I have this gullible friend, we’ll call her “Suzy.” Even though we live hundreds of miles apart, I can always tell when Suzy is reading her email because my inbox invariably fills with exclamation mark-laden messages with subject lines like “FW: Fwd: Fw: Very important, not a joke. Please read” and “FW: Re: Getting to know you! I’d better get this back!!”

Today I received an urgent alert from Suzy about nefarious sounding perfume robbers – they reportedly ask you to smell a perfume. No big deal, right? You take a sniff, say “I liked the third one! It was like poppies. POPPIES!” You then leave, thinking everything is just hunky-dorrie, oblivious to the fact that you were just secretly knocked-unconscious by a special chemical in the innocent smelling perfume. While you were out, the uber-sophisticated thieves took your watch and your wallet, and like the schmuck you are, you come to and happily go on your merry away, blissfully unaware of what just transpired.

Now, it doesn’t take much in the way of critical thinking to deduce that that this fantastic story is complete hogwash – unfortunately, people like Suzy seldom exercise any judgment before hitting the “Send” button.

Snopes reveals that this particular hoax has been zipping from inbox to inbox since at least the year 2000, and provides a number of specimens:

[Collected via e-mail, 2006]

This is something that happened to us on the way back from vacationlast spring. I didn’t think much of it until now. The reason we were a little suspicious is we had been riding in a jeep all day with 100degrees temps and we stopped at a truck stop for something to drink.When I was leaving, a young girl followed me out and asked what kind ofcologne I was wearing. Well, after 7 hours in the car sweating, I don’tthink you could tell I was or was not wearing any cologne. We just gotin the jeep and said no thanks.

Then it was about 3 weeks ago, I was at a service station in Birmingham getting gas. It was about 9:30 pm. I was approached by 2 men and 2women in a car. The man that was driving asked me ‘What kind of perfumedo you wear?’ I was a bit confused and I asked him ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Weare selling some name brand perfumes, at cheap prices.’ I said I had nomoney.

He then reached out of the car and handed me paper that was laminated;it had many perfumes on it. I looked quickly at it and gave it back. I said, I have no money. He said it is OK, we take check, cash,or creditcards. Then the people in the car began to laugh. I just got in my carand said no thanks.

Then I received this e-mail yesterday and it sent chills up my spine. Please read this. It is no joke. Here is the e-mail I was sent.

Dear Friends:

I know not all of you are women that I am sending this to, but amhoping you will share this with your wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, etc. Our world seems to be getting crazier by the day. Pipebombs in mailboxes and sickos in parking lots with perfume. Be careful.I was approached yesterday afternoon aroun d 5:30 PM in the Walmartparking lot by two males asking what kind of perfume I was wearing.

Then they asked if I’d like to sample some fabulous scent they werewilling to sell me at a very reasonable rate. I probably would haveagreed had I not received an e-mail warning of a “Wanna smell this neat perfume?” scam.

The men continued to stand between parked cars, I guess to wait forsomeone else to hit on. I stopped a lady going towards them, pointingat them and told her about how I was sent an e-mail at work about someone walking up to you at the malls or in parking lots and askingyou to SNIFF PERFUME that they are selling at a cheap price.

THIS IS NOT PERFUME…IT IS ETHER!

When you sniff it, you’ll pass out. They’ll take your wallet, your valuables and heaven knows what else.

If it were not for this e-mail, I probably would have sniffed the’perfume’ but thanks to the generosity of an e-mailing friend, I wasspared whatever might have happened to me.

I wanted to do the same for you.

PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL YOUR WOMEN FRIENDS AND PLEASE BE ALERTAND B E AWARE. IF YOU ARE A MAN AND RECEIVE THIS, PASS IT ON TO YOURWOMEN FRIENDS.

Ladies, this happened to me yesterday and I didn’t smell the perfume either, thanks to this email. This is true. Believe me, I know. I wasover by Big Lots in the parking lot at lunch time when I wasapproached. So either day or night, it does not matter. There were 3guys together when I was approached. I called the police when I got back to my desk. Like the email says above, LET EVERYONE KNOW ABOUTTHIS – YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, CO-WORKERS, whomever. It helped me. Thefirst thing that popped into my head was this e-mail warning.


[Collected via e-mail, 2001]

PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO YOUR WOMEN FRIENDS!!!

I was approached yesterday afternoon around 3:30pm in the Wal-Mart parking lot at Forest Drive, by two males, asking what kind of perfume I was wearing. Then they asked if I’d like to sample some fabulous scent they were willing to sell me at a very reasonable rate. I probably would have agreed had I not received an email some weeks ago, warning of a “wanna smell this neat perfume?” scam.

The men continued to stand between parked cars, I guess to wait for someone else to hit on. I stopped a lady going towards them, pointed at them, and told her about how I was sent an e-mail at work about someone walking up to you at the malls or in parking lots, and asking you to SNIFF PERFUME that they are selling at a cheap price.

THIS IS NOT PERFUME – IT IS ETHER!

When you sniff it, you’ll pass out. And they’ll take your wallet, your valuables, and heaven knows what else. If it were not for this e-mail, I probably would have sniffed the “perfume”. But thanks to the generosity of an emailing friend, I was spared whatever might have happened to me. Iwanted to do the same for you.

PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL YOUR WOMEN FRIENDS, AND PLEASE BE ALERT, AND AWARE!!


[Collected via e-mail, 2000]

I WAS SENT AN E-MAIL AT WORK ABOUT SOMEONE WALKING UP TO YOU AT MALLS OR PARKING LOTS AND ASKING YOU TO SNIFF PERFUME THEY ARE SELLING AT A CHEAP PRICE. THIS ISN’T REALLY PERFUME BUT ETHER, AND YOU WILL PASS OUT AND THEY TAKE YOUR WALLET AND ALL YOUR VALUABLES. THIS IS NOT A PRANK E-MAIL, THIS IS TRUE BECAUSE I WAS STOPPED IN GOVERNORS SQUARE PARKING LOT TODAY.

A MAROON CAR PULLED UP TO ME WITH TWO FEMALES. THE FEMALE ON THE PASSENGER SIDE ROLLED DOWN THE WINDOW AND ASKED ME IF I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN “SNIFFING” SOME PERFUME THEY WERE SELLING. I REMEMBERED THE E-MAIL I JUST RECEIVED YESTERDAY, AND SAID NO. SHE ASKED ME A SECOND TIME, KEPT ON WALKING SAID NO ONCE AGAIN AND THEY PULLED OFF. IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE E-MAIL, I VERY WELL MAY HAVE DONE IT. PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND TELL THEM TO BEWARE. THIS IS TRUE!! IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE E-MAIL I GOT YESTERDAY, I COULD VERY WELL MAY HAVE BEEN A VICTIM. (AIN’T GOD GOOD?) REMEMBER TO PASS THIS ON!!!!!

Why do people like Suzy fall for hoaxes like this? I mean, she isn’t a dumb person. On the contrary, she’s pretty bright. Sure, maybe she’s a little a gullible, and maybe she’s a bit absent minded. But why she always sends stuff like this on, I’ll never know.

All I can do is smile and shake my head. And post about it here, of course. ;-)