This came from a California correspondent. Don't know if we have this sort
of thing happening here, but thought best to spread the word just in case.

Mike Russell
>
> The notice below was posted on JCPenney's e-mail this
> morning to all Female Associates.  I wanted to pass
> the information on to you.
>
> Recently on Inside Edition there was an article about
> several new scams to abduct women. In one, a man comes
> up to a woman in a Mall or Shopping Center and asks if
> she likes pizza.  When she says she does, he offers
> her $10000 to shoot a commercial for Pizza, but they
> need to go outside where the lighting is better. When
> the woman goes out of the mall she is abducted and
> assaulted.
>
> Another ploy is a very nicely dressed man asks a woman
> if she would be in a Public Service announcement to
> discourage drug use.  The man explains that they don't
> want professional actors or celebrities; they want the
> average mother to do this. Once she leaves the mall
> she is a victim.
>
> The third ploy, and the most successful, a very
> frantic man comes running in to the mall and asks a
> woman to please help him, his baby is not breathing.
> She runs out of the mall following him and also
> becomes a victim. These have been happening in
> well-lit parking areas, in daylight as well as night
> time, all over the country. The abductor usually uses
> a van to abduct the woman.
>
> 'Inside Edition' set up a test in a Mall and 10 out of
> 15 women went out of the mall on the Pizza and the PSA
> scam. And all of them went out of the mall on the baby
> scam.  Please pass this along to your friends and
> family as now that it has been shown on nation-wide TV
> there are bound to be copycats of this. The third one,
>
> I think, is the scariest.  You might resist pizza or
> becoming a commercial celebrity...but who would be
> able to resist a frantic father asking for help for
> his child? I'm sure that one would get me.
>
> A woman was shopping at the Tuttle Mall in Columbus.
> She came out to her car and saw she had a flat. She
> got her jack and spare out of the trunk. A man in a
> business suit came up and started to help her.  When
> the tire had been replaced, he asked for a ride to his
> car on the opposite side of the mall. Feeling
> uncomfortable about doing this, she stalled for a
> while, but he kept pressing her.  She finally asked
> why he was on this side of the mall if his car was on
> the other.  He claimed he had been talking to friends.
>
> Still uncomfortable, she told him that she had just
> remembered something she had forgotten to pick up at
> the mall and she left him and went back inside the
> mall.  She reported the incident to the mall security
> and they went out to her car.  The man was nowhere in
> sight.  Opening her trunk, she discovered a briefcase
> the man had set inside her trunk while helping her
> with the tire. Inside were rope and a butcher knife.
> And, when she took the tire to be fixed, the mechanic
> informed her that there was nothing wrong with her
> tire, that it was flat because the air had been let
> out of it.
>
> I was going to send this to the ladies only, but guys,
> if you love your mothers, wives, sisters, daughters,
> etc., you may want to pass it on to them, as well.
>
> Send this to any woman you know that may need
> to be reminded that the world we live in has a lot of
> crazies in it....better safe than sorry.
>
> PLEASE BE SAFE AND NOT SORRY! JUST A
> WARNING TO ALWAYS BE ALERT AND USE
> YOUR HEAD!!!
>
> Pass this along to every woman you have access to.
> Never let your guard down.
>  >>
>