Nevermind the improbability of the tale (real terrorists are deadly serious people with too much at stake to drop casual hints of their plans), it has been told too often, and in too many places, to be true. None of these anecdotal warnings of future attacks has proven accurate to date.
As is often the case with rumors and legends, however, such stories do accurately reflect prevailing sentiments in the communities in which they spread — fear and uncertainty in the face of a perceived threat, for example. Psychologists view them as collective responses to situations in which people feel both endangered and powerless. It's a way of venting, of expressing what everyone feels, on the one hand, while "managing" the looming threat (albeit by spreading misinformation), on the other.
Along with the many known minor variations dating from late 2001 — e.g., our "Middle-Eastern man" repays a kindness extended at a grocery store, drug store, subway turnstile, gas station, or airport (etc.) by warning his benefactor not to go to New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Boston, Birmingham, England, or a particular 7-11 in Hollywood, California (etc.) — a notorious 2002 spin-off had the grateful terrorist warning his benefactor not to drink Coca-Cola after a certain date. This variant circulated so heavily thanks to the Internet that the Coca-Cola Co. took the extraordinary measure of issuing a press release decrying it as "absolutely false" and a source of "needless worry."
According to Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias author Benjamin Radford, the main motif predated the terrorist attacks of 9/11 by many years. "It's a modern variation of an urban legend that's been around — the dangerous person who tells a secret to a helpful stranger," he told the Kansas City Star in 2003. "Years ago in Europe, you heard it applied to IRA (Irish Republican Army) terrorists."
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Sources and further reading:
Terror Threat Just a Terrible Hoax, Says NYPD
NY Daily News, 7 January 2009Even Skeptics Falling for Rumors After Attacks
Seattle Times, 21 October 2001Soda Pop Terror Warning
Urban Legends, 28 August 2002'Cola terrorist' is the latest twist to myth
Kansas City Star, 30 September 2002
Last updated: 01/07/09
