The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-09-15
Frederick Haskin's Letter
SPANISH SWINDLERS BUSY AGAIN

many fall for the hoax no one. ~.
cept the Spanish swindler, know
The sum asked for when the cor.
respondence gets to the critical
stage may depend upon the person
to be fleeced. The impersonators
OF the noble Russian can estimate
closely from the raplies Of the
Americans how much money nav
be asked for safely and obtained
The Spanish swindle is a verv
old game, but it never seems Ia
lose its alluring possibilities. Il
must be profitable. Otherwise i.
would not be attempted now by
presumably one Of the same oper.
ators who worked it in 1918. That
the same persons are still at It is
indicated by the sample letters.
Same SPINDLE In 1919.
The postoffice department has a
sample of the latest swindle letter
and it has letters Of the 1913 series
The 1913 version contained thu
story of an imprisoned Russian
banker and his beautiful daughte:
whose fortune must be recovered.
From that point the story pro-
crossed as in the latest letter, the
climax being the hidden pocket in
the portmanteau, where the papers
necessary to the recovery of the
fortune were concealed.
The 1913 letters are written on
the same kind of paper that is be.
ing used for the letters now. The
sheets are large and printed in tiny
blocks with blue ink, The letters
are in similar handwriting.
That the 1913 letter is the basis
of tbs up-to-date bankrupt Russian
Letter of 1922 can be seen readily
from the phrasing Of the two types
The same foreign expressions oc.
cur in both. Since the Spanish
swindle started, g years ago, it has
changed very little.
This method of taking money
away from Americans is obviously
a systematic business. A compar-
ison of two of the letters sent GU,
in 1918 shows that both contain the
same story, except the Russian
bankers name is Ivanovitch in one
case and SOlovieff in the other.
Each letter is accompanied by
newspaper clipping which confirms
the story of the we'll known Rus
sian bankers being imprisoned in
Spain and tells how it occurred.
The fact that the banker was sup
posed to have hidden funds and
also that the baggage was searched
are cunningly referred to in the
news story. These clippings pre-
sumably are from some English
newspaper and are supposedly to
satisfy the recipient of the letter as
to the existence of the Russian
banker and the truth of his story.
The interesting thing about them
is that on one of the clippings the
story is printed with the name
Ivanovich to correspond with one
letter, while the other clipping
gives the name as S0lovieff. Ex-
cept for this difference the news
items are identical, and the same
reading matter is on the reverse
side of both. This proves, as might
be expected, that the swindlers had
the clippings faxed to look exactly
like extracts from a newspaper.
If the two letters we're not sent
to the same neighborhood there
was little danger of two victimf'
comparing notes, or at least not
until after the money was sent Or
positively refused. t
The victim who has parted with
his money to these swindlers is
helpless, so far as recovery is con-
cerned. The postoffice department
has printed a warning against this
form of fraud in the 1922 posta!
guide.
1t is a strange fact that this
fraud is almost exclusively Span
ish affair. A few letters have
come from Mexico, but Spain with
it's atmosphere of romance makes
an imrisoned Russian and his beau
tiful daughter pining for fortune
seem more plausible. If such
things can happen anywhere they
would happen in Spain, the Amer
lean victim reasons. The Spanish
swindlers, counting their American
dollar bills, no doubt think that
America, and not Spain, is the true
land of romantic fortune.