Urban legends and Netlore about crime and criminals: ATM Envelope Poisonings; The 'Blue Star' LSD Tattoo; The Body in the Bed; The Nigerian Scam; Double Whammy; Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Light?
A female student driving home from college foils a phony cop's attempt to pull her over by dialing #77 on her cell phone to contact the real police officer ahead of her.
Female college student pulled over in her car by a cop-impersonating would-be rapist is rescued by a real officer after dialing *677 on her cell phone.
More or less true! This email alert originated in a reputable newsletter and warns of a known telephone scam.
A half dozen or so variations of this alert have been in wide circulation since 1998. The scam is real, but it does
not affect typical residential phone customers.
How one man's attempt to commit suicide turned into a brain-teaser for crime scene investigators. Was 1994's "most bizarre suicide" actually a case of murder? (See also:
Deconstructing Ronald Opus)
A fiendish killer disguised as a mild-mannered, well-dressed businessman helps a damsel in distress, then demands that she give him a ride...
Those murdering madmen can certainly put a crimp in your college career.
False rumor declares that a bank customer died after licking a cyanide-coated deposit envelope.
True! Various warnings describe how thieves rig ATM machines to withhold bank cards which are later retrieved and used to empty victims' bank accounts.
Rumors of penis-shrinking sorcerers roaming the streets cause outbreak of pubic panic in West Africa.
Three email versions are now circulating of this decades-old (and false) urban legend.
Two more well-known urban legends show up in an email warning.
TRUE: Email flier describes how criminals install special equipment on ATMs to steal unsuspecting bank customers' card numbers and PINs.
Email alert claims that colorful cartoon stickers laced with LSD pose a threat to children everywhere.
A classic urban legend. Honeymooners notice a strange odor in their hotel room and decide to peek under the mattress, only to find...
They picked the worst possible night to go necking on Lovers' Lane...
Forwarded emails warn that criminals are using business cards impregnated with a potent street drug called burundanga (or scopolamine) to incapacitate victims before attacking them.
Forwarded email warns that MS-13 gang members are participating in a 'gang initiation rite' wherein they bump a car from behind and then shoot the driver when he or she exits the vehicle to check for damage
Email purportedly written by an abducted teen warns parents not to 'publicize' the whereabouts of their kids to child predators by attaching car magnets containing info about schools and activities to their vehicles.
Email flier warns automobile owners to cover the VIN # on their dashboard with tape to prevent car thieves from writing it down and using it to obtain duplicate keys from a dealership.
Emailed photos show a huge cache of money totalling $207 million seized from Mexican drug dealers in 2007.
Email warns that criminals have found a new means of committing identity theft: taking a picture of your credit card with a camera cell phone.
According to this email flier and attached video, law enforcement officials have discovered .22 caliber guns disguised as cell phones being smuggled into western Europe from Croatia.
Email rumor claims a consumer was cheated by a rigged gas pump while refueling at a BP service station in Cartersville, Georgia
A thief leaves "digital" evidence at the scene of the crime.
Fraudulent email designed to steal personal information sends recipients to a real Citibank Web page but launches a phony pop-up demanding "login" info. Beware!
Forwarded email dating from the mid-1990s contains a list of dozens of people connected with Bill and Hillary Clinton who -- we are to believe -- died under mysterious circumstances.
Email tale echoes an urban legend dating back several decades about police interrogators wiring a metal colander to a Xerox machine and convincing a suspect it's a lie detector, thereby extracting a confession.
Email examples of the infamous "Nigerian Scam" letters used by international con artists to bilk victims of millions of dollars every year.
Emailed photos purportedly show the stylish and comfortable new digs of prison inmates in Chicago's Cook County Correctional Center.
An old urban legend (c. 1973) dressed up in new clothes for the Internet.
Forwarded email warns of a credit scam in which con artists request the 3-digit code on the back of a credit card to "verify" it.
After stealing someone's shopping bag in a department store parking lot, the thief gets the surprise of her life when she opens the bag and finds a dead cat inside.
