Is this real? A scared WhatsApp message from my daughter today had me fact-checking an urban myth that has been around since the early 80s. The myth is so famous that it actually featured in the 1998 movie ‘Urban Legend’, although in a watered-down form.

A copy of an email purporting to come from Chubb Security warned of the dangers of a gang initiation taking place in South Africa.

The initiation warning claims that new gang members are required to drive around with their headlights off at night. When a Good Samaritan flashes, the initiates target that car, chase them down and kill them.

So how did I determine that this letter was a myth, hoax and a big fat lie? Simple really. It is what we have always done as journalists; we immediately fact-checked the letter.

Phone them?

The most simple and obvious thing to do was simply phone the numbers on the letterhead and speak to the author of the warning. This turned out to be a dead end, as Chubb has changed hands, having been rebranded as National Security & Fire. None of the listed phone numbers worked, for a start.

The good news, however, is that it dated the email to sometime before 2018.

Google DARE search

If you cannot just phone to check, you have to become more creative… A simple search for the DARE Program will instantly tell you that this is an American Schools program and has nothing to do with South Africa.

A simple search for ‘Bloods gang initiations’ turns up some hair-raising stuff, but most notably is a clear debunking of the headlight myth.

Police Depts?

Also, the use of the wording ‘Police Depts’ is completely wrong for South Africa. We use terms like Police and SAPS, but never ever ‘Police Depts’ because we only have one police force, the South African Police Service or SAPS for short. You could add in specialised units, but they are normally acronym names like the SIU or have particular names like the HAWKS.

History of the real-world urban legend

A ‘gang high-beam initiation’ warning claims that prospective gang members are required to drive around with their headlights off at night. When a Good Samaritan flashes their high beams to warn the gang members that their lights are off, the initiates target that car, chase them down and murder the driver as their initiation into the gang.

The hoax was first reported in circulation in the early 1980s and popularised via email forwards in the 1990s; the story is widely regarded as a hoax. Despite warnings even occasionally circulated by some government agencies, it has been heavily debunked as an urban myth. The current letter that has begun recirculating was debunked by Reuters way back in 2020.

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