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| - A long-standing internet urban legend claiming strangers are approaching women in parking lots and offering samples of discounted perfume as a pretext for drugging and robbing them continues to be shared widely across social media.
Snopes first debunked this in June 2000, followed by the debunking of a related claim in June 2001 about women supposedly dying from smelling drugged perfume samples sent through the mail, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control also disproved at the time.
Despite this, the claim continues to be popular — particularly on Facebook (archived) — and readers continue to reach out to learn if there's any validity to these claims.
Message from a friend:
THE PERFUME SHOCK IS BACK.
This is the story of a real case that happened last week and that a friend is sharing.
A friend was put to sleep in the bathroom of a movie theater and everything was stolen from her and she doesn't remember anything, only that a woman gave her a perfume to smell.
I was also approached yesterday afternoon around 3:30 pm in the parking lot of the mall by two men who asked what kind of perfume I was wearing.
Then they asked me if I would like to smell a sensational type of perfume that they were selling at a sale price.
I probably would have accepted if I hadn't received this notice about THE PERFUME SHOCK.
The men remained between the parked cars, I imagine waiting for someone else to show up.
I stopped a lady who was walking towards them and warned her. I had been warned that in shopping malls or parking lots there are people who approach you to offer you to SMELL THE PERFUME they are selling but it is NOT actually perfume, IT IS AXTER.
When you smell it you faint and they take advantage of the opportunity to steal everything of value you carry.
PLEASE: copy this message and send it to your friends as they are operating everywhere.
PLEASE don't be tempted to smell perfumes being peddled by strangers or by sales representatives since the "perfume" may be laced with AXTER or sleeping agent!
oh, watch out, this is not a joke!
one never knows🤨"
Snopes received multiple emails about this claim in January 2025 alone and nearly 1,300 emails since 2015. One email mentioned "people being approached in Canadian theater bathrooms, malls, parking lots, etc. and asked if they want to smell perfume but it's Axter. People wake up robbed."
Another reader wrote, "Facebook is circulating a story about women being asked to sniff perfume that is actually Axter and they pass out and are then robbed."
Somebody else sent us a note that said, "The story is going around Facebook about people stopping women to let them sniff perfume samples which knock them out so they can be robbed and raped. The stuff that they're supposedly sniffing is AXETER. The sounds like a new take on an old urban legend."
Indeed, this claim mirrors the one Snopes debunked in 2000, except the drug of choice has changed from "ether" to "Axter." Even small details like the alleged perpetrators "waiting between parked cars" for another victim are similar to the original rumor that began circulating as far back as 1999, according to Snopes' previous reporting.
Snopes' research suggests "Axter" might be intended to refer to a brand name for hydroxyzine, an antihistamine the Mayo Clinic describes as a doctor-prescribed drug "used to help control anxiety and tension caused by nervous and emotional conditions. It can also be used to help control anxiety and produce sleep before surgery."
However, in our research we found only one pharmacy, Frank Ross Pharmacy in India, carries a drug called Axter, which the pharmacy lists as containing hydroxyzine. However, Atarax is a more widely recognized brand name for the drug that is easy to find information about across the web.
We've reached out to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clarification on whether Axter is a legitimate brand of hydroxyzine, as well as for information about the possibilities that a person could even be subdued using hydroxyzine through the methodology described in the claim. We will update this article when we receive a response.
The National Library of Medicine lists one hazard of hydroxyzine as, "May cause drowsiness or dizziness [Warning Specific target organ toxicity, single exposure; Narcotic effects]."
Whether or not drugging-via-hydroxyzine is technically possible, this claim is still false, simply an evolution of the same urban legend that's been circulating nearly as long as the internet has been mainstream. This claim is what's known as a copypasta, an internet phenomenon Snopes previously described as:
A portmanteau of "copy" and "paste" (and a wink), copypasta is copied-and-pasted text shared online. Often its content pleads with readers to pass along some warning or advice to help others, or an offer of free cash or merchandise from some big company, when in fact it's just a bit of fiction meant to trick or embarrass the person who shares it. Some examples of shockingly effective copypasta fact-checked by Snopes years ago still pop up in our inbox almost every day.
Most instances of this particular copypasta insist these are secondhand stories heard from a friend or someone they know. No reputable news outlets have reported on this claim. Further, we could not find any legitimate evidence or reports that these sorts of attacks have taken place, and certainly not at the frequency with which the claim would have you believe.
An undated memo from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Police Department hosted on the UCSD website addresses this same claim. Though the page is undated, Snopes found archives of this page hosted on the Internet Archive dating back to Jan. 26, 2003.
The UCSD memo reads:
A number of people on campus have reported receiving an email regarding males asking females to sniff a bottle of perfume. The email claims that the perfume is really ether and anyone who sniffs it will pass out.
This is an urban legend which began in late 1999 from an incident reported to the Mobile Police Department. Emails regarding this incident and several variations have been widely circulated. The details in the emails has changed over time. The emails showing up today contain the basics of the original but instead of cologne the knock out product is now perfume. Instead of an unknown, undetectable substance, the agent is identified as being ether. Most interesting of all, the moral of the story is no longer simply "beware of parking lot scammers." It has become "if not for these email warnings, I might have been a victim too."
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