CONFIDENCE TRICK

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 12

CONFIDENCE TRICK

STORIES ABOUT RELATIVES. REQUESTS MADE FOR MONEY. Gisborne, Nov. 7. Several instances of confidence men using information concerning Gisborne relatives of their victims have been reported from Auckland and Wellington. The popular procedure on the part of these men appears to be. to gain and use some intimate knowledge of people living in. a distant town, and, to relatives in the city, offer some story to account for qn immediate lack of funds, with a request for help over a tarn-

porary embarrassment. Promise of repayment within a few days is made. In some instances the excuse offered is the loss of a cheque book ar purse, while in others all the narrator’s money has been spent on travel so as to get to the cijy, where work has been secured. Persons carrying out this means of deception have often gone the rounds of a whole family- in the city before their bona fides have been found to be lacking. In other cases people who , have advanced money on such excuses have not found out their mistakes until writing to those relatives where name* have been used. In one case, news of which has just come to hand, the confidence man had intimate knowledge of many membOrfi of a family living in Gisborne aad of their recent activities. The ’deception was so complete that money Was ad» vanced on the excuse of a lost purs*,