CONFIDENCE TRICK.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2784, 1 May 1911, Page 2

CONFIDENCE TRICK.

A rather smart confidence trick is re-

ported to be in vogue in some of the larger towns just now which (says the Manawatu Standard) should act as a warning to tradesmen in general to be on the alert in their dealings with strangers with a plausible address. The individual referred to, who was well dressed and generally had a taking sort of way with him that betokened much knowledge of men in good positions, bustled into a stationer's shop, having doubtless timed his visit so that only

a young lady attendant was in charge. In a persuasive manner he asked for £2 worth of postage stamps, which he said he wished to post in a letter which he produced. When he placed the stamps in the letter, which he had stamped and addressed, he suddenly recollected that he had a cheque for a considerable amount to cash and he must go to the bank at once. "I'll be back^ in ten minutes," he said, "and I shall be wanting some books and stationery when I return. Just keep the letter, as 1 find I have not enough loose silver to pay for the stamps. It was stupid of me not to have got the cheque cashed before, but it entirely slipped my memory." And w.ith a smile and a rais-

ing of his hat he was gone. He never returned, and then with some misgivings the proprietor began to view the transaction. As there was no sign of his reappearance the letter was opened and found to contain some blank pieces' of paper. Further enquiry elicited the fact that the stranger had obtained cash for the stamps elsewhere. His appearance had not been particularly noticed, and the stationer admits that his assistant was cleverly " taken down," as he probably would have been himselt by the same device. The method pursued was the very simple one of having two letters exactly alike in his pocket, and when he had put the postage stamps in one, after the usual "blarney," he handed back the other.