Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-10-22
TRAPS OF SWINDLERS
Favorite Schemes for Getting the
Money of the Unwary.
The Coupon Game and the Matri-
mOnial Agency Are Worn Out and
There II "a Demand for
Something New,

Ii 1t 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. Deyoting 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 t O those of
other cities. And when they have
found a scheme that can be worked sue
cessfully it becomes for the nonce
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 a 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.
In the main it is worked in this way: A
nee advertises to give some valu-
able concession or merchandise for a
few cents-or even for nothing-and
publishes the advertisement widely. A
person looking for something for moth
ing-something which is hard to find
is sent a letter in reply inclosing a
number OF coupons in a 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 a friend for say, so
cents, and when he has sold all three
and sent the money to the firm he re-
ceives the goods. The latter are usual
ly of such a ort that a 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 a sufficient number of coupons,
and returns begin to slack up, disap-
pear without ~redseming outstanding
liabilities.
This swindle bobbed up in Chicago
not long ago as a method OF buying
street car tickets. A concern adver-
tised to sell street car tickets on any
line at the rate Of about three dollars
worth for so cents. 1t was done by
coupons. Immediately some one else
got on to the scheme and started in the
business, and in a few weeks there were
many of the chains formed. Then COM
plant vas made to the police, and on
investigation by detectives the CON
Germs were shut down. Driven out of
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 $1.5O for about a nickel.
Detectives have been assigned to this
form of swindle, and spend the great
er 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 up
anew lately with great vigor. Adver-
tisements, inserted in papers all over
the country, call attention to the state
ment that a young woman with a big
fortune is looking for a nice, agreeable
husband. The young men who want to
try for the job write to an address in
New York, or St. Louis, or Chicago
the concern seems to have several Of
fices-and gets a reply asking for 20
cents in stamps to pay postage on a
description of the damsel and a chance
at the lottery for her hand. When he
has anted this mount he is again
asked to contribute five dollars for
membership in the matrimonial club
which is exploiting the damsel. And
when he has done this he finds that
some one else 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.
II don't believe l ever saw swindlers
harder up for schemes" said Capt. Col
leran, chief of C%hicago'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
1t is simply nuts to us to run down an
old game like that"