Scam

“ Suddenly out of a clear sky they will come like a pestilence, full of vile charges difficult to refute and—who knows?—sometimes perhaps true. For a while these abominations flow into the letter-boxes and not a word is said. If money is demanded, money is paid. ”

“ To entitle themselves to relief, the complainants must prove fraud and damage; or, to state the principle less abstractly, they must show that their agent disposed of what he was employed to sell, for less than its value, and that he did this fraudulently. ”

“ Sir, I pronounce the author of such sentiments to be guilty of attempting a detestable fraud on the community; a double fraud; a fraud which is to cheat men out of their property, and out of the earnings of their labor, by first cheating them out of their understandings. ”

“ If the dupe did not believe that he is about to defraud some one else, he would never become a victim of scoundrels more astute, but little more dishonest than himself. The man who, when a scheme of fraud is proposed to him, indignantly repudiates the implied suspicion that he is willing to sacrifice his honor and integrity for money is not likely to become the dupe of scoundrels who resort to such practices as are explained in this chapter. ”

“ Shall sooner than a piece of good work be proffered to sell;
And our Englishmen be grown so foolish and nice,
That they will not give a penny above the ordinary price.
DISSIMULATION.
Faith, I cannot help thee: 'tis my fellow Fraud must pleasure thee.
Here comes my fellow Fraud: speak to him, and I'll do what I can.
Enter FRAUD.
ARTIFEX.
I beseech you be good unto me, right honest gentleman.
FRAUD.
Why and whereto? what wouldest thou have me do?
ARTIFEX.
That my poor estate you will so much prefer,
As to get me to be a workman to Lady Lucre;
And, sir. ”

“ For it is not the only kind of justice, not to injure him who has not injured us, but also to forgive him who has most injured us. We are often injured by the fraud of another, by the guile of a neighbour; do we consider it a mark of virtue, to avenge guile by guile, or to repay fraud by fraud? ”

“ Wherefore the prophet David has rightly stated his judgment in general, saying: “He hath done no evil to his neighbour.” [2] Fraud, then, ought to be wanting not only in contracts, in which the defects of those things which are for sale are ordered to be recorded (which contracts, unless the vendor has mentioned the defects, are rendered void by an action for fraud, although he has conveyed them fully to the purchaser) , but it ought also to be absent in all else. Candour must be shown, the truth must be made known. ”

“ But there are tricks and tricks, and what will be chuckled over by some businessmen as “a good stroke of business” may, if submitted to a jury, be pronounced a fraud, and it appears to me that people are becoming more exacting every day in their fine art dealings. ”

“ Turn a thousand dollars of your savings over to a worthless whelp that’s got into jail! How do you know he’s your brother?—a [97] man that waits all these years before he shows himself and then plumps down on you for a thousand dollars! I tell you it’s blackmail, blackmail! And you hide all this from me just as though I hadn’t any right to know what kind o’ trouble you get mixed up in! Ain’t you got sense enough to know you’re touchin’ bottom when you give up money that way? ”

“ He examines the drawer, and is surprised to find that the ladies are right; he begs pardon, and the fraud is completed. The purchasing thief waited until she saw a five-shilling piece put into the till from the payments of another customer; the other ladies saw that five-shilling piece, and this is the explanation of the trick. There is a variation for this trick; they do not always wait until they are asked for payment, but if they have seen a sovereign go into the till, they wait a considerable time, then put a bold face upon it, and ask for the change. ”

“ His ‘friend’ by fraud obtained all the man had, and then, with malignant purpose, defamed the female to his dupe, having first reduced the man to beggary. All this, working on the barber, nearly upset his reason, and the victim raged in his agony, and the financier laughed at him, and fed sumptuously, daily; and, having previously obtained by double fraud, a signature to the effect that robbery was a legal loan, gloated over the misery he had caused, and denounced the victim himself had made. ”

“ I wish to inform you that I alone am answerable for the charge brought against, or supposed to exist, against this young man. I lost the money, and replaced the amount with a packet of false notes—no one else. I acknowledge it was my intention to have confessed it all on the following day. I have never had or spent a single penny of the amount, but lost it all by some unaccountable means the same evening on which I neglected to return to the India House. Prosecute me, and I will suffer cheerfully; anything is better than the hellish remorse which I have already suffered. ”

“ Another man, a wretch, will come up and swear it would not take more than fifteen horses. When his horses are through the service you will simply see a pile of bones wrapped in a lamentable hide. You understand that.
Well, these men made twelve hundred bids and got one hundred and thirty-four contracts. Ah, but they say, here is another badge of fraud, another badge. Ah, they bid on small routes, on cheap routes, on routes where the mail was carried infrequently and on slow time. If it is a badge of fraud to bid on such routes the Government can never let out any more. ”

“ These gentry know neither honor, pity nor remorse. Among their ranks, however, may be found men of brilliant intellect and high education, who, had they devoted to some honest pursuit the time and thought which they have expended upon the conception and execution of schemes of fraud, might have acquired a comfortable competence and occupied an enviable position in the professional or commercial world. Their moral nature, however, has become so warped, that fraud has become instinctive with them and the very name of virtue a by-word and a mockery. ”

“ He knows how to praise the goods he is selling, and how to depreciate the wares he is buying, almost as soon as he can speak; and the unblushing manner in which he will hold forth concerning the antiquity of some article which he has made with his own hands, and the entire absence of all mauvaise honte which he displays when detected in the fraud, have earned for him the reputation he proverbially bears of being the best liar in the Peninsula. ”

“ If so grave a condemnation is to be passed on those who lend trust-money to speculators, as well as on the speculators who borrow it, what shall we say of the still more delinquent class who obtain loans by fraud—who not only pawn other men’s property when obtained, but obtain it under false pretences? For how else than thus must we describe the doings of those who raise money by accommodation-bills? ”

“ And the big fellow is more dangerous by a hundred thousand degrees.
Where does real tangible evidence of a conspiracy to defraud in Nipissing exist? Does any exist? Now I venture to say that you could put on the scent any young man who is a graduate of the public schools, and within thirty days he would obtain enough evidence to prove to any jury in the land that the manipulators of that stock used improper measures to get the public's money. ”

“ If an agent defrauds the person with whom he is dealing, the principal, not having authorized or participated in the wrong, may, no doubt, rescind, when he discovers the fraud, on the terms of making complete restitution. ”

“ The statistics in regard to these miscreants are as unquestionable as those relating to street beggars who have amassed fortunes and died amidst rags and riches of dramatic character. I am sorry that I cannot say where the statistics are to be found.
VI.
The actual practice of fraud, even when you discover it, must give you interesting question, unless you are cock-sure of your sociology. I was once met by a little girl on a cross-street in a respectable quarter of the town, who burst into tears at sight of me, and asked for money to buy her sick mother bread. ”

“ The principle laid down in the charge of the judge, that one who claims to have been drawn into a fraudulent purchase must exercