CONFIDENCE MEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 13

CONFIDENCE MEN

AUSTRALIANS’ BIG HAULS ROBBING THE GULLIBLE Dr. Arthur Graham, who very nearly added £20,000 to the huge sums already extracted from their victims by Australian confidence men on the other side of the world, was not such a “mug” as he may have appeared when he went so close to losing his money. For the many Australian "magsmen” who are in England and on the Continent are outstanding among confidence men the world over. Quite a big party of them migrated to Britain at the time of the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, and the few who have returned brought back stories of the ease with which the Australian, with his care free, but cleverly-planned approach, can bring to a successful conclusion schemes impossible of execution by similar criminals from other countries. A trio of Australian confidence men not many years ago cleaned up between £30,000 and £50,000 by a series of stock exchange frauds, a wise American, visitor being the party who fell for their specious bait. Serving a “Fiver” Another outstanding identity who is well known to Sydney police, and who rejoices in a nickname similar to the regular name of one of Sydney’s retail drapers, was, at last advices, concluding a sentence of five years for a trick which netted him £13,000. He tried to call oil the “mug” by working back £5,000 of the spoils, but the former, though he accepted the hush money—it was his own, anyway—went on with the case with the aforementioned sad result of the “magsman.” Others of Australia's unwanteds who have tried their luck abroad have made big hauls at card games. Some have joined the legion of sharpers who travel in luxurious comfort on the libers between Britain, America and Europe, and never fail to make considerably more than treble their fares. Good spenders and unconscious students of psychology, perhaps the success of Australian confidence men lies in their ability to establish their “honesty” with their victim, and to convince him that only by entrusting his money to them can he pick up the vast sums they paint as easy to grasp to those who know how.