The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1909-10-22
FRAUD BY TELEGRAPH
Bold SWindles Perpetrated by
Use of the Wire.
THE WAY A BANK WAS FOOLED
A Lot Of Nerve and a Little Telegram
That Was Properly Delivered by One
of the company's Messenger Boys
Made Winning Combination.

inat was properly delivered by one
of the Company's Messenger Boys
Made a Winning Combination.
Ninety-nine men out of q hundred
will accept as gospel truth the contents
of telegram when 1t comes from the
hands of messenger boy. They buy
and sell, pay out large sums of money,
start on long journeys and do countless
other things upon the suggestion Of the
little yellow or white paper slips with
their condensed messages without in
the least questioning their authenticity.
This is an interesting fact upon which
hinges an enormous amount Of the
country's business, and 1t is also fact
upon which hinge some of the clever
est and boldest frauds In criminal rec
ords.
A lot of nerve and little telegram
was combination that made possible
smooth swindle on Des Moines
bank. A well dressed man, apparently
business man of large affairs, called
at the paying teller's window with a
draft or check on an Omaha bank and
asked IL the Omaha bank had tele-
graphed notice that the draft was
good. He got mo" for an answer and
then informed the teller that such a
telegram might be expected at any
moment. Soon afterward the telegram
arrived, delivered by messenger boy,
appearing to have come from the Oma-
ha bank and authorizing the Des
Moines bank to pay the draft. When
the stranger appeared again he was
given the $500. When the Des Moines
bank people took up the matter by
wire with the Omaha bank 1t found
that the latter institution had not sent
the telegram. and then 1t was discov-
cred that the whole transaction was q
fraud
But how could the swindlers send a
banks name? They did 1t In this
manner: An accomplice of the Des
Moines man stepped to telephone
booth In Omaha and called the tele-
graph office. This is the ---- bank"
he said. "Send messenger ut once
to get a telegram for Des Moines."
Then this accomplice hurried to the
entrance Of the Omaha bank to meet
the messenger and there handed him
the message for Des Moines. The
telegraph company had no reason to
believe otherwise than that the bank
had actually signed the message. and
1t transmitted It, The Des Molnes
bank also accepted the telegram as
genuine because 1t bore every mark
of genuineness. and 1t paid out the
money to the swindlers. who timed
their fraud SO that they got out of
reach of the law on trains that left
Immediately after their game had been
worked.
In two smaller western towns n sim
ilar game was worked. only for seven
or eight times the amount. An alleged
horse buyer appeared In one of the
towns and made purchase of a carload
of fine animals to be delivered and
paid for at later day, preceding
which he made the acquaintance of the
officers Of one of the banks. On the
day fixed for the delivery of the horses
the alleged buyer deposited In the
bank draft for large amount drawn
ON a bank In another town a hundred
miles away. AT the same time the
bank received telegram purporting
10 come from the distant bank author