The Postal Forger Targeting Local Merchants
A crafty con artist is raising the value of small money orders with chemicals, and authorities are warning shopkeepers to stay vigilant.
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.
Postmaster E. L. Brunton is in receipt of a circular from G. D. Linn, postal inspector at Spokane, requesting him to notify all merchants to look out for a man going by the name of E. J. Rozier, who has been passing forged money orders on merchants in eastern Washington. The inspector requests that merchants cause the arrest of the man as soon as he offers any orders in payment of goods. His method is to purchase a money order, usually for 25 or 30 cents, at a small office. By means of chemicals, he erases the writing and makes a new order, usually for $50 or $60, payable to himself. He then visits the town upon which the order is drawn, buys a small bill of goods, and requests the difference in cash. The man is described as 32 or 33 years old, slim, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with dark, squinting eyes and a long neck.
“The alterations in the orders cannot be detected by the naked eye.”
While physical money orders are rarely used in this fashion today, digital check fraud and account takeover scams remain a persistent threat to small businesses, echoing the same 'trust-but-verify' challenges faced by Walla Walla grocers in 1903.
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