The age-herald., 1902-02-09

~N~-VO<~~< the check called for $500, and the work was done so well even in that short time that the writer would have been tempted to believe that he had made an error and really drawn the check for that amount had he not been sure to the contrary.
 That kind of raising is easy" said the expert. You see it demands no interim ing or extending of words The check raiser simply knows how well certain characters lend themselves to changes that cannot be detected. The capital in almost every mans handwriting can be changed to a capital F without any trouble by even an unskilled crook.
 A check for $32, 900 was raised to $50, GOO almost in the wink of an eye. This is the easy and safer part of the business said he. But when check is to be raised from sum like S10 to say $10,000, and the drawer has written 1t so that there is no room between the words ten and '1oI- lars," chemicals must be used There Is always more danger of detection in that. In the mere alteration of a check there is little. Look here. I'll change your checks as fast as you write them, and 1 bet lot of my alterations will pass muster. But in the name of goodness don't print my name. Folk are suspicious in the money centers, and if they ever think that I might raise checks as we'll as detect rais- CTS 1 may as well go out of business
 A pad was hauled out and the writer filled the sheets out with carefully writ ten amounts. The expert was as good as his word. He altered them almost as fast as they were written Some, to be sure were crude and would have betrayed the fact of alteration to the eye of any careful banker. But many were almost perfect and all were wonderfully decep- tive and showed what could be done by crook who had plenty of time.
 But how about the perforations? he was asked How could a crook change them?"
 Nothing easier" was the reply. "The fact that checks stamped with the amount In perforated characters are considered safe aids the swindler. Really, to beat the perforations is so easy that 1t will make you smile. All the outfit that is needed is a common little punch with as- sorted small cutting tubes and a bottle of an invisible glue that every crook can make or that he can buy in certain places that every crook knows. Now, here Is check stamped in perforated characters s3O0$. take my little punch and fit into 1t a cutter that will punch holes of the same size as the holes in the perfora- tions.
 Now I punch out of the edge of the check few tiny disks moisten the tip of needle and press them carefully into the holes that make the upper part of the figure 3. See. even in my haste and without glue, they fill the perforations completely and I can shake and pull the check without disturbing them.'
 It was true. The lit,le plugs fitted per- fectly, and even with the knowledge that they were there it was almost impossi- ble to see where they have been inserted
 Now" continued the expert, '' 1 mere ly take my punch and carefully punch enough holes to the right of the upper part of the figure 3 to make it a 5. And there you are. If I wanted to pass this check through the bank I would only have to complete tine job by smearing a drop of the invisible glue over the back where l have plugged the original holes. This glue is wonderfully tenacious and will actually hold the edges of paper to- gether. It needs only the smallest sur face in order to get hold. After 1t Is on not even the microscope could detect 1t readily And no amount of pulling or shaking of the check will disturb It.
 You may suppose that check that is stamped this way, for instance-s600s- would be hard to change into one of four figures. But 1t Is almost equally easy The crook simply punches out enough disks from the edge to fill up the last dollar mark completely and after he has plugged 1t and the glue is dry he punches cipher into the place and then punches dollar mark after it. Of course, after punching the little disks out of the edge part of the paper, but that Is done read fly, for checks always have ample mar gin.
 '.Tfie check raiser does not depend on the fact that scrutiny of checks in a large bank is bound to be nasty, but he knows that he need not fear if his work is at all we'll done, for the man at the window simply cannot spend much time in exam ming the many checks that are passed in.
 .'One New York City bank send through the clearing house daily an average of 3100 checks and as there are about sixty five such banks in the clearing house the total number of checks handled in the few hours of business m a day Is some thing enormous.
 '.It is this haste-which, by the way, is absolutely necessary in. order to keep the books posted to date-that is responsible for the passing of one of the most pecu- liar checks that ever came under the notice of the detectives or America. In this case the check was neither falsified nor was the signature forged but 1t was bogus just the same
 Ut was check made up of the parts of two checks, and all the implements necessary for Justification were pair of scissors and that invisible glue. The clever swindler had got hold of two gem uine checks from the same bank. Ono was for $10Oo and the other for $70. Plac- ing these two checks together, one on top on the other, he cut them through neatly with the scissors. Then he pasted that portion bearing the word seventy on the one check to that part bearing the word thousand on the other. So the composite check read to pay to the holder seventy thousand dollars. As the cut ting was made through both checks in exactly the same place the edges fitted perfectly. They were glued together and