Are sex traffickers using drug laced $100 bills? Fact Check

A rumour claims that sex traffickers are placing drug laced $100 bills on cars parked at shopping malls to incapacitate female motorists, making them vulnerable to being abducted.

FALSE

This rumour is simply an amalgamation and rehash of a number of different urban legends and scarelore hoaxes that have circulated the Internet previously, such as crooks handing out drug laced business cards (false), crooks using drug laced perfume samples in car parks (false) and carjackers using pieces of paper or zip ties to lure female motorists from their vehicles (both also false.)

In this case, it is drug laced $100 bills left on car door handles that incapacitate unwary female motorists returning to their cars, for the purposes of fuelling the sex trafficking industry, according to the breathless warnings.

Some of the most popular versions of this warning vaguely attribute the alleged location of the crime as Northgate Mall.

A friend just told me her sister was at Northgate mall and when she went back to her car there was a $100 bill wrapped with a red ribbon on her door handle. She noticed there was a man in a van watching her so she went back inside and called the police and they told her to not go to her car and that it is a ploy sex traffickers are using to kidnap women and children! Please watch your surroundings and don’t touch anything left on your vehicle as it could be laced with something that would absorb into your skin and make you groggy or even pass out. Tell all of your female friends and family this is happening here in Northgate. Not somewhere else, here!

However there are dozens of Northgate Malls and Shopping Centers scattered around North America, many of which had their own slightly tailored versions. One of the first examples from late 2019 seemed to reference Northgate Mall in Durham, North Carolina. However variants of the same warning include Northgate Mall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Another spread identifying Northgate Centre in Edmonton. Another for Northgate Mall in Seattle. Another for Northgate Village in Burnaby, British Columbia. Another for Northgate Shopping Center in Revere, Massachusetts. And another for Northgate Shopping Center in Winnipeg.

Each of those locations had their own specific warning, which for the most part was identical to the text above, only with their respective location attached to either the beginning or end.

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However, in none of those locations have there been any reports of such a crime taking place, and certain cases has been specifically dismissed. For example, in Edmonton, the police service dismissed the warnings as a likely hoax.

We have not received any reports regarding the incident described above and believe it to be a hoax that has been circulating online.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Burnaby, BC, also disputed the claim.

We are aware of these social media posts and to date we are unable to locate a report or investigation related to the complaint being outlined in the posts.

The problem we have with warnings like these – other than the lack of reputable evidence or sources – is also the lack of a verified first-hand account. As is typical with urban legends of this ilk, they describe the account third hand, from a “friend of a friend”; an anonymous author. Those who copy and share the message are merely passing the warning on, with little or no knowledge of where the warning actually originated.

This shields the warning from due diligence and scrutiny. For example, if the author was not themselves taken by the abductors-in-waiting, nor incapacitated by the $100 dollar bill, how did they know the $100 really was laced with drugs? How did they know the “man in the van” really was a sex trafficker? How did they really know anything untoward was really going on?

Ultimately, it’s a rehash of other urban legends in the scarelore niche. Attributed to many locations, but ultimately falls far short on the evidence front. We rank the claim false.