One of the simplest and most effective schemes for hooking new "suckers" was adopted by a Dearborn street "investment" concern. This consisted in sending to a prospective victim a check for $100, made payable to some other man, and accompanied by a brief letter telling that recipient would find inclosed his weekly dividend on his investment of $1,000. Of course the marked "sucker" knew nothing of the deal, and, believing a mistake had been made would return the check and letter. He at once received in reply an apologetic letter, stating that the first letter and check had been inserted in the wrong envelope through the carelessness of a clerk, it having been the intention to mail to the recipient a circular instead of another man's check for dividends. It was enough. Ten per cent a week was not to be resisted. The "sucker" almost invariably opened negotiations on his own initiative and was landed.
Financial "Journal" Frauds.
The multiplicity of these schemes led to the establishment of the "financial paper," designed, according to the publisher's statement, to guard investors against get-rich-quick frauds. To the police these papers are known as "special form papers." The editor comprises the staff. The contents consist of financial matter usually stolen from reputable journals, a formidable array of financial advertising, and, most important, "reports" on investment concerns. For a consideration the "special form" paper tells its readers that the "Cotton Mutual Investment Company" is sound and reliable. The manager of the "Cotton Mutual" buys as many copies of the paper as he wants, as it has no regular time of publication, and can be run off in any quantity at any time with the article boosting the "Cotton Mutual." The get-rich-quick manager then sees to it that the paper finds its way into the hands of his "sucker list," or list of names of persons whom he hopes to be able to induce to "invest."
Therefore, when reading want ads. in the newspapers, consider carefully the nature of the promises made. If they are too rosy, too high-flown, have nothing to do with that ad. or the man who inserted it. You may depend upon it that it is a fake. There are no great armies of persons walking about this country seeking to give away something for nothing.
[MILLIONAIRE BANKER AND BROKER ARRESTED.]
Ramifications of the Bucket Shop System Revealed by Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge.
George T. Sullivan, the millionaire stock, bond, grain and cotton broker at 159-161 LaSalle street, Chicago, Illinois, was arrested May 23, 1906, with 60 inmates. Twelve patrol wagon loads of books, records and papers were seized and carted off to the Harrison Street Police Station.
Mr. Sullivan at the time had one of the finest, best-equipped offices in Chicago, which was located in the Traders' Building, opposite the Chicago Board of Trade. He occupied several floors, and they were very elaborately furnished. Part of the third floor was used as a telegraph office, where forty men were constantly at work at the telegraph keys. His private telegraph wires reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the British possessions in the north.