Are thieves handing out chemically laced masks to rob houses? Fact Check

Messages online claim that during the coronavirus pandemic, thieves are going door to door claiming to be representing the government while handing out chemically laced masks that will incapacitate a person, leaving their house vulnerable to being robbed.

UNPROVEN

An example of the warning can be seen below.

‼️WARNING‼️
A new thing circulating now. People are going door to door handing out masks. They say it’s a new initiative from local government. They ask you to please put it on to see if it fits. It’s doused with chemicals which knocks you out cold. They then rob you!! Please DO NOT accept masks from strangers. Remember friends, it’s a critical time and people are desperate, the crime rate will spike. Please be cautious & safe!

While the sentiment of the warning about not accepting masks from strangers is generally sound, this warning doesn’t appear to be based on any real crime and bears a lot of hallmarks of previous (and very similar) hoaxes that has circulated the Internet in the past.

The first issue with these sorts of warning is that there is no date or location attached to it, meaning it is nigh impossible to track down where this type of crime is allegedly occurring. No country is even mentioned in the warning, rendering the warning quite useless if it were indeed describing a real crime happening in a particular area.

However the main issue with the warning is that it doesn’t appear to be describing a real threat. Online searches fail to provide any first hand police warnings or reputable reports of such a crime happening anywhere. While the message sounds very alarmist, it is unlikely that such a crime involving drug-laced masks would ever be particularly prevalent given the high risk factor involved in carrying out such a crime.

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For example, how would thieves know that the person who answered the door was the only person in the house? And how would they be confident enough to know that a person who briefly puts on the mask would be rendered unconscious? Especially given that the alleged potency and strength of such chemicals or drugs are frequently over-exaggerated in social media warnings of this ilk.

Finally, it’s certainly not escaped our attention that this warning seems to be merely a rehashed variant of several other hoaxes that have spread in previous years that also claim crooks are passing out drug-laced items to unwitting victims with the end game being burglary (or in some cases sex-trafficking.) The drug soaked business card rumour has been doing the rounds on the Internet since 2008. Even older still, the claim that crooks are incapacitating women using chemically laced perfume samples in supermarket car parks has been going around in chain emails since the 1990s.

Of course there is sensible albeit common sense advice buried within this warning. Always be cautious of people who knock on your door claiming to be from the government or any other authority, and be especially cautious if they hand you certain items or request access to your home or personal information. If you think something is suspicious, simply close the door and verify their identities using another method, such as contacting the authority or company they purport to represent on the phone. If they are indeed criminals, it’s unlikely they’ll stick around.

However, given that the warning above lacks pertinent information such as a date, location and sources to verify its claims, coupled with the unlikely premise of such a crime and its similarity to past hoaxes, we’ll rate this warning unproven.