SWINDLING BY TELEPHONE.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8726, 23 February 1894, Page 5

SWINDLING BY TELEPHONE.

INGENIOUS FRAUDS,

I During the past few days, a gang of swindlers have, through the agency of the telephone,,perpetrated upou various wholesale firms a series of frauds fchab for ingenuity of conception and execution fairly excel anything of the kind yet 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 five 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 aa directed, and the usual receipt note obtained by the carter* In a few minutes the Collinii street firm were telephoned, apparently by the manager of the Flinders street home, stating that the goods bad been sent round by mistake and that a messenger would tak« them away and convey them to their proper destination. Some one dressed as a workman and representing himself as the carter of the Flinders street house put in au appearance iv ft few minutes, and as there was no reason to doubt hie bona fides the goods were given into his charge. Subsequently enquiries elicited the fact that the Collins street firm-knew nothing of the order, and that the transaction was the first of a series of ingenious frauds conceived by an organised band of swindlers. The police were communicated with, and the principal firms ia Flinders, Collins and Bourke streets atfd in Flinders lane cautioned, but despite the warning several merchants have been defrauded of goods valued in the aggregate at between £80 and £90. To guard against deception of this kind the wholesale firms hare introduced a new system with regard to the delivery of merchandise.