CONFIDENCE MEN.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 386, 18 March 1937, Page 5

CONFIDENCE MEN.

Swindling of Spinsters. London, March 9. Bogus naval officers who make a happy hunting ground; among spinsters on the south coast of England are to be rounded up, following an announcement that a big drive against the confidence tricksters who are ‘working” Bournemouth, Brighton, and other seaside resorts is to be undertaken by provincial police forces in co-operation with Scotland Yard. The police action follows recent startling revelations made by women who have been victimised and robbed under the promise of marriage. Mr. Justice Eve, when he granted an injunction recently against a man who was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for obtaining a £lOOO cheque from a middle-aged Bournemouth woman, described the position as ‘‘shocking—particularly on the south coast.”

The man’s victim had been gulled by the familiar ‘‘retired naval officer’* confidence swindle. Most of the confidence men who work this fraud are middle-aged. A double-breasted blue coat, a yachting cap in the summer, and a plausible tongue form their equipment. Elderly spinsters leading lonely lives at seaside resorts on the interest of their invested capital prove easy victims. Sometimes the confidence men propose marriage and then disappear with as much money as they can obtain for the “purchase of the home.” At other times they “advise” on shares, get possession of the victim’s gilt-edged securities, and hand over Worthless shares in exchange.

Blackmail is often one of their profitable sidelines.

Their victims, timid and retiring women, with a horror of publicity and police courts, are usually ashamed to come forward and denounce them.