Urban legends feed upon our ignorance and fear.
Even when people suspect a warning could be phony they tend to repeat it because the stakes are so high, often involving death or severe injury. They think it s better to be safe than sorry. But its even better to have a realistic idea of how big a threat something is, and to know which threats don t actually exist at all. A stranger snatches a child in a shopping mall restroom and disguises it with different clothes and a hair cut. It is rescued by a waiting parent in the nick of time.