NationStates Jolt Archive

A friend of mine forwarded the following E-mail to me. Rather than E-mail it on to others, I figured that it would be more efficient to post a topic about it. The E-mail message is lengthy and it's difficult to pick apart who's quoting whos message, so here's the breakdown:

There's (allegedly) a scam going around where a scammer will approach a woman and ask if she's interested in sniffing a free perfume sample. The scammer then hands the victim a piece of laminated paper with ether on it. The ether knocks out the victim and the scammer then robs the victim blind. More cynical posters can easily imagine fates worse than robbery.

Now, I don't know how potent ether is or if it's technically feasible to put on a little piece of laminated paper enough ether to knock out a woman, but now that this E-mail is going around, it would be possible to employ more effective variations. For example, a scammer could take a perfume sample bottle, empty it, and refill it with ether. So, if there are no other people around, it would probably be a bad idea to sniff anything at all.

I should also point out that I haven't done any research to determine how many police departments are seeing cases of ether perfume samples. For all I know, the E-mail author could be making this up. Still, the scam does sound plausible.

Actually, being as paranoid as I am, I probably wouldn't eat any free samples of food if there were no other people around. Someone might approach me with free samples of chocolate (and not tell me that they're drugged chocolates) and then take everything from me while I'm knocked out. So, if there are no other people around, it would probably be a bad idea to sniff or eat anything at all.

--The Democratic States of Cogitation
"Think about it for a moment."
Founder and Delegate of The Realm of Ambrosia



>This was forwarded to me... Better safe than sorry..
>Please read...
>
>This is something that happened to us on the way back
>from vacation last 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 100 degrees
>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 of cologne I was wearing. Well, after
>7 hours in the car sweating, I don't think you could
>tell I was or was not wearing any cologne. We just got
>in 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 2 women in a car.
>The man that was driving asked me 'What kind of
>perfume do you wear?' I was a bit confused and I asked
>him 'Why?' He said, 'We are selling some name brand
>perfumes, at cheap prices.' I said I had no money.
>
>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
>credit cards. Then the people in the car began to
>laugh.
>
>I just got in my car and 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 am hoping you will share this with your wives,
>daughters, mothers, sisters, etc. Our world seems to
>be getting crazier by the day. Pipe bombs in mailboxes
>and sickos in parking lots with perfume. Be careful. I
>was approached yesterday afternoon around 5:30 PM in
>the Walmart parking 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 were willing to sell me at a very
>reasonable rate. I probably would have agreed 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 for someone else to hit on. I stopped a
>lady going towards them, pointing 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. 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 was spared 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 ALERT AND BE AWARE. IF YOU ARE A MAN AND
>RECEIVE THIS, PASS IT ON TO YOUR WOMEN 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 was over by Big Lots in
>the parking lot at lunch time when I was approached.
>So either day or night, it does not matter. There were
>3 guys together when I was approached. I called the
>police when I got back to my desk. Like the email says
>above, LET EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS - YOUR FRIENDS,
>FAMILY, CO-WORKERS, whomever. It helped me. The first
>thing that popped into my head was this e-mail
>warning.
>
>--[E-mail signature removed from quote by Cogitation.]

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/perfume.asp

no ether isnt that potent. you would have to drench a cloth with it and hold it to her nose like they do in the movies with chloroform.

seems to me that there used to be a spray windshield de-icer that had ether in it. mom always cracked the window a bit to keep us from passing out from it.

Nah, can't see it myself, at least not with ether. Ether is pretty mild, I've had a few solid sniffs of some as a child straight from a bottle full of it, and I felt fine. There may be some agents strong enough, but I doubt a little sniff from a piece of card is a danger. This email looks like one of those things designed to prey on people's paranoia, and lack of knowledge about ether.

Oh btw, it might still be a scam, though not with ether as such. Starting about 8 years ago there started a fad with "fake" perfume being sold at bargin prices. It was basically the scent without any affixant; thus when you bought a 10 dollar bottle of scent, 2 hours after you applied any it smelled like crap.

They also used the same sales tactics, aggressive and out-of-car. It was a pretty good scam, caught a couple of my coworkers despite my warnings.

If someone slips you a Mickey Finn, a drink that knocks you out, be aware that depending on the drug used, the side effects can kill you few days later. If you feel real sick a day or so later, be sure to explain to the doctor what happened, and then they will hopefully be able to save your life. Happens a bit in Thailand.

I never believe e-mails about scams and hoaxes, because they are usually scams and hoaxes. The beauty of the Internet right there for you.

That's not a scam.
It's SPAM.

no ether isnt that potent. you would have to drench a cloth with it and hold it to her nose like they do in the movies with chloroform.

seems to me that there used to be a spray windshield de-icer that had ether in it. mom always cracked the window a bit to keep us from passing out from it.

Plus ether doesn't smell anything like perfume, so you could tell.

But you can inhale quite a bit without passing out. The victorians used to have ether parties. (Or so sayeth james burke).

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/perfume.aspAh, so the E-mail author was making it up. I see.

Thanks, Eutrusca. :)

When I was drafting this topic, I was thinking about posting a possible counter-argument about how we live in a "culture of fear", or so I have heard. (This on top of the "I don't know how many police departments are talking about this" counter-argument.) But then, I decided that such a point would probably be too far off-track from the discussion. It seems I was wrong on that point; it's perfectly relevant.

--The Democratic States of Cogitation

The idea of getting close enough to a total stranger in a parking lot to smell perfume is pretty foolish on the face of it, but yeah, this was on the news a few weeks back, Cog. An anesthetist said that you'd have to concentrate the ether and totally cover someone's face for a while for it to work.

It's an Urban Legend. There's a site, I don't have it on hand, where you can look up this stuff to see if it's true or not. This is not.