Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-09-15

ink is multigraph ink, and under a
reading glass the writing shows
that it is not ordinary handwriting.
Some down strokes, fo- instance,
ere faint almost to indistinctness in
the middle of the stroke, the result
of uneven printing.
Spanish swindle letters go to peo-
pie in all parts of the country. No
special attempt Is made to select
millionaires or philanthropists, prob
ably because the operators know
that such persons would be slow to
respond to this particular kind Of
bait.
Judging from cases that gain pub
licity, it seems likely that the
names of prospective victims are
picked out of directories at ran
dom. The swindlers no doubt figure
that less wealthy persons lead more
restricted lives and that they will
more eagerly take a chance on this
bit of adventure. The thrill of be-
ing selected to correspond with an
imprisoned Russian nobleman, and
to send cables relating to secret
pockets and fortunes does not come
often to average American at least
he does not realize how often this
particular thrill is offered to the
public.
Many farmers in outlying sections
of the country receive the Spanish
swindle letters. How many fall for
the hoax, no one, except the Span
ish swindler knows.
The sun asked for when the cor
respondence gets to the critical
stage may depend upon the person
to be fleeced. The im~personators of
| the noble Russian can estimate
closely from the replies of the
American how much money may be
asked for safely, and obtained.
The Spanish swindle is a very old
game, but it never seems to lose its
alluring possibilities. 1t must be
profitable. Otherwise 1t would not
be attempted now by presumably
one of the same operators who
worked it in 1918. That the same
persons are still at it is indicated by
sample letters.
Same Swindle in 1913
The Postoffice Department has 6
sample of the latest swindle letter
and it has letters of the 1913 series
The 1913 version contained the
story of an imprisoned Russian
banker and his beautiful daughter
whose fortune must be recovered
From that point the story pro
crossed as in the latest letter, thu
climax being the hidden pocket IL
the portmanteau, where the papers
necessary to the recovery of the for
une were concealed.
The 1918 letters are written OF
the same kind of paper that is being
used for the letters now. Thu
sheets are large and printed in tin!
blocks with blue ink. The letter
are in similar handwriting.
That the 1918 letter is the basil
of the up to date bankrupt Rus
sian letter of 1922 can be seen read
types. The same foreign expires
Spanish swindle started, years age
it has changed very little.
This method of taking none
away from Americans Is obviously
systematic business. A compariso,
of two of the letters sent out Il
1913 shows that both contain tn
same STORY, except tuo NusSio
I, bankers name is Ivanovich in on
case aud Solovieff in the other.
Each letter is accompanied by
newspaper clipping which confirm
the story of the we'll known Rus
sian banker being imprisoned Il
Spain and tells how it occurred
The fact that the banker was sup
posed to have hidden funds and ais
that the baggage was searched ar
cuuningly referred to in the new
story. These clippings presumabl
are from some English newspape
and are supposed to satisfy the r
cipient of the letter as to the exist
ence of the Russian banker and tn
truth of the story.
The interesting thing about ther
Is that on one of the clippings tn
story Is printed with the name Ivan
ovich to correspond with n letter
while the other clipping gives tn
name as Solovieff. Except for thi
difference the news items ar
Identical, and the same readin
matter Is on the reverse side o
both. This proves, as might be ex
pected that the swindlers had tn
clippings faxed to look exactly Xix
extracts from q newspaper.
II the two letters were not sen
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