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Perfume Attacks

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Anonymous

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I heard it about two years ago when it was circulated by a well meaning colleague at work (US).

It is, as you suspect, a hoax, with many variations. Some details here:

http://www.tafkac.org/ulz/perfume.html
http://www.tafkac.org/ulz/xperfume.html

The variation I heard was the "two men in a van in a mall car park offering free samples" type. Yeah.

There is also a variation about a killer "free sample" perfume, supposedly doing the rounds shortly after the anthrax scare.
 
Thanks for the info.

I find the really fun bit about this is that Aussie police are still asking people for information , while it took you about ten minutes to find enough information to confirm it is a hoax.
 
It's amazing, but on another thread I told the story of how I first heard the Organ Thieves urban legend from the police force of a UK nuclear installation, providing a sincere warning to all business travellers to the US to be on their guard .:rolleyes:
 
We were warned about the perfume one by some management eejit in our office (London), sometime last year. It must have swept the entire developed world.
 
Hehehe!

I got told this tale by a mate a few days ago!
They swore that their boss's mother had been attacked in the center of Leeds by street vendors spraying perfume. The 'perfume' knocked her out and the dodgy vendors legged it with her valuables...


(I hadn't read this thread 'til now. I heard my mates story and thought it sounded like an UL, so searched this site, and 'Presto!' The Myth rumbles on........!:D )
 
A friend I haven't spoken to in a while just told me that back in October she was approached by two men in a car park in Crawley who claimed to be selling perfume. She was suspicious (but not because she knew anything of the UL she just assumed the perfume was cheap rubbish and she wondered why they weren't carrying any samples with them). She was walking away from the men when an elderly woman told her that she had done the right thing by not following the men to their car as they were possibly robbers using ether to knock out their victims. She proceeded to tell my friend in detail about the "scores of stories".

Clearly this is no evidence that a real scam exists but it does beg the question: what were these men up to ? Surely even 'legitimate' dodgy perfume-sellers are streetwise enough to have heard the UL and know not to approach lone women in places like car parks ? Were these men just pratting about and getting their kicks by trying to scare women and perpetuate the myth ?

Food for thought.
 
i was sent an email by my auntie from down Devon way last week telling me to let people know of this,so i sent her a link to snopes website advising her to read it.my uncle is part of the neighbourhood watch and they were all taking it as true.Snopes lists it as beginning late 1999.

Dashwood:could it just be that the person you hadn't spoken to
for a while just personalised the tale rather than say it
happened to a friend?
 
The only people I've seen selling cheap perfume are those street traders who disappear into the woodwork at the first sniff of a rozzer . . .

Carole
 
I saw this in an e-mail, a couple of days ago, from a local police community liasion office.
 
Judge Nutmeg said:
Dashwood:could it just be that the person you hadn't spoken to for a while just personalised the tale rather than say it happened to a friend?
Click to expand...

It's possible but not likely - she isn't prone to flights of fancy. Besides, nothing actually happened to her. She wasn't even that troubled by the perfume-sellers. It was the old woman who brought up the UL.

Fear-mongering pensioners ! :D
 
...and now a mate tells me this: his brother (whom I know), who works for the police in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, as a computer operator, says the police there are looking out for these vendors. They (the police) are taking the stories seriously...
Hmmm!:rolleyes:
 
You know, this tale might have some factual grounds. I recall reading in FT a looooooooooooong time ago (the issue had a picture of a black cat on the front I think, around about 1993ish). There was a report in there about how either Thai or Venezualan prostitutes were luring customers to hotel rooms, and then spraying them with a scopolamine based substance which rendered the poor customer unconscious for a couple of hours, only for them to wake up with all their belongings gone. If someone can dig out the issue and post the accurate article it'd be nice. I can't remember the facts exactly.
 
They could combine this with the prostitutes with the tranquilisers on their breasts, and the kidney thieves. They aren't UL's it's all a conspiracy!

And I think that I need a lie down in a darkened room....
 
Reading this board, I was reminded of the following which surfaced at work a couple of years ago, circulated throughout the local council offices by the "Chief Internal Auditor". Anyone else heard this one?

" I have just received the attached message from the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN). It will be of particular interest to female members of Council staff, although no doubt male members may wish to advise their female family members.

The NAFN message reads as follows:

WE HAVE JUST BEEN INFORMED OF A SPATE OF ROBBERIES ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CAR PARKS.

LONE WOMEN ARE APPROACHED BY YOUNG MEN PURPORTING TO SELL PERFUME, AND OFFERING AN OPENED BOTTLE FOR THE PROSPECTIVE BUYER TO SMELL. CONTAINED IN THE BOTTLE IS A SOLUTION WHICH STUNS ANYONE WHO SMELLS IT -ONLY FOR A SHORT TIME- BUT LONG ENOUGH FOR A HANDBAG TO BE STOLEN AND THEIVES TO MAKE A GETAWAY. SOME CAR PARKS, EVEN IN CITY CENTRES, ARE QUITE REMOTE, SO PLEASE BEWARE."

It fits the standard pattern of other e-mailed scare stories, but is there any truth in it, beyond the sensible advice to take care in public car parks when alone?
 
I've always thought that these ULs come first... then if it happens that's where the idea comes from.

I have no evidence to support that at all.....

good thread on the sewer fat by the way - well done:)


Kath
 
Thanks for info David. I thought it sounded very suspect , but it's facinating to discover how far this kind of thing can spread.

