CONFIDENCE TRICKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 6

CONFIDENCE TRICKS.

VARIOUS FORMS OF FRAUD. SUNDIAL AND FOOTWARMER. f FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT ] SYDNEY. Dec. 24. Scotland Yard has long been troubled by a small coterie of Australian confidence tricksters, who, posing as wealthy Australians, have fleeced credulous Englishmen of thousands. They are regarded by the English police as the cleverest confidence men in the world, and the career cf one of then- makes interesting readii g. A few years ago. during one of his lean periods, this man was standing in the Exhibition Gardens, Melbourne, soliloquising that, for once, his lucky star had failed to shine But he came upon an elderly gentleman whose clothing exuded the scent of the gumleaf, examining a sundiui. It took but a tew moments for the clever one to convince his victim that, this ingenious timepiece was just the tiling for the " great, outback," and a sum cf money duly changed hands. Imagine the amazement of the curator when he espied a party of workmen attempting to remove the famous sundial on behalf of the ancient purchaser! On another occasion, in winter, after the' South Australian police had ordered u* ' eave Adelaide for Adelaide's good, the trickster found a credulous farmer in theuMel"'iutne express to whom he sold a footwarmer belonging to the railways, it was not until a startled porter relieved m of it as he was carrying it awav Used he S T ntryman r . e *; fratfernity. L the one aniinute