Fake police advisory warns about kidnapping scams in malls
The message has gone viral again and again with varying data and different city names.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 1 April 2023 10:31 AM GMT
(Image credit: Facebook/Sufiyanzaid Sufiyan)
A message attributed to K.R. Nagaraju, DCP crime branch, is doing the rounds on social media. The message claims that miscreants masquerading as perfume salesmen in shopping malls are offering samples on paper that are laced with drugs.
āā¦Itās a new scam, the paper is laced with drugs. Uāll pass out so they can kidnap, rob or do worse things to uā¦ā reads the message.
It further claims that the incident happened in three malls and seven girls have gone missing.
(Image credit: Facebook/Sufiyanzaid Sufiyan)
Fact Check
We ran a keyword search about the āperfume kidnapping scamā and came across a 2019 article in The News Minute debunking a similar claim. It said a similar message about perfume salesmen kidnapping near shopping malls had gone viral on WhatsApp. This message also claimed that āover 78 girls are missing in Hyderabad alone and more than 540 ladies are missing past 10 days.ā The TNM report debunked the viral claim, citing distorted data on missing women.
Further, we searched about DCP K.R. Nagaraju issuing any such message and found a report published by Bangalore Mirror in 2019. It said K.R. Nagaraju is indeed a DCP posted in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. It also quoted the officer as saying that the message circulating in his name is fake and that he even filed a complaint about it.
We also came across a 2018 Facebook post by the Hyderabad city police, debunking a similar message about perfume salesmen kidnapping people in three malls in Kolkata.
The message has gone viral again and again with varying data and different city names. Hence, we conclude that the viral message is false.
