens Road, advised she was rendered unconscious after smelling an unknown substance. Johnson was approached by an unknown black female, who was described as follows: slim build, 120-130 pounds, 5 feet 7 inches tall and was last seen wearing a Leopard print wrap on her head and large gold loop earrings. The victim told Investigators the incident occurred at the Amsouth Bank at 2326 Saint Stephens Road. After the victim-regained consciousness she discovered her property missing from her purse and her vehicle. The MOBILE POLICE DEPARTMENT is advising the public to be on alert for this type of activity. The local media jumped on the story. A November 10, 1999 article in the Mobile Register quoted Johnson as saying her assailant offered her a $45 bottle of cologne for only $8 and talked her into to sniffing a sample. She did, once, and detected nothing odd about it. She sniffed it again and lost consciousness. The next thing she knew, Johnson told police, she was standing in another parking lot miles away, dazed, confused and missing $800 in cash.

"I feel like I got flimflammed out of something that I should have known better than to even look out the window at her," she told the Register.

Within days, the story of Bertha Johnson's parking lot misadventure was all over the Internet.

Answer 6

beat them up