By SCOTT INGLIS
Heard the one about two men trying to drug and rob women in supermarket carparks by offering them a sniff of supposedly cheap perfume?
E-mails and faxes telling this story have been circulating around New Zealand businesses, putting two supermarkets on high alert and prompting one to issue warning notices to its stores.
But it seems to be an urban myth, as similar tales have circulated the world over the past year.
The story originated in Mobile, Alabama, where 54-year-old Bertha Johnson complained in November last year that she had passed out after sniffing cologne offered for sale by a stranger in a carpark. She awoke to find more than $800 missing from her purse.
Authorities have never solved the case and Ms Johnson's toxicology tests proved negative.
Generic versions of the story spread across the United States and on to Canada, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
Several versions appear to have surfaced in New Zealand.
In one sent to the Herald, a woman claims that two men approached her outside Woolworths in Auckland late last month, asking if she would like to sample some fabulous perfume.
"I probably would have agreed had I not received an e-mail some weeks ago warning of a 'wanna smell this neat perfume?' scam."
The e-mail warns women not to sample the perfume because it is really a drug. "When you sniff it, you'll pass out. And they'll take your wallet, your valuables and heaven knows what else."
Woolworths national security manager Graham Zuill, who also received the e-mail, said he knew of no such attack and had contacted police.
Mr Zuill, who remembers a similar e-mail doing the rounds about a year ago, said yesterday that if it was an urban myth, that was good news.
"I don't mind it from the sole angle that if people are a little bit more aware of their environment, then that's a positive thing."
The security manager for Foodtown supermarkets, Ross Whittaker, acting on another version of the e-mail, sent notices to the chain's 68 stores nationwide on Friday warning staff to be cautious.
He said it was difficult not knowing if the story was real or a hoax.
"We're sort of caught between a rock and a hard place. We have no evidence to suggest it has occurred either.
"But the problem we've got is if we ignore it and something happens, you would sort of feel you could have avoided it."
Mr Whittaker said he would investigate further and check his sources.
'Perfume scam' reeks of myth
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