The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-01-31
MANY FRAUDS
ARE WIPED OUT
MAIL ORDER SCHEMES TO BUNKo
PEOPLE. NOT so NUMEROUS
SINCE HITCHCOCK
GOT BUSY.

Mall order FRAUDS are growing more
scarce all the time. Postmaster Gen
eral Hitchcock has made the crusade
against these swindlers one Of the
features Of his administration. and
who are usually the cleverest of men
and women, are beginning to see that
they can no longer ply their trade
through the post office.
Among the types of schemes which
have now practically disappeared are
those which depended for their rev.
enue upon what is termed "catch pen
ny" advertisements. For example, ar
ticles offered for sale would be de-
scribed i'm misleading language, but so
ambiguously as to render il possible
for the advertiser to answer cons
plants by saying that the complain
ant had misconstrued the advertise
ment. These advertisements were
printed i'm a certain class of weekly or
monthly publications. Readers were
induced TO believe that they could OBJ
tain valuable jewelry for small sum
of money. The jewelry actually fur
nished. the post office inspectors say.
was invariably of a cheap kind.
"Work at Home" Fraud.
The so-called work at home"
schemes, through which women were
victimized for years. have been almost
wholly bandoned. These enterprise,
the inspection department Of the pos
tai service says, were particularly Cd
ious, because they usually preyed up
on women i'm straitened circumstances,
who were seeking out some honest way
of helping out their insufficient in
comes, and who actually suffered in
being robbed Of money of which these
schemes swindled them. The plan was
to print advertisements i'm periodicals
in which the statement was made that
the advertiser wanted women to work
at home and would pay a reasonable
compensation. IL was always a condi-
ton precedent however, that the
worker buy from the advertiser a
typewriter or a sewing machine with
which to do the work. The investiga-
tions of the post office inspectors re-
veal that few of the women who bit at
this scheme ever got any work to do,
and almost invariably the machines
they were required to buy were worth
less or next to worthless.
Hiring Statesmen by Mail.
Another fraud practiced extensively
through the mails and somewhat sim
liar to the "work at home" scheme
was that to which a position as a
salesman with a guaranteed salary
was offered the prospective victim.
The prerequisite was that the would
be salesman should make a deposit
with the promoter as an evidence of
good faith" and the man seeking the
job had TO agree to engage in a pre-
liminary canvass of a week or month.
After he had obtained. through the
preliminary canvass. all the orders
he could obtain from friends anxious
to see him succeed in the undertaking,
he found it impossible to carry out the
terms of the contract because of the
inferior quality of the goods supplied
or by reason of other obstacles put in
his path by the promoter.
Silverware Given Away.
The fraud order division of the post
office department relates that in re-
cent years hundreds of men and wom-
en- throughout the United States have
been gratifed TO receive letter i'm
which they were informed that for
some reason they have been selected
to receive a beautiful set of silver
ware, which was given away for adj
vertising purposes. All they were re-
quired to do to obtain the present was
to remit to the writer the sum named
in the letter for the expense of pack
ing and shipping. Many persons
availed themselves of what they
thought was an opportunity to get
something for nothing, and sent the
money. They did not realize that they
had been defrauded until they received
some cheap and shabby ware.
"Astrologers" Driven Out.
During the last year large num-
Der of self-styled "astrologers" have
been driven out of business. These
men advertised in periodicals appeal
ing to the credulous to have their
fortunes told by the stars" and prom
Using To read the past. present and
future Of the patron for a small remit !
lance. Strange to say. many persons
sent money to these "astrologers" be-
fore the post office department inter-
fered. No horoscope was cast and /
the reading furnished was a form
of letter identical with that sent every |
other person whose date of birth fell
within the signs" These letters were
prepared in large quantities and COM
prised. as n rule. twelve forms, one
for each sign. The only service per-
formed by the "astrologer" for the |
money paid him was to select the form
letter covering the sign under which
the patron was born and send ii to
him.
No More Endless Chains.