Email text contributed by Mike Langguth, 09/02/98:

Guide's note:  (Updated March 18, 1999) - This chilling bit of scarelore has been circulating by email since August, 1998. It plays upon women's legitimate fears of being assaulted or abducted in public places, but there's no evidence that scams such as those described are frequently employed by real-life criminals.

It has been established that Inside Edition did run a segment resembling the one described (see Mikkelson, below), but the point of the experiment was to prove that women can fall victim to such scams, not that these exact crimes are truly widespread.

Common sense would dictate being wary of strangers offering money or the opportunity to star in a TV commercial out of the blue. It would also dictate being suspicious of a man who dashes into a mall claiming his baby has stopped breathing. Why did he leave the infant in the car?

The grain of truth in the warning is something everyone is already painfully aware of – women alone can be targets for assailants and ought to exercise reasonable caution depending on the situation. But again, there's no evidence to back up the claim that the scams described in the email are common. The watchword is caution, not fear.

Barbara Mikkelson debunked the message thoroughly in Mall Grab, an Urban Legends Reference Page.

Also, see Another Close Call at the Mall for a similar shopping mall legend making the rounds these past few years.