POST OFFICE FRAUDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 162, 9 July 1907, Page 7

POST OFFICE FRAUDS.

Some impudent frauds have been perpetrated on the Post and Telegraph Department in Melbourne. Various sums of money, amounting, according to the authorities, to £60 or £80, have been obtained from the Telegraph Money Order Office by means of false advices. The operation of transmitting money by telegraph is a simple one. On receipt of telegraph advice from another office, any money order office will pay over the sum specified to the person who presents a duplicate of the telegraph advice. It has been found that in a number of instances recently advices presented were not genine. One of the few general observations which Mr. Scott, secretary of the department, could be induced to make was that "the system of telegraph money orders has always been regarded as dangerous." The discovery was made about ten days ago, and inquiry was at once set on foot. The Acting-Prime Minister states that it was found that advices to pay had been manufactured ■inside the office. The forms on which the telegrams are issued are not supplied to the general public in blank, but they can be obtained by anyone working in the office. A point yet to be determined is whether the date stamps on the telegrams presented at the money order office were forged. A duplicate stamp could have been made outside, or a supply of forms bearing the impression of a genuine date stamp could have been furnished by an accomplice from within.