Perfume email smells a little fishy

An email warning women about a perfume scam involving two men using ether to knock women out and steal their money could be a hoax.

The email claims two men were seen in a Taupo supermarket carpark approaching women on the pretext of selling cheap perfume.

The email detail's a woman's alleged experience, saying she refused to sniff the perfume because she had read an email weeks earlier warning about such a scam where the substance used was ether, to knock people out.

The email warns a sniff of the fake perfume will cause a person to pass out.

The men then take the victim's wallet, handbag and valuables.

The email says the scammers hit Queenstown and Dunedin two weeks ago and are now operating in Taupo and Rotorua.

According to website www.snopes.com, the perfume scam email has been around since 1999 when a woman made what was suspected to be a false complaint to police about such an attack happening to her.

The hoax email started in 1999 with an overseas media report.

The report claimed ``ether-wielding robbers were a potentially widespread menace''.

The website points out the story doesn't have a plausible scenario because despite what you see in the movies or on television, there is no substance that exists which renders someone unconscious after a mere sniff or two.

Taupo Senior Sergeant Tony Jeurissen said he had seen the email but wasn't prepared to say whether it was a hoax as he did not know anything about it.

Acting Senior Sergeant Tony Colby, of Rotorua, said he had not heard of such a scam.

He said he thought if it was genuine, it would have been widely publicised.