The Fake Auditor of J. Pierpont Morgan
A Seattle hotel swindler successfully impersonates a corporate auditor to extract cash.
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.
Representing himself to be a traveling auditor for J. Pierpont Morgan, J. B. Matthews, alias Ford, now under arrest, is thought to be one of the boldest hotel swindlers who have visited the west. The man is charged with passing forged checks on A. A. Seagrove, proprietor of the Occidental hotel. Matthews told the proprietor and clerks that he was here for Morgan to audit the accounts of steamship lines. He told Mr. Seagrave how his little daughter came into the city, and, while in the office, ran across Morgan. The giant of finance, he said, gave the little girl a pass on all the street car lines of the city. By the time the night clerk came into Mr. Seagrave's room two weeks ago with a $50 check signed by Mr. Matthews, the proprietor thoroughly believed in the quiet, well-dressed stranger. One check has already come back with the statement from the New York bank on which it was drawn that Matthews had no account there.
“The giant of finance, he said, gave the little girl a pass on all the street car lines of the city.”
This swindler exploited the era's fascination with corporate giants like J.P. Morgan, a precursor to modern 'social engineering' scams where fraudsters leverage prestige and fake credentials to build misplaced trust.
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