New email variant of a familiar urban legend claims that innocent people who flash their headlights at gang members' cars will be chased down and killed as part of a gang initiation game
The case of the benevolent car thief.
False email rumor claims hotel key cards are routinely encoded with customers' personal information, resulting in identity theft by employees.
Email flier purporting to originate from the North Little Rock Police Department warns parents that drug-laced candy in the form of suckers and lollipops pose a hazard to children and teenagers.
Two robbers break into a bank expecting to steal diamonds and gold, but find what they believe to be a cache of freshly made vanilla pudding instead.
As allegedly reported in a Florida newspaper, stupid burglars confuse woman's cremated remains for crack cocaine.
In this email tale circulated during the 1990s and subsequently revived as a "2005 Darwin Award contender," a less-than-clever criminal gets his just desserts when he attempts to rob a crowded gun shop full of well-armed patrons.
Funded by the Chinese Communist Party, these dastardly criminals threaten American manhood!
Resurgence of a terrifying urban legend about aspiring gang members who fire weapons at oncoming drivers who innocently flash their headlights
Email rumor describes a new scam in which crooks copy down the numbers of gift cards sold on store display racks and use them to make purchases online.
A murderous, well-dressed "good samaritan" supposedly lurks in the parking lots of shopping malls just about everywhere.
Email rumor claims a man posing as a good samaritan attempted to gain entry to a woman's vehicle by 'returning' a $5 bill she supposedly dropped. Was he the Baton Rouge serial killer?
Variants of the classic urban legend, 'The Stolen Granny'
A person identified only as an 'Arab' or 'Muslim' repays a stranger's act of kindness with a cryptic warning not to go to a specific place at a specific time, supposedly saving them from a planned terrorist attack.
Beware of lonely old ladies who pretend to be your mother at the checkout stand.
Tabloid tale of 81-year-old 'gun-toting granny' Ava Estelle of Melbourne, Australia, who took revenge on two men who raped her granddaughter by shooting their testicles off.
Watch out – granny's got a hatchet!
Circulating via email, a 'Halloween Warning' urging parents to instruct their children to beware of a new form of crystal meth that looks and smells like strawberry Pop Rocks candy and comes in other flavors such as chocolate, peanut butter, and cola.
Spam message purportedly sent by a hit man hired to 'terminate' the recipient demands a large sum of money in return for not carrying out the mission.
This email warning from a 'Captain Abraham Sands' of the Jacksonville Police Department claims that evildoers are exposing unsuspecting victims to the AIDS virus by attaching HIV-contaminated needles to gas pump handles.
Are drug addicts everywhere trying to kill us all with their dirty syringes?
'You have been infected with HIV' - Rumors of recent needle-stick incidents in Dallas and Denver, plus copycat pranks in Virginia
A teen necking session on lovers' lane is interrupted by a radio announcement that a murderer with a hook for a hand has escaped from the local asylum.
Fraudulent emails purporting to originate from the IRS aim to trick users into revealing personal information.
Forwarded email alert warns of a new identity theft scam wherein potential victims are falsely notified that they have failed to appear for jury duty and asked to supply personal info for verification.
What if that scary guy following you was actually trying to save your life?
Not your ordinary bogus virus alert. This one's about a (supposedly) real, live bug that is fatal to human beings!
More murdering madmen in disguise in this variant of "The Hatchet in the Handbag."
Perfume hoax email: parking lot thieves allegedly knock out their victims by convincing them to sniff ether-laced perfume or cologne. The evolution of an Internet urban legend...
Forwarded emails link to videos demonstrating a breaking-and-entering technique used by criminals known as lock bumping or key bumping.
More pay phone hysteria, courtesy of the Internet.
This "warning to women" claims that elaborate scams are being used by abductors to lure female shoppers out of malls and into waiting vans.
Forwarded email purportedly issued by the Tennessee Department of Correction warns of "National Gang Week" activities including the use of a baby car seat with to trick women into stopping their vehicles and setting themselves up for attack.
