SWINDLING THE PUBLIC.

Western Star, 3 December 1935, Page 2

SWINDLING THE PUBLIC.

“MYSTERY PACKET” SELLERS. MAN WHO MADE £2O A WEIEK. According to reports reaching London police headquarters, racketeers are increasing thei r operations in many side streets of the metropolis and in the suburbs. Gangs are abroad perpetrating what is nothing less than a swindle on tile unsuspecting public. One of th© commonest forms of racket which have been worked in the West End during the last few months i s the selling of “mystery packets” at 6d each. Men take up a situation at various street corners where they can hope to work undisturbed for a length of time. In a few minutes a crowd gathers. A few packets are opened, apparently at random, and found to contaiu handsome-looking watches. Immediately there is a stampede by five or six men or women to get the bargains _ The first five or six purchasers are lucky, ami they walk away displaying what they have received

This proof of the vendor’s statement that at least every second packet contains a watch is generally seized upon l>v the crowd, and in less time than it takes to tell anything up to 109 packets have been suld. But no one of the ordin ary.buyers is lucky. All they get for their money is a cheap brooch worth perhaps half a farthing. What they did no t realise i 3 that th c , first halfdozen purchsers were members of the gang. A ma n who has worked this racket for several years confessed that he generally reckoned to clear at least £2O a week after all expenses had been paid. He owns a small car, which he stocks up with the mystery packets. Hi* wife and pretty 20-year-old daughter travel with him to act as decoys. The others, all men, are friends, who nave worked with him for years, ’ and are paid a minimum of £3 per week and their travelling expenses. “I have never given away a gold watch ol - a nv kind of watch yet to anyone who was not in the swindle, not even by mistake,” Ip* boasted. Another type of racketeer who j s ,-urrin making his appearance in London one who calls at small houses and per sundes the housewife to hav e a photograph of he r husband, her mother, or her baby made into a handsome enlargement at the ridiculously low price of half a crown. Very often she aaccepts tli<> “bargain,”, and signs the agreement form promising to pay the half-crown on delivery. It is stressed that the signing is merely a matter of form. S(> that the canvasser may draw hi s sixpence commission

But what the housewife has failed to. notice is that, in very small type, there is also a n undertaking, which she ha* signed, to buy a . frame for the enlargement for a guine a or mo r e. ° It is only a day or two later, when' the enlargement ha* been delivered, Giat she discovers she has been trick. * 1 ALL SQUARE. tv,? " : 'V\n, OUt n,i,n ’ with tow broad . and although several pairs of the.n Wert * SI, ’ MV " io him > he refused Hint, may be.’ he retorted. <1? tj, pen to be wearing last season^