Dean Krogen and the Ether-Perfume Email

Dean Krogen, an employee of KVLY-TV in Fargo, ND, has had the unfortunate experience of being irrepairably attached to one of the more absurd 'chain horror emails' warning against sampling parking-lot perfumes.

The Email

The email was circulating long before Krogen became associated with it. It reads, almost always verbatim:

I know not all of you are women that I am sending this to, but am hoping you will share this with your wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, etc. Our world seems to be getting crazier by the day. Pipe bombs in mail boxes and sickos in parking lots with perfume. Be careful. I was approached yesterday afternoon around 5:30 PM in the Wal-Mart parking lot by two males asking what kind of perfume I was wearing. Then they asked if I'd like to sample some fabulous scent they were willing to sell me at very reasonable rate. I probably would have agreed had I not received an e-mail warning of a "Wanna smell this neat perfume?" scam.

The men continued to stand between parked cars, I guess to wait for someone else to hit on. I stopped a lady going towards them, pointing at them and told her abo ut how I was sent an e-mail at work about someone walking up to you at the malls or in parking lots and asking you to

SNIFF PERFUME that they are selling at a cheap price.

THIS IS NOT PERFUME...IT IS ETHER!

When you sniff it, you'll pass out. They'll take your wallet, your valuables and heaven knows what else. If it were not for this e-mail, I probably would have sniffed the 'perfume' but thanks to the generosity of an e-mailing friend, I was spared whatever might have happened to me. I wanted to do the same for you.

PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL YOUR WOMEN FRIENDS AND PLEASE BE ALERT AND BE AWARE. IF YOU ARE A MAN AND RECEIVE THIS, PASS IT ON TO YOUR WOMEN FRIENDS.

This warning has been unanimously poo-poohed as sensationalist claptrap. However, it continues to be forwarded as friendly safety advice, feeding on on women's fears of being taken advantage of in broad daylight in a public place, and being disabled to the degree that they can do nothing about it.

Dean Krogen

Dean has worked for KVLY-TV in Fargo since around 2001-2002 as an account executive, and has participated in the local chamber of commerce.

Krogen and the Email

The earliest records I can find of Krogen forwarding this email come from 2005, in a message board called "Prison Talk" and one from fishingbuddy.com that included Krogen's email footer, which includes all of his contact information at work, down to his celphone. This would appear that the email was likely to have come from Krogen's desk, rather than his name being pulled out of thin air by a scammer looking for an authoritative air. That message from fishingbuddy.com also has a comment from someone claiming to have a friend-of-a-friend who says Krogen would never have written this, but it does not indicate that he wouldn't have forwarded it. Smart, powerful people have been decieved by this email; at a company meeting for a former employer, the company president started off the meeting with a reading of this email to warn the female employees when walking to their cars after work. It appears that, without a doubt, Krogen forwarded this email to at least one person internet-savvy enough to place copies of the message far more places he would have expected.

Evolution of the Email

The second reference above, however, includes a significant difference from the first -- a male-viewpoint version of the hoax:

This is something that happened to us on the way back from vacation last week. At first I didn't think much of it until now. The reason we were a little suspicious is we had been riding in a Jeep all day with 100 degree temps and we stopped at a truck stop for something to drink.

When I was leaving, a young girl followed me out and asked what kind of cologne I was wearing. Well, after 7 hours in the car sweating, I don't think you could tell if I was or was not wearing cologne. We just got in the Jeep and said no thanks.

While it isn't clear whether this was added for additional credibility or if it was edited out of the original reference to Krogen's forward, this male-centric version dates from at least 2004, before the earliest version of the Krogen forward, including versions which pair the male story with the earlier female story. As the original email was from a female viewpoint, there was no possibility to confuse forwarder Krogen with the writer of the message. Adding the male viewpoint, however, blurs the subject.

Beginning in late-2006, Krogen's name was taken entirely off of the email -- but the body is now crediting the entire text of the message to a guy from KVLY-TV in Fargo. The male "cologne" anecdote is the first story in the email, paired together with a female-centric "perfume" anecdote and edited to sound like both anecdotes happened to this one person from KVLY. Connecting the guy at KVLY to the male anecdote appears to be enough to avoid criticism of the various other plot-holes in the message.

The concoction of a media source, numerous first-person stories from both genders, and the inherent fear of abuse, has promoted the forward of this particular version of the email above all other generations. The long, multi-anecdotal version attributed to Krogen, the "guy from KVLY," appears reprinted in many blogs and is, no doubt, arriving in numerous emailboxes as you read this.