INGENIOUS FRAUDS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2626, 27 February 1894, Page 4

INGENIOUS FRAUDS.

During the past few days, says a Melbourne telegram, a gang of swindlers have, through the agency of the telephone, perpetrated upon various wholesale firms a series of frauds that for ingenuity of conception and execution fairly excel anything of the kind Jyet brought under the notice of the Criminal Investigation Department. Early in the week, a wholesale house in Flinders street received a message by telephone directing that three bales of calico should be immediately forwarded to a firm of drapers in Collins street, from whom the order presumably emanated, The goods were despatched as directed, and the ÜBual receipt note obtained by the carter. In a few u-inuteß the Collins street firm were telephoned, apparently by the manager of the Flinders street house,Btatingthat the goods had been sent round by mistake and that a messenger would take them away and convey them to their proper destination. Someone dressed as a workman and representing himself as the carter of the Flinders Btreet house put in his appearance in a few minutes, and as there was no reason to doubt his bonajides the goods were given into his charge. Subsequently enquiries elicited the fact that the Collins street firm know nothing of the order, and that the transaction was the first of a series of ingenious fraunds conceived by an organised band of swindlers. The police were communicated with, and the principal firms in Finders, Collins and Bourke streets and in Flinders lane cautioned, but despite the warning several merchants have been defrauded of goods valued in aggregate at between £BO, and £99. To guard against deception of thiß kind the wholesale firms have introduced a new system with regard to the delivery of merchandise.