GOLD BAIT FOR RICH MEN

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1929, Page 3

GOLD BAIT FOR RICH MEN

Tin's is the season of the year when rich men blessed with a sense of big business are rooked by crooks playing the confidence game, which is as old as crime, remarks R. E. Corder, in the Daily Mail. Scotland Yard is bored during the summer months by two types of victims. One is the eternal flapper, who, having accepted the invitation of a motor ride from a strange, man who bad a lcinoma face, complains that she had been loft stranded on a country road miles away from home because her gentleman friend was no gomleman. The oilier regular victim is the astute business man, who has been beaten on a deal by a confidence man who specialises in human nature. Magistrates and lawyers with whom I have discussed the confidence trick say they cannot understand why a business man, a man of the world, can he duped by such an obvious fraud. But the fraud is not obvious until it is exposed.

The confidence men who are now concentrating on London are not obvious. They spend hundreds of pounds in preliminary expenses before they make their c-oup.. Their hook lias a golden bait, and the poor fish swallows the gilded book.

There arc many variations of the confidence trick, hut all arc based on the human desire to got something for nothing, in plain words, Ibe besetting sin of avarice gives the condeneo man liis chance.

“Patsy,” one of the cleverest confidence men known, but not so far arrested by the police, plays the religious game. Having traced and placed his real dupe, he drops a rosary in the street. Tho dupe, who is a Roman Catholic, picks up and restores the Dominican emblem, and the confidence man, who oozes benevolence, after several dinners a.nd lunches, reveals his mission, which is to bestow «uv, £20,000 in Roman Catholic charities.

Tho dime, be says, is the very man ho has been looking for, and on him lie Dresses a big wad of notes. “But,” says the confidence man, “although I trust, I must in justice be sure that you are a man of substance. I mean, you must be tho sort of man who has a recognise'! standing, a man whose cheque will be honoured at the bank.” The dime, holding, as he thinks., securities for a fortune, places real money to the extent of thousands, in the hands of the confidence man, who leaves him with a few hundred pounds of good money and the remainder “home-made” money.

Another profitable confidence trick requires a lot of capital. A rich man from, say, Chicago, is found on the boat from New York, traced and cultivated in the cafes of Paris, on the hills and plains of Switzerland, on the shores of Deauville, and in the wine-like sea of the Lido.

Money is spent like water by the confidence men, who, having secured the friendship of their dupe, meets him in Paris or in Londpn. A stranger comes along with a wonderful proposition about a gold mine, or an oil well, or & business merger. The profit promised is abnormal. Five thousand pounds invested now will mean a hundred thousand in a few weeks. And the dupe falls, falls to the appeal of a pleasing personality. Still another popular and profitable confidence trick is based on racing. The confidence men tell their selected victim that they have found a wav to beat time. The dupe is persuaded to invest, says, £5 on the “system.!’ The “system” wins. He puts on £lO, an,d again he is allowed to win. He is convinced that he is on a good thing, and he plunges, and the rogues get away with more than £IOO profit.

This sort of thing goes on evenday in London during the season. The confidence men rarely come before the courts, because the victims arc too ashamed to prosecute. Scotland Yard detectives know their men, and very charming men they are. Thrilling it is to stand at a bar with a detective at -one side, and an international crook on the other, with the password “Same again.”