CONFIDENCE TRICKSTERS.

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19462, 29 December 1934, Page 5

CONFIDENCE TRICKSTERS.

OPERATING IN AUCKLAND. A WARNING TO VISITORS. AUCKLAND, Saturday. “This is the proper time to warn people 'carrying any .considerable sum of money, especially country visitors, against - making chance acquaintances,” stated an-Auckland police officer. “The Christmas and New Year period, when there is always an 'influx to the city, means that the police must be 'esspe--daily watchful for such offences. No other time of the year offers such possibilities for trickery, and a close scrutiny of ail undesirable '.characters must be maintained-’’

-Recently two young men on board d 1 yacht in Mechanics’ Bay heard calls '.for help on the shore, but they could not And anyone responsible for the cries when they investigated. It was subsequently revealed, however, that a country visitor complained to the police of being assaulted'ln thewiclnity and of an attempt to rob him. He had met several men by chance, and they had taken him away in a motor-car, evidently for the sole purpose of robbing him. Another instance was the mysterious case this week of a man who was assaulted, robbed of £2O and left in the Tamaki railway station. , The victim was not'able'.to aksls’t dectectives. in tracing his assailants, and the theory is that strangers were responsible for the cJ'ime.^ Tri recent Weeks there" has been a story current concerning the extensive operation of what is called the “badger game,’’ involving the use. of a.woman decoy. This class of crime entails a possible attack on the victim’s reputation, with, inevitably, the suggestion of blackmail.