CONFIDENCE TRICKS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5454, 29 July 1929, Page 2

CONFIDENCE TRICKS.

SOME INGENIOUS METHODS. HOW PEOPLE ARE DUPED. It is seldom that a victim of a confidence trick talks so frankly about the subject as Mr M. Dixon, of Wei-; lington, recently (says a writer in the “Dominion”). Since parting with £750 his advice now is that nobody from the Antipodes should hand over, any money to anyone whilst on a visit to Europe. Even then, it is more than likely that some astute confidence rogue would find a way out. In spite’ of the fact that nearly all their tricks are fundamentally as old as the “heads you lose, tails I win” variety,the fact remains that, cleverly disguised, then’ tricks have never failed to find a victim. The old Spanish prisoner trick, for instance, has been with us for years. At inters'als it bursts into fashion in one form or another, reaps its golden harvest, and then gives place to something; else. In this trick a letter arrives from Spain, saying that ‘with the aid of your cash’ the writer can recover a black box full of gold that has been carefully hidden in an inaccessible spot. In many cases the writer states that he is a prisoner in a fortress, and tells a very sad tale. • The essence of the tale is that with some ready cash he could recover his little black box and share with yeu the £40,000 it contains. Quite shrewd people In the Homeland have been taken in by this trick when carefully dressed round facts of undoubted truthfulness, One man, in fact, even went so far as to be on the spot and help in the search. Madame Hubert and hei’ safe was yet another venturethat raked in for her a nice little sum of money. This safe, she assured the world, contained unaccounted millions in securities. She told a clever tale, garnishing it with a story that she was pledged not to disclose; how much the safe actually contained. Her word, for some reason that seems .absurd ’’n the cold light of day, was goed enough for even a Cabinet-’ Miniver and thousands of others. Money flowed in to her on loan like water. When, the good lady thought she had just about enough she disappeared. Years passed, and when the safe was at last opened by uneasy; subscribers it contained a few old newspapers and one button. The world, is indeed full of frauds. There are meh who make it their business in life to sell imitation sweepstake tickets. One man cleared £40,000 in this way before he was discovered. There are confidence men in certain marriage agencies ready to provide just the wife wanted. She takes care never to get married, of course, but in the meantime contrives to extract from her future husband just as much money as he is foolish enough to give her. Confidence men and Women have i even tried to “crash” Royal Palaces. In the case of Fraulein Martha Barth, a romantic servant girl, who posed as the penniless daughter-in-law of the cx-Kaiser, so well did she do the job that when the time came to unmask nobody would believe her. Th ousands had rallied round her. She was deluged with money and jewels. Some years later when arrested in Berlin and questioned on the subject, she naively admitted that she was getting tired of this princess business. “Bui I had to keep it up for the sake of ail the men and women who insisted in having their unfortunate princess to care for. They s’mply loved to believe such tales, and I am really sorry they have no longer a poor little princess to look after,” she said.