SWINDLING WAR WIDOWS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2691, 10 February 1916, Page 7

SWINDLING WAR WIDOWS

SPIRITUALISTIC HUMBUGS

Fraud in many new guises has sprung ■up as the result of this war, and unscrit- I puious scoundrels anil women swindlers are reaping a rich harvest by a variety of i tricks which the police authorities find . considerable difficulty in checkmating < (says a London correspondent of the Sydney "'Sun"). ' • , There is the swindler, for instance, who ; houses one or two refugees in order to obtain unlimited funds from the generous- I hearted public. No books are kept in such cases, and, as a rule, no books aro i asked 1 for. Tradesmen are being swindled : every day by men in officers' uniform, who order goods without authority, while i the military authorities aro being exten- i sively defrauded by women who secure ex- ! tra allowances by a dozen and- one different dodges. " Again, there have never been such pros- i perous times for spiritualists and fortune- i tellers, who, trading on the credulity of women, reap rich harvests by pretending : to furnish information of relatives on ac- I tivo service. These humbugs are specialisms on the •war," claiming to be able to j tell how a particular soldier or sailor is faring at the front or on the seas. Easy Victims. The writer, who has been making inquiries into the matter, finds that tho j meanest frauds are perpetrated upon wo- f men of the humble classes, who, not hav- , ing heard l from their lovers, husbands, or brothers for some time, consult spiritual- | ists, who profess to, show them the face j and form of the one they seek. '"Tho fees as a rule range from ss. to 10s., and it is quite easy to -understand liow women, distracted with grief and anxiety, are willing ,to pay anything they possibly can in order to learn, anything about the man who is lighting so bravely for lis and in j whom they are specially interested. A particularly cruel case was brought | under my notice a few days ago. A wid- f ow, with two sons at the front, of whom she could get no news, was persuaded by , a sympathetic, well-meaning, but foolish . friend to visit a certain West End spiri- , tualTst. While doubting the gennineness ■ of such people, she. nevertheless went, and after paying a fee of a couple of guineas . was gratified by seeing the form of her eider son in tlie crystal into which she ; was told to gaze and to learn that he was quits well, although according to the spiritualist, the_younges.t son was slightly' wounded and in hospital. ( Ifor a couple of weeks the widow attended the spiritualist's seance every day, receiving the most comforting -news in return For fees which, amounted altogether to _nearly .£SO. Then to her horror she suddenly received an intimation from the War Omce that both sons had been killed some weeks previously in the fight for Sill 70; the shock, after the comforting news she tia<l received from -the spiritual, isf, being so great that she did not recover and ■died'within a few days. , Fraud .From Start to Finish. Cms with" lovers seem to bo the easiest victims of-thesespiritualists, and tho dieappearance of a. couple from tho neighbourhood of Bond Street recently was due to flTe action of the police, who had been put on their track by the father of a girl jWVo had been fleeced to the extent of •U5). Tlie girl had consulted the spiritualist about uer lover, from .whom she had not heard for some weeks. She was told that 'he was a prisoner, when, to her great delight, he suddenly came home on a few hours' leave. Learning of what his sweetheart had been doing to gain news of him he promptly informed her father, and together they made things so warm for these spiritualistic humbugs that the latter were forced to disappear. The -whole business is a fraud from start to finish, and, as related m "Truth" recently, the spirits of fighting relatives usually exhibit themselves by the favourite method ofva phosphorescent slate, which reflects dimly the face and form of the medium.