Show JU DD cad ch ks cost MORRO 05 V R MIMS IM 21 ir average man handles written demand for cash as though it was not money new york the daring effort ot of check manipulators to rig the stock market flooding it with false buying orders paid in worthless checks added a new phase to the endless struggle against check ral balsera sers and forgers which vv hach costs the public about 60 annually in this last effort the manipulators printed their own checks and forged signatures of bank officials la irk an effort to profit indirectly as a result of the acceptance of these checks by stock brokers this phase Is a new one but the business of printing and issuing apparently parent ly bona fide checks is old in fact it is an industry nourishing flourishing in many parts of the country directed by clever bands of criminals skilled in the devious and intricate business of c check heck raising and forging secret service men police depart ments and bankers often warn the pub lie lic to be more careful with checks both in the writing and handling of them in new york alone during 1922 it has been estimated that check rals ing and forging cost the public 27 more than in any other city this estimate R was as reached on the basis that out of each 8 in bank clear ings 1 Is lost through bad checks total bank clearings of the country in 1922 were to all but bankers credit men and officials throughout the country the statement of these losses may seem in credible but the losses are not a recent development they have been mounting at an estimated rate of in crease of 1000 a year the three main factors responsible are the highly organized activities of forger gangs the extent of check transactions and failure to observe proper precautions A although the term ferm forgery Is applied to all forms of check frauds the actual imitation of signatures on negotiable paper Is not so generally practiced as the alteration of checks A genuine signature on a check Is valuable and the crook prefers wherever possible to retain it raising checks calls for more skill as the many protect protective iv e devices now used are obstacles t to 0 be overcome in the beginning of check raising it was not difficult to affix hundred to the written word three making a check read three hundred or to add y to the word eight mak mal ing it eighty and it was no more difficult to change the figures the development of protective devices tailed called for a high order of mechanical ch scientific and artistic ac the men engaged in this department of check frauds are known knorn as to them falls the work rork of altering a genuine check realizing on their handl handiwork Rork is no part of their allotted duties this function falls to the presenters or putters down one of the three other departments into which the bands are divided the captains and middlemen complete the organization how they get checks it Is the duty of the captains to ob tain the raw material for the scratch ers A method much in use is to make a small purchase for cash at a large retail establishment and to return it on some pretext a day or so later with the request tint the pur chase money be returned this refund usually Is made by check which Is then turned over to the to be raised another method of ob taming checks Is to rifle letters stolen from mall mail boxes in the corridors of lat bolt and apartment buildings the middleman is man between the various members keeping them from getting acquainted with each other and distributing the spoils among them largely upon the eff clent performance of his work depends the safety of members he keeps them from personal acquaintance and the chances of a conviction through con are reduced should any mem ber her be arrested i the actual passing of a forged or raised check at the bank Is work for the presenters chev must be men or women nomen of presence of resourceful ness and some degree of acting skill the importance of this latter ment Is illustrated by the case of a presenter in an interpol Inter loi lol town who one summer day rushed into a bank hatless and coatless and presented a check made out to bearer for several I 1 undred dollars explaining that the drawer his employer and a elal merchant of the town had but a few minutes before received a wire summoning him to the bedside of his dying mother in a town sen several eral hun dred miles distant the merchant he be explained had hurried home to pack a bag and would go direct to the sta tion where the clerk would meet him with the money for his traveling ex benses the clerk begged the teller to make haste as his employer would barely have time to catch the train the teller knew that the merchant never nener drew checks to bearer but the signa ture lure was undoubtedly ly genuine the haste and distress of the clerk seemed quite as genuine and he hesitated to make inquiries which probably would rould result in tte merchant missing his train he decided to pay the money to the messenger who immediately set out post haste in the direction of the railroad station that was the last seen of him the merchant had received no summons to his mother a deathbed ras ft as not making an impromptu journey