Terrorists will carry out an attack on a mall on Halloween

See the email warning here.

The FBI says the warning is "not a credible threat."

The New York Times contacted the FBI about the warning and a FBI spokesman said the warning is "not a credible threat" and that the FBI had not received any letter as claimed in the email.

Still, despite the FBI's reassurances, it's difficult to rule out the possibility that some terrorist organization somewhere in the US is planning some sort of attack on some mall. Could it happen? Of course, but the Urban Legend Zeitgeist does not consider it likely.

What little detail is present in the warning doesn't seem to quite add up.

None of the indentified hijackers of 9/11 were from Afghanistan. While the links between the 'prime suspect,' Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban government of Afghanistan have been amply reported, no evidence of direct Afghani participation in the attack of 9/11 has yet been reported.

From the terrorist point of view, the carrying out an attack in the US in the near future would seem to be unattractive.

Not only is every federal, state and even local law enforcement agency is eagerly hunting for any remaining terrorists and their associates but they must worry about being betrayed from a variety of any variety of sources: foreign law enforcement agencies and intelligence agency might tip off US authorities, knowledgeable co-conspirators, friends and associates might inform on them, their communications might be intercepted. In short, they might be spending more time looking over their shoulders than preparing an attack.

The supposed date for the attack, Halloween, seems an odd choice for an Islamic terrorist group. Halloween holds no significance for Islam.

Judging by the response to this warning, it has struck a very raw nerve in the US.

Maybe it's the combination of terrorism at that American institution, the mall, with the Halloween and its association with children. Maybe its the ongoing military actions in Afghanistan that have heightened anxieties. Maybe it's the near constant warnings from authorities to expect further terrorist attacks.

But the Halloween warning has spread faster and is more popular than any other entry in the post-9/11 Zeitgeist hands down. The Urban Legend Zeitgeist's mailbox is stuffed to the gills with this warning (more than 700 copies of it in about twelve hours; when it rains, it pours on the Zeitgeist).

So was the email a hoax or an urban legend?

At this time, the Urban Legend Zeitgeist believes it to be an example of an urban legend that got has gotten widely, really, really widely, truly widely circulated in email.

First, consider the nature of the email warning. The warning is secondhand, from a friend of the girlfriend who received the warning. Urban folklorists have a name for this: a 'Friend of a Friend' (FOAF) tale and it's one of the classic hallmarks of an urban legends.

A number of 'warning from terrorist' legends have been circulating that are almost identical to the Halloween email warning. The Urban Legend Zeitgeist can't definitively prove that the Laura Katsis email spawned the variations or the other way around, but an abundance slightly varying versions of the same story is one of the hallmarks of urban legends.

• "FBI Response to E-mail Rumor" from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• "FBI debunks warning of Halloween attack" from the New York Times
• "Halloween Terror Attacks on Malls" from About.com
• "Mall-o-Ween" from the Urban Legends Reference Pages

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