THE CONFIDENCE TRICK

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 172, 23 July 1929, Page 6

THE CONFIDENCE TRICK

The visitor from Wellington who was tricked the other day. out of a sum of £740 by confidence men while he was staying at a London hotel, said that all through he had been guarded and suspicious, but at the last moment the whole thing looked so real that he handed over' his money. It seems almost incredible that people should continue to be taken in by a trick that is as old as the hills. Yet so it is, and no warnings seem to have any effect. In the majority of cases the victim is lured on by specious promises of easily-gotten wealth. Generally the confidence trick is worked by two or three people who pretend to be total strangers to each other. Long practice has made them perfect at telling a tale that is plausible and to many people convincing. The victim is assured that a unique opportunity is offered to him of acquiring an interest in a concern that cannot fail to double or treble anything he may put in. The most ordinary caution would seem to dictate further inquiries and the employment of a capable solicitor where money has to be handed over. One would imagine that when the time came for actually paying money any man of ordinary business capacity would hesitate and insist on such credentials as would satisfy a lawyer. Perhaps the expert confidence man exercises some sort of hypnotic influence on his victim. That seems the only possible explanation of some of the cases reported. Of course the actual plan varies, and a victim may be caught off his guard. In one instance a lady cashed a cheque for £1000 and received the money in £100 notes. When she had stepped into her car a man purporting to be a clerk, with a pen behind his ear, came out of the bank and said, "Excuse me, madam, but I forgot to take the numbers of those notes. If you would give them back for a minute I will take the numbers and return them." The lady never saw her notes again, but her action was quite understandable. Very different arc the cases where people hand over notes to some stranger who says that he knows a bank where they can be changed for gold. The way in which people entrust notes and other negotiable securities to those of whom they know nothing fills one With amazement at the credulity of human nature. It is also strange that very often those who think themselves alert and suspicious are the very ones who are taken in. —W.M.