A SIMPLE SWINDLE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14396, 31 December 1910, Page 7

A SIMPLE SWINDLE.

While the election campaign and the school controversy wore in progress (writes the Otago Times’ Canadian correspondent) a man got away from Montreal with nearly two million dollars of Canadian money by means ot a very simple and frequently-practised swind-e. Nearly eighteen months ago ho set himself up in that city as a broker, or, rather, the operator of a blind pool in stocks. Ho announced that as the result of long study ho had discovered a sure way of making money on the stock market, and in sheer benevolence was willing to lot others in on this good thing. Ho found customers, and scon made them active advertising agents by returning" them 1 lingo prehts on the sums placed in his hands. One told another of his good luck, and soon the individual had thousands Of clients. Some invested from £5 to £10; but others, after having made large profits, put in their money in. blocks of £2OOO and £3OOO. , , The inevitable happened. When ho got tho pool big enough ho made hir. escape. Tho newspapers of Montreal and other cities sounded frequent notes of warning,'but they fell on unheeding ears. Tho stories .of this one’s large profits and that one’s excited, the cupidity of people with small means all over the country.. They poured moncy into the man’s coffers by thousands and hundreds of thousands. His books showed that ho had over 30,000 customers, most of whom he had baited for a time with their own money.. Nine out of ten of , those who made a prosit pnt back profit ftm.l principal into the pool. It scorns extraordinary that in this day of enlightenment men and women of intelligence.—for thousands of his dupes were women —could be caught by such a transparent scheme ; but no oiio may say to what lengths, greed will lead some people.-