Scary Purfume Scam - True or Not?

[M.D. Holloway]

A neighbor sent this to me today - not sure it is true or not. Scary, I will have to investigate this further. From my experience with various solvents and chemicals, the vapor pressure for ether is very low. It evaporates very fast. A rag would have to be soaked in it and then the person would have to shove it in your face and keep it there. Chloroform is often used instead to knock people out, will do the same thing but also has a low vapor pressure.

Either way, anytime anyone approaches you, be very skeptical. Sad but true. Anyone have any comments?



This was written by a guy from KVLY-TV in Fargo; see bottom of msg. This is true. Scary!

This is something that happened to us on the way back from vacation last week. At first 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 degree 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 if 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, 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 mail boxes and sickos in parking lots with perfume. Be careful. I was approached yesterday afternoon around 5:30 PM in the Wal-Mart parking lot by two men 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 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 or at least compare to which one you like best.

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 KNOWABOUT THIS – YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, CO-WORKERS, whomever. It helped me. The first thing that popped into my head was this e-mail warning.

MAKE SURE YOUR DAUGHTERS KNOW!

[the]

Those silly chain mails are NEVER, and I mean NEVER true.

And they are always written in the same style and read the same, with the same plea to keep cirulating it, some goofy plot putting women or children in danger, etc.

A 10 second search on snopes usually confirms it, like in this case.

[arcsine]

I agree on the ether chemistry, sniffing will have little physiological effect. Not much would be left on a piece of paper unless it was dripping and then would have to be held in place over the nose for it to have knock-out effect.

[MRM]

How do people think up this kind of stuff? Ether . . . mmmmm. . .

Remember what Hunter S. Thomson had to say about ether in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? He cataloged the inventory of drugs he obtained for the journey from LA to Vegas and finished with something like this: "and a pint of ether. Of all the drugs we had, only the ether scared me. Nothing is more frightening than a crazed ether fiend whacked out on a serious overdose." I'll look up the real quote tonight.

It would take a lot more ether to make a grown person faint than could be delivered that way.

[notfarnow]

You should also be cautious if someone asks you to smell their finger. No good will come of it

[id10t]

notfarnow - smelling the finger is interesting, but the real danger is in pulling it.

[M.D. Holloway]

the,
Good one - I never think about Snopes. Its a good source of info.

[arcsine]

“Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.”

“There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge.”

[YTNUKLR]

Originally posted by arcsine
“There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge.”

Edited, same effect though:

"There is nothing more helpless and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."

[BGCarrera32]

Also make sure you never stand near a fat woman wearing corduroy pants while pumping gas as the static electricity generated from her thighs rubbing together could trigger an explosion.

[304065]

"This is the main advantage of ether: it makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel. . . total loss of all basic motor skills: blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue-- severance of all connection between the body and the brain. Which is interesting, becuase the brain continues to function more or less normally. . . you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can't control it.

RIP HST.

[pwd72s]

Mike, I thought you were smarter than that....

Now, to perfumes...Decades ago, I knew a kid who grew up in Nelscott, Oregon. He'd beachcomb after school every day...no computer games back then. One day, he found a basketball sized glob of stinky stuff. He put it in a bag, brought it home. Some here may have already guessed it. Yup, "Whale snot"...aka/ ambergris. Charlie, 7th grade then, had just paid for his college education.

[M.D. Holloway]

pwd72s - considering the strange things that happen in Texas parking lots, I would almost think that it would have some cred. The weak point was the ref to ether. My ol Man spent some time in Mexico many years ago - the young poor kids would put razors in their shoes and slice the tendons or calves of the gringos then steal from them. Today, if I was to read this in an e-mail I might dismiss it unless I actually heard of it first hand.

The note came from someone whom I thought would screen this sort of thing better - info from a reliable source by default becomes reliable until proven otherwise. Now we have other wise...

[the]

Whenever you get any "warning" e-mail that has stuff like

"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."

You know it's fake.

It's the equivalent of "Dear sir - My name is Mfasa Bruacha, I have $30M US dolars in an acount . . . "

[M.D. Holloway]

I wonder if any one has ever scammed a scammer?

[Jim Sims]

One early cold dawn I was starting a tractor with heptane and ether and then I woke up 30 years later and 200 miles away as an engineer. Still had my wallet though and there was a lot more money in it. Watch out for Deeres with ether!

[Aurel]

I work with ether, I breathe its vapors from time to time. I would have to breathe a lots of it to pass out. One sniff won`t make you pass out.

Aurel

[Aurel]

I work with ether, I breathe its vapors from time to time. I would have to breathe a lot of it to pass out. One sniff won`t make you pass out.

Aurel

[M.D. Holloway]

Aurel,
Been working with it lately?

[cstreit]

It'll make you repeat yourself though!