SPANISH PRISONER FRAUD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10645, 29 May 1912, Page 4

SPANISH PRISONER FRAUD.

In spite o£ repeated warnings isis-ired jjy the police authorities, says itlra Madrid correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, the international swindlers,;' working .what is known, as the "Spanish prisoner" fraud, continue their ingenious .activity, but," on other occasions, as .the -latest instance shows, having succeßs snatched from thorn just as it was .within their reaeh. On March 28th a German subject arrived at E'l Escorial fronn abroad, bringing .with him the sum of £IOO. He had been beguiled >'by the persuasive eloquence of the swindler*, and was attracted <by the lure of .1 ■vast sum of mot;*~ £!I'P£?;)?sI t Q hj? klried in the vicinity of til© B£ Was simple ellSHßli to believe chat, By handing over the £4OO, he would secure in town ait! on as ito the whereabouts of the .buried -treasure. ■ The guileless Teuton was .mot at the station by a couple of .Spaniards, and the trio adjourned to a hostelry (for 'the ]>ur.po?,i' of clinching the bargain. Tinfortunately for the plans of tko Spaniards, foi'tunately for their victim, the Qivil .Gaiard had all the threads of ,tho litijlo plot in their hands. Seated round a 'little table •disctus.sing a bottle of .-wine and the alluring :l'ortune, the- .Spaniards and <tnc .prospective victim were surprised by the entrance of an officer, and the colloquy came to nn abrupt termination. Realising tik.rt the game was up, -the two Spaniards jumped out of a window, and fell into the qlt}te,hcs of .a Civil Guard. The Teuton, feaifnl of losing his money, and misuiider.staiiding the true state 'if affairs-, Also jumped out of

t'he window. The •swindlers, the German, Jind the .proprietor of the hoste'lry, aire now under detentoin. This ingenious Spanish prisoner fraud has ibecn going on for years, but no account of pulblicity seems sufficient to ,put a stop to it.