and had no such employee as the clerk who got the money on a stolen and raised check forged his own pardon in the halcyon days of forgery which have furnished the legends of this branch of crime J II 11 stoddard was the hero of many picturesque ex one of which resulted in his sentence to a term in the tennessee state prison at na nasi valle he ile was a man of resources and invoked the same art that had got him into trouble to get him out stoddard forged the signature of the governor of tennes see to a document pardoning him had it presented to the warden by a con federate then at liberty ind walked out of the prison gates to freedom in those das dabs forgers did not depend so much upon mass production as upon a single coup for their profits one of the best examples of a kill ing was that of one sheer or slifer in 1892 slifer bought four drafts of 18 each at four banks in lansing mich he ile raised each draft to 1800 1 and cashed them at banks in detroit making his 7 haul within a period of 24 hours an even greater profit with less trouble and expense was made at one stroke by charles becker estyl styled ed prince of forgers who tn in 1895 had a confederate buy a draft for 12 at a bank in a small california town the cashier as an extra precaution using the crude protective device of 0 the time punched the figures 12 on both upper corners of the draft beck er filled up these perforations erased the word twelve and the figure 12 restored the papers tint which had bad suffered by the erasures wrote the words T twenty enty two thousand and the figures 22 punched the same figures on each corner of the draft and had a document so genuine look ing that he cashed it without trouble at a reno bank the fraud was not discovered until long after because neither bank had noticed anything amiss with the draft the money had all been spent when becker was convicted of the crime and the courts had finally decided the fill gatlon gation between the two banks an itinerant vendor of patent inks who recently made the rounds of small towns in the east used modern meth oda calling for the proprietor of a store he would ask for one of the merchant merchants s blank checks and fill it out for using ordinary ink then with acid he would wash the check clean and rewrite it tor for 1000 thia this time using the patent non eradicable ink from a bottle in his sample case again applying the acid bath the ink would stand fast this demonstration usually made the sale the merchant tendering a dollar bill in payment at sight of the bill the peddler would register comic distress as he drew from his pocket a huge roll of dollar bills and explain that as he had made so many sales all paid for in bills he would appreciate it if the merchant would give him a check in stead so simple a request was rarely refused in a week or so the accod mo dating merchant would receive a canceled check for ably genuine as to all but the amount repeated acid washings by the dis ills bayed merchant would fall to erase the ink but a last resource to plain soap and water rater would easily remove it checks expand currency the volume of check transactions in the united states Is greater than in any other country it has been esti estl mated that the annual business turn over oner in the united states Is more than 00 the nations nation s actual money circulation Is only about 4 so stupendous a total of an nual business transactions could be possible only through the extensive use of checks and it Is estimated that 95 per cent of the business tr in the country are made with checks this furnishes the check crook his golden opportunity the average check user Is surprisingly surprising ty careless in bis his handling of what he uses in place of money chith indeed performs the functions of money and which he should safeguard as zealously as his cash it Is with the unprotected check that the crook Is enabled to do his will there Is nothing very complex about either drawing or using checks and the matter of preventing some going astray Is even simpler yet so general Is the carelessness that attends their issuance and handling that the follow ing ten commandments for chech check users recently were formulated by the forgery prevention bureau keep blank checks and canceled vouchers under lock arate IN rite checks with safety ink or with a check writing machine that shreds the paper and impregnates it with the amount in ineradicable ink in writing checks leave as little space as possible between the figures of the amount and start the written amount as close to the left hand mar gin as possible drawing heavy parallel lines through the unfilled space use only alteration proof check paper destroy all checks marred in draw ing and never permit a check to be issued with any erasures on it do not issue checks to for strangers and never make them out to cash or bearer do not sign blank checks scrutinize all certified checks as the stamps are not d difficult t to duplicate be careful where and how you sign our banking signature on checks you deposit add to your signature for deposit only thus mak ing it impossible for them to be cashed by a thief without alterations y f |