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Fact check: Old hoax resurfaces claiming thieves handing out drugged masks to rob houses

Chiara Vercellone   | Paste BN

The claim: People going door to door handing out drugged masks, robbing houses

An old, dangerous hoax has resurfaced online as health officials continue to urge mask-wearing to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

"People are going door to door handing out masks, they say it's a new initiative from local government," reads a screenshot of an apparent text message that has been shared on Instagram on Jan. 19. "They will always ask you to please put it on to see if it fits you. It has been doused with chemicals which knocks you out cold and once you're knocked out they proceed to rob you."

The post was liked almost 2,500 times within a week, and other iterations of the text also accrued hundreds of shares and likes on Facebook.

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The text gained traction online as the Biden administration announced it will make around 400 million N95 masks – the most protective masks against COVID-19 – available at no cost for U.S. residents.

The message is a hoax. The same text previously went viral in April 2020 when widespread use of masks in the United States started.

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Paste BN reached out to the Instagram user who posted the image for comment.

Hoax appeared in April 2020

Several independent fact-check organizations, including the Agence France-Presse and Politifact, debunked virtually the same claim in April 2020, stating that police departments across the country had alerted it was a scam.

The claim also spread in South Africa and the United Kingdom around the same time, Reuters reported. 

Two years later, the claim remains unfounded.

Paste BN found no evidence that burglars have been dousing masks with chemicals or drugs and going door to door to "knock out" residents in an attempt to rob their houses. No credible news organization has reported anything similar.

Paste BN reached out to the users who posted the claim for comment, and none provided a credible source for the claim.

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Some police departments have recently responded to the falsehoods shared in the Instagram post. 

The Pine Bluff Police Department in Arkansas said on Jan. 19 the message hadn't come from its staff after residents questioned its veracity. 

"The Pine Bluff Police Department is unaware of any incidents resembling this message occurring in Pine Bluff," the Facebook announcement said.

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And on Jan. 24, Lt. Michelle Greenlee from the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office in Michigan similarly debunked the image shared on Instagram.

"KCSO has investigated this posting and has contacted police agencies around the nation," the official Facebook post said. "Not one case has been verified and no one has been able to find the source of the original posting."

Greenlee said the image is likely "intended to create fear within our community."

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that people are going door to door handing out drugged masks and robbing houses. Police departments in the U.S. say this is false, and no such cases have been verified. Paste BN also found no evidence of any such case. The same image gained traction at the beginning of the pandemic in countries around the world.

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