FRAUD PREVALENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21454, 30 March 1933, Page 5

FRAUD PREVALENT

POSITIONS FOR DEPOSITS NON-EXISTENT COMPANIES [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, March 23 Men professing important business connections seem to have been most successful in recent weeks in profiling by fraudulent schemes. They have induced scores of people to invest their savings, mainly on the promise that they will provide a position in the imaginary concern for those who are foolish enough to part with their money. So many people have been out of work for so long that they grasp at such an opening as a drowning man would clutch at a straw, and theji liii\e been left lamenting. Many persons are anxious to renew tha acquaintance of a. man who evolved a plan' to sell frocks and pickles. Among them are a widowed shopkeeper at Auckland and a number of young gills. An elderly man, unemployed for many years, told the police that in answer to a part- - nership advertisement he advanced the stranger £SO. He had been promised a position in a new factory about to be opened, and in the belief that ho would nt last secure work he handed over all the money he had. Several others! allege that they invested in the proposed company after receiving a definite promise of jobs, tome were told that the now company would open 14 stores in Australia and .New Zealand and that the price at which the goods would be manufactured secure a quick turnover and big profits. Tha man had discussed plans with a wellknown Sydney firm for the erection of .14 big electric signs. According to another story told to tho polico the imposter was a recent arrival from New Zealand. It was said that at Auckland he had met a widowed shopkeeper. He had proposed marriage and she had advanced to him £278 to start a business in Sydney. While the man was seeking shareholders, or partners, preferred to call them, tory an'd employed a nag™ r £™£ Little work was done W e MaS and_ at the