SWINDLERS' RUSES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 372, 14 March 1932, Page 5

SWINDLERS' RUSES.

Confidence Men Still Work With Success. A TRICK IN WELLINGTON. Confidence tricks are still played with remarkable success in all parts of the world; but more particularly the tricksters frequent the more thickly populated parts, the great centres, fashionable society resorts, and firstclass European hotels. The following confidence was practised in a New Zealand city about a year ago; A man was accosted by a stranger while looking in a Wellington shop-window. The man wanted to know where the Greek Club was, speaking all the time in exceedingly bad English. After the prospective victim at last got to know where the stranger wanted to go, he was asked if he could advance £3 on the security of a watch, which unfortunately could not be pawned at that time of the night. As usual, at this moment, the third man came on the scene, who assured both that the watch was worth £SO or £6O. The money was duly advanced, and the victim was left with a watch worth a shilling or two on his hands. There are many varieties of the confidence trick, but perhaps the one which has been most before the public notice in recent years is the famous

Rosary ” trick. This trick depends for its success on the average individual’s readiness to believe in the integrity of an apparently pious person. Ihe general procedure is for the newlymet affable stranger to conduct his prospective victim to see one of the finest churches of the city. When the two get inside there invariably is to be seen a man, kneeling down, apparently in deep prayer. Just before the sightseer and his guide leave, the devout one rises, but, while passing the two on his way out, drops his rosary beads. Either one of the two picks these up, and thus the unsuspecting tourist becomes acquainted with the trickster in more or less a religious atmosphere. Everything is then set for the performance of the confidence trick.

Another favourite ruse is known as the “ring” trick. In this trick, a ring is dropped in the street behind a likely victim. A confidence man nearby loses no time in picking it up, and, stopping the stranger, says; “Here’s your ring.” The stranger promptly disclaims ownership of the ring, but the confidence man insists that it is his. While they are talking, a third man generally appears, and in the end the stranger is swindled.