Urban legend or not?? How can I check??

[candlestick]

The missus has just sent me the below, and I feel it's got urban legend written all of it - is there an easy way of checking it's integrity before I start spamming people with it?

Tony from MSS came to see me this morning and asked if I would circulate a quick email with regards to safety in Manchester.

A friend of his wife was shopping in the Trafford Centre on Monday evening and when she returned to her car the window had been smashed and a man was stood waiting beside it, he claimed that he had seen some kids smash it shortly after she had got out of her car and he had waited with the car to make sure no one else vandalised it. He then asked her if she would give him a lift to the station has he had missed his train because he waited for her to return to her car, fortunately she told him that she needed to contact the police and wait for them and therefore would not be able to give him a lift, she managed to get rid of him by giving him £20. The police arrived shortly after and upon inspecting the car they found a length of rope and a knife under the passenger seat. This lady was very lucky so please could you pass this message on to your wives, girlfriends, and partners and ask them to be very careful if they see anyone hanging around their car in Manchester in the next few weeks.

 

[jolsterj]

Read a similar one earlier this year, regarding where I live.

 

[photon]

asked if I would circulate a quick email

Says it all, really (i.e. hoax). Apart from the bit about giving £20 to a stranger who prolly smashed the window.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

Funny, same thing happened here

 

[neil_g]

generally an email asking to be sent on to all your friends and family will be a hoax

 

[Nod]

First port of call would be Snopes. If that didn't turn anything up, I would select a string of 7 or 8 words and Google them as a string to see if they were a common one. And, as said above, e-mails urging you to forward a story like that to as many people as possible are usually (not always though) hoaxes, however well intentionned they may be.

 

[david1701]

heard a cracker the other day about someone who date rapes girls by giving them a business card soaked in rohypnol or somat, ignoring the fact that something that can be absorbed through the skin would put him out too

 

[gumbo-67]

that is years old and i mean years it is a hoax

 

[Sparkles33]

Am I a freak that I find hoax emails quite funny (because I see the errors like a sore thumb ) ?

 

[Derek_F]

if it says forward to everyone you know, then its usually a fake

 

[candlestick]

Cheers everyone, I thought it looked a bit dodgy!! I've had the one from Sony Erricson today too, that says if you forward the email to everyone, you'll get a free laptop!! That makes it 5 laptops I've missed out on now.....

 

[Brooksy]

There was one similar involving wife and kids. Train station and someone saying leave theres a bomb or something similar.
Thats very old though so dont exactly remember it fully.

 

[2blue4u]

generally an email asking to be sent on to all your friends and family will be a hoax

Always!

 

[Tomster]

I think it would be an idea to copy and paste the message and send it to the police and let them verify this.

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/askquestion.mth

If it`s untrue then they should confirm this and put a stop to these spammers!

The missus has just sent me the below, and I feel it's got urban legend written all of it - is there an easy way of checking it's integrity before I start spamming people with it?

Tony from MSS came to see me this morning and asked if I would circulate a quick email with regards to safety in Manchester.

A friend of his wife was shopping in the Trafford Centre on Monday evening and when she returned to her car the window had been smashed and a man was stood waiting beside it, he claimed that he had seen some kids smash it shortly after she had got out of her car and he had waited with the car to make sure no one else vandalised it. He then asked her if she would give him a lift to the station has he had missed his train because he waited for her to return to her car, fortunately she told him that she needed to contact the police and wait for them and therefore would not be able to give him a lift, she managed to get rid of him by giving him £20. The police arrived shortly after and upon inspecting the car they found a length of rope and a knife under the passenger seat. This lady was very lucky so please could you pass this message on to your wives, girlfriends, and partners and ask them to be very careful if they see anyone hanging around their car in Manchester in the next few weeks.