Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-19

the loser, for was 1t not his signature
upon which the bank had paid the
/ money?
Down at Buckner. Mo-, there Is a
case pending I'm the courts to deter
mine whether a bank or the victim
shall be the loser in such cases. A
patron of a Buckner bank signed his
name to a letter OF recommendation.
The crook traced the signature on a
check with a drawing pencil. Then
| the impression was linked and the
likeness was an exact reproduction Of
the signature. The patron admits
that it is his signature, but contends
that he did not sign the check. The
fcOurts will have to decide the case.
Most banks watch closely the ac-
counts Of their patrons. Especially do
! the paying tellers. They are careful
to know the persons to whom money
is paid, and II the amount Is large
they are doubly careful. But often
collections are made through other
banks and the payee is not identified.
And even should a teller suspect that
a check Is bogus sometimes II Is not
the best business policy to call de-
positor over the telephone and ask
him IL the check to Jones for $4,000
is all right. Depositors, r1any Of them,
especially II the transaction Is with
friend, feel that the paying teller Is
annoying them and at the same time
embarrassing the friend when the tel
ephone Is used TO verify transac-
ton. So 1t goes.
There are many ways In which
sharks prey upon banks. They are
big game and crooks realize that one
haul from a bank Is equivalent often
to a dozen other ventures. The ma
tional banks Of the United States to
protect themselves from a gang OF
sharpers who obtain money by tele-
graph, found 1t necessary to establish
a universal cipher code. For exam
pie, a Texas bank recently received
telegram from an alleged Kansas City
bank to pay John Jones $1,000. Jones
explained that his wife had died and
the Texas bank, believing that 1t was
accommodating a Kansas City bank.
paid the money. The cipher code will
check this. But check II only, because
the state banks have no universal
code, and were a crook to get hold OF
this code used by the national banks
Ii would mean a big loss to the insti-
tutions which happened to be the vic
tins. Paying money by telegraph Is
big factor that Is entering more and
more into the legitimate business
world every day.
In New York bank queer Incl
dent happened last month. A pack
age of valuable securities was thought
at first to have been stolen from
safety deposit vault. The manager of
the institution showed that this would
have been impossible. Then the pa
tron remembered an incident which
explained evC rything.
Man Is more or less a creature Of
habit. A member Of the gold brick
fraternity stationed himself In the vi
cinity Of safety deposit bank In New
York for several days. He learned
the habits of the different customers.
One patron Of the bank was seen daily
carrying the same kind Of an envel-
ope. The envelope was always the
same color. The crook noticed these
things, and In the rush Of the busy
hours as this man came into the bank
he stumbled at the door. He ran into
a heavy individual. The envelope fell
to the floor and little man who was
near picked II up and seemingly re-
turned 1t to the owner.
All went about their business. A
week later, after the patron had ac-
cused the bank Of losing the envelope
from his safety deposit box, he remem-
bered how he had fallen. 1t all came
back to him and he remembered that
the little man had turned around be-
fore giving him the envelope.
The old game of borrowing money
to pay the freight on-a car or cattle.
the finding Of a pocketbook with $50
| In II and the old shell game are too
old and too we'll known to meet with
success, though occasionally the police
department hears echoes of the past.
But these are reminders Of days that
are gone. It is not the old games
which they must be on the lookout for
but the nswer creations Of the gold
brick world.-Kansas City Star.