:D
 
I've always thought that these ULs come first... then if it happens that's where the idea comes from.
Click to expand...

Probably, I think the kind of guys that do this sort of stuff are far too dumb to think of it themselves...
 
They even have a word for this phenomenon. Pseudo-ostension.

Ostention is when a legend spontaneously occurs in real life after already being established as a legend, and pseudo-ostension is when someone deliberately does something to make the legend "come true."

Nonny
 
Perfume spritz sparks mass exit

Thirty-four people went to hospital and dozens were treated for sickness after strong perfume was sprayed by a woman in a Texas bank.

Two workers initially complained of having chest pains and headaches.

The bank then announced that anyone who felt ill should leave the building, prompting around 150 people to take up the offer.

Twelve people were taken to hospital by ambulance, after they complained of feeling short of breath and dizzy.

"When the two employees reported their illness to a supervisor, an announcement was made over the building's PA system saying that anyone feeling these symptoms should exit the building," fire department spokesman Kent Worley said, according to a local newspaper report.

Emergency services initially feared that there may have been a leak of carbon monoxide leak but having checked the building, decided that a strong perfume was to blame.

Investigators do not know what kind of perfume was sprayed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8175759.stm

I hope they double-checked all the cash at the end of the day!
 
MrSnowman said:
You know, this tale might have some factual grounds. I recall reading in FT a looooooooooooong time ago (the issue had a picture of a black cat on the front I think, around about 1993ish). There was a report in there about how either Thai or Venezualan prostitutes were luring customers to hotel rooms, and then spraying them with a scopolamine based substance which rendered the poor customer unconscious for a couple of hours, only for them to wake up with all their belongings gone. ...
Click to expand...

The alleged scopolamine (aka "Devil's Breath") attacks are discussed in this other thread:

Scopolamine: A Mind Control Drug?
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/scopolamine-a-mind-control-drug.68764/
 
rynner2 said:
Perfume spritz sparks mass exit

Thirty-four people went to hospital and dozens were treated for sickness after strong perfume was sprayed by a woman in a Texas bank.

Two workers initially complained of having chest pains and headaches.

The bank then announced that anyone who felt ill should leave the building, prompting around 150 people to take up the offer.

Twelve people were taken to hospital by ambulance, after they complained of feeling short of breath and dizzy.

"When the two employees reported their illness to a supervisor, an announcement was made over the building's PA system saying that anyone feeling these symptoms should exit the building," fire department spokesman Kent Worley said, according to a local newspaper report.

Emergency services initially feared that there may have been a leak of carbon monoxide leak but having checked the building, decided that a strong perfume was to blame.

Investigators do not know what kind of perfume was sprayed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8175759.stm

I hope they double-checked all the cash at the end of the day!
Click to expand...

In relation (somewhat) to this, I have, since a teenager, suffered from chronic headaches. If ever I wanted to suffer an instant migraine, all I ever needed to do was walk by someone wearing 'Poison', a perfume released by Yves Saint Laurent. The merest whiff and I was down for the day.
 
Lord Lucan said:
In relation (somewhat) to this, I have, since a teenager, suffered from chronic headaches. If ever I wanted to suffer an instant migraine, all I ever needed to do was walk by someone wearing 'Poison', a perfume released by Yves Saint Laurent. The merest whiff and I was down for the day.
Click to expand...
Maybe that was why it was called 'Poison'?
 
Lord Lucan said:
In relation (somewhat) to this, I have, since a teenager, suffered from chronic headaches. If ever I wanted to suffer an instant migraine, all I ever needed to do was walk by someone wearing 'Poison', a perfume released by Yves Saint Laurent. The merest whiff and I was down for the day.
Click to expand...
I wonder if you could pinpoint the ingredient(s) that are causing it?
I get the same headache/sickly feeling from those scented candles rubbish. (I don't mind the odd joss stick with an open window), but those things really make me feel bad.
 
Lord Lucan said:
In relation (somewhat) to this, I have, since a teenager, suffered from chronic headaches. If ever I wanted to suffer an instant migraine, all I ever needed to do was walk by someone wearing 'Poison', a perfume released by Yves Saint Laurent. The merest whiff and I was down for the day.
Click to expand...
Strange how the different chemical smells in perfumes can affect different people. A few years back I was on a commuter train coming home from work. At Chelmsford station a guy reeking of aftershave got on and sat down next to me. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell just a bit strong.

Anyway, within a few minutes I started to itch. I was wearing a big winter coat on and underneath that my suit jacket, shirt and tie. The urge to rip everything off and stand there clawing at my naked arms and torso was indescribable.

The guy got off at the next stop, and within a minute or two I started to feel better, however when I got home and changed out of my work things, I noticed my entire arms and body were covered with tiny red spots – a bit like hives.

Strange how it affected my arms and torso, but not my neck face or legs.
 
Something reminds me of the Salisbury attacks - a deadly poison was concealed in a perfume bottle, and eventually killed someone.

I doubt that the Russians actually sprayed the chemical at any point, since that could have potentially backfired and injured or killed the agents themselves, rather than the intended victim(s). They probably used an eyedropper or paintbrush, very, very carefully.
 
I had forgotten about he fragrance Poison used to make me wheeze and sneeze, too long in its presence and I would start to itch, "Chloe"and "youth dew" dew used to have a similar effect -

Theses days its Lynx Africa that sets me off- not in a good way. its like a chemical cosh.
 
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