The Confidence Man of Colby
An elderly immigrant family arrives in Washington only to be swindled of their life savings at the docks.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A smooth bunko game was perpetrated on a local dock last Saturday which has not been reported to the police, but which netted $100 to the scamp who ran the game. An old man named Richards, with his wife and daughter, had just arrived here from England and were going over to Colby to reside. While the Richards family were waiting for the boat to take them out, the old man was approached by an individual who introduced himself as the postmaster and storekeeper at Colby. The bunko man, who seemed to be very nervous and looked at his watch, claimed he had just bought a bill of goods and was in a hurry to get on the boat, but needed to find someone to cash a check so he could pay the balance. The result was that Richards had his wife count out $100, and he put the check in his pocket without looking at it. The thief hurried away. While on the boat, the family inquired for the postmaster of Colby, and found that the man they had met was a complete impostor. The check given to Richards was for $3,200, but was unsigned and worthless.
“The old man was unaccustomed to the ways of the world and proved an easy victim to the shrewd confidence man.”
New immigrants have long been targets for sophisticated financial scams that exploit their lack of familiarity with local systems. Today, this continues in the form of complex digital fraud and wire scams targeting vulnerable populations newly arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.