Cochise review., 1900-10-12
TRAPS OF SWINDLERS
Favorite Schemes for Getting the
 Money of the Unwary.
The Coupon Game and the Matra- mOniaI Agency Are Worn Out and There Is Demand AOR
 Something New.

Hit is true that there is nothing new under the sun, it is not the fault of the hosts of men and women who make their living by the exercise of their wits and the lack of exercise of wits of other people. Devoting their talent to the invention and contrivance of swindling devices, they succeed at least in proving that the ancients had many of these, for they produce with wonderful ease schemes that are new to the Chicago police and to those of other cities. And when they have cessfully it becomes for the uonce the fad" of their kind, and is used by many in states as widely divergent as Maine and California, says the Chicago Tribune.
 At present there is somewhat slack time among the swindlers in the big cities, Confidence men have gone west with the fakirs Those who have been left behind, however, are keeping the police busy with variations of the coupon" swindle.
 Where this originated, or in what form it was first used, does not appear. h the main it is worked in this way; A concern advertises to give some vslu- able concession or merchandise for 6 few cents---or even for nothing.--and publishes the advertisement widely, 4 perSon looking for something for noth- ing-something which is hard to find is sent a letter in reply iuclosing a number of coupons in book-some- times three, sometimes as high as five or ten. He is to pay, perhaps, five cents for the coupons, Each of these he is to sell to friend for say, SC cents, and when he has sold all three and sent the money to the firm he re- ceivss the goods. The latter are usual ly ot such a sort that profit of sever al hundred per cent. is made from them The coupons which are sold by the first purchaser entitle each of his friends to another book of coupons, which they can sell in similar manner, thus getting their own money back and another package of the goods. In the end the proprietors, when they have sent out sufficient number of coupons, and returns begin to slack up, disap- pear without rsdeemiIg outstanding liabilities.
 This swindls eosbed up iR Chicago not long ago as method of buying street car tickets 4 concern adver- tised to sell street car tickets on any line at the rate of about three dollars worth for 50 cents. It was done by coupons. Immediately some one else got on to the scheme and starved in the business, and in few weeks there were many of the chains formed. Then com. plaint was made to the police, and on investigation by detectives the con cerns were shut down. Driven out ot the ticket business, however, they did not abandon their plan, but began working in other fields. They! substi- tuted gloves for tickets and offered articles worth S1.50 for about nickel Detectives have been assigned to this form of swindle, and spend the great CT part of their time ferreting out the many forms in which it is found
 The matrimonial agency swindle is as old as the oldest, but has bobbed uE anew lately with great yigor Adver tisemsnts, inserted in papers all over the country, call attention 10 the state ment that young woman with big fortune i, looking for nice, agreeable husband. The young men who want to try for the job write 10 an address in the concern seems to have several of tices--and gets reply asking for 20 cents in stamps to pay postage on a description of the damsel and chance at the lottery for her hand When he has Nanted this amount he is again mem bership in the matrimonial club which is exploiting the damsel And when he has done this he finds that some one elss has captured the maiden and left him nothing but the sell The device is an old one, but it is perennial, and just now is being worked hard.
 T don't believe I ever saw swindlers harder up for schemes, said Capt. Col leran, chief of Chicago'S detective force, when asked what new games the sharpers are playing on the unSuSpect- ing public. There seems to be a dearth of ability to devise swindles, and they are all sticking to two or three old games. That coupon swindle, which is being worked to death, is the only reasonably new thing they have got. They ought to know by this time that it is simply nuts to us to run down su old game like that"