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Verify: Facebook post about door-to-door mask giveaways as an attempt to rob you

A 2 Wants to Know viewer saw this and feared it could be happening.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — You’re supposed to be wearing a mask. People are selling them online and on the side of the road. So, would it be hard to believe if people were going door to door selling them or giving them away?

VERIFY QUESTION

A Facebook post is going around. It’s supposedly a warning from police.
It reads: ‘People are going door to door handing out masks, saying it's from the local government. They ask you to put it on to see if it fits. It has been doused with chemicals that knock you out and they rob you.”

However, of course, at the bottom of the post, it reads, “Please send to all your friends.”

Before you see it and share it, let’s find out if it’s true.

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VERIFY PROCESS 

To verify the post, 2 Wants to Know talked to the Greensboro Police Department and researched the findings of three fact-checking sites: Snopes, Politifact, and FullFact.  

Greensboro Police said this is a hoax that has been going around since late March-early April. We do not have any reports of incidents like that here in the Greensboro area.

While Snopes found the claim was vague and false, FullFact found this post has been shared worldwide, and police and news agencies around the globe have warned against sharing this false info. Politifact found a post by a Mississippi police chief warning about individuals going door to door-- but it never mentioned chemicals or robbery.

VERIFIED POST CLAIM RESULT

This post is verified to be false.

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