Spanish Treasure Fraud.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 18, 16 October 1907, Page 10

Spanish Treasure Fraud.

Tho Spanish police havo at last succeeded in capturing a. gang of seven porsons who havo beon carrying on what is known in every European country as "The Spanish treasure,frauds." The capture was effected through:tho instrumentality of a Strasburg gentleman, and tho German Consul at Madrid. From documents found, in the possession of tho gang, during the last fifteen months they netted.no loss.than £14,000 from dupes in various countries. , It is believed that there is yet another gang working the, swindle oil tho same lines. ■ . ,

~ The Spanish.treasure fraud is a varioty of the confidence trick which has extraordinary vitality, in spito of repeated ;cxposuro. As Major Arthur Griffiths says in his "Mystorios "of Police and Crime," very few respectablo householders havo ' missed \ this experience. Among tho morning letters on the breakfast table is ono badly written, couched in broken English, bearing tho address of soiiio Spanish gaol. The writer is in possession of a tremondous secret, which has been confided to him, but which, from tho pressure of want, he is compelled to betray. He knows tho safe hiding-place of a quantity of.valuable jewels, ■ which have been buried, for ono or moro years, and which would bo anybody's property who know- where to find thorn.. On payment of a certain sum to a third party, generally a Spanish priest of tho highest sanctity residing in some small town in Spain, who, from purely philanthropic motives, has consented to receive the money without question, the secret will bo revealed.

These jewels arc variously described, now they are tho property 1 of ther Empress Eugenie, valuables secreted by her on the fall of the second Empiro and conveyed to a place of safoty; now Don Carlos was tho original owner—the' jewels wore, part of the sinews of war, which he was compelled to abandon when his , cause failed; sometimes they are the proceeds of loot obtained in tho Spanish Indies, or in the Philippine Islands, or the forgotten treasure of a highly successful, long deceased thief. But there they are to be had at small pains, and to be had on payment of quitq a trifling sum. In spite oi' tho improbability of this' story, many people have been swindled through it, and according to tho message from Madrid it is a very flourishing industry.