A female shopper's gratefulness turns to horror when she discovers that the "good samaritan" who offered to fix her flat tire in the mall parking lot has a briefcase full of knives, rope and duct tape.
Creepy variant of a college tale known as "The Roommate's Death."
Email hoax claims Michigan State Police are conducting a 31-day "speeding ticket frenzy" during which troopers will pose as DOT workers to enable them to catch traffic violators unawares. The scheme is called "Operation Yellow Jacket."
A traveler is aghast when an indigent sits down next to him in an airport waiting area and (apparently) begins filching cookies from the package he has just bought.
According to this false email alert, there's a new date rape drug that permanently sterilizes female victims.
Email alert warns purchasers of propane tanks to avoid buying tanks with blue or green residue around the valve, an indication they may be contaminated with anhydrous ammonia.
According to this email tale, an AFP news photo containing a close-up of a Red Cross Debit Card issued to Hurricane Katrina victim Latesha Vinette instantly resulted in fraudulent charges on a massive scale.
Email rumor claims ATM users can contact police in the event of an attempted robbery by entering their PIN in reverse.
Latest version of an old email hoax warns people not to reply to messages from a person using the screen name 'Rockhard abs' or 'Jason Stallings,' supposedly a suspect in the murders of several women he met online
According to this forwarded email, Baton Rouge police suspect a local serial killer is gaining entry to female victims' homes by playing a recording of a baby crying outside their doors.
Email rumor claims a man posing as a good samaritan attempted to gain entry to a woman's vehicle by 'returning' a $5 bill she supposedly dropped. Is this a new trick used by rapists to dupe unsuspecting women?
An outdated and partly false email warning about an actual Internet stalker who used the screen name "Slavemaster." A suspect has been behind bars since June 2000.
Real-life murders captured on film and video? The Skeptical Inquirer's Scott Aaron Stine stalks the truth.
Teenagers across America, we're told, are tossing firebombs into randomly selected vehicles.
Email rumor warns of a new carjacking scheme involving the placement of a sticker or flyer on the victim's rear window to fool them into exiting the vehicle with the engine running.
Forwarded email warns that criminals are stealing license plates and mounting them on their own vehicles to avoid being caught while perpetrating 'pump and run' gasoline thefts
Email fliers warn of a new, candy-flavored form of methamphetamine targeted at young people called "strawberry meth" or "Strawberry Quick."
Proof that drug smugglers will stop at nothing to ply their evil trade.
Internet urban legend warns of a criminal ploy to disable women's vehicles in Target Store parking lots by pouring sugar water in their gas tanks
A couple from suburban California were vacationing in Jamaica when their room was broken into and everything stolen, with the exception of their camera and their toothbrushes. Considering themselves fortunate to have retained the camera with their vacation photos, they returned home where they had the film developed...
Forwarded email urges vehicle owners to lock their doors manually instead of using a remote key, otherwise thieves might be able to clone the security code and gain entry to the vehicle.
This week's hot email rumor, a warning to women about a robbery scam involving a remarkably potent 'knock-out' cologne, arrives just in time to strike fear into the hearts of holiday shoppers...
The man who took out fire insurance on his rare cigars... then smoked them.
July 1999: Police in Bangkok are hunting for a man accused of stabbing several women in the back with a needle and shouting 'You've got AIDS now!' in separate incidents over the past few days.
Spam email masquerades as a message from U.S. Bank requesting personal information from its customers. Don't bite!
Email rumors claim cashiers at Wal-Mart and other retail stores routinely steal money from customers by surreptitiously triggering the "cash back" option during credit or debit card transactions.
Emailed alert written on Louisiana Dept. of Public Safety stationary warns of a 'multi-city' check copying scam run by a ring of Wal-Mart employees
Latest email scare story making the rounds tells of random victims unknowingly injected with the AIDS virus in crowded theaters and night clubs in two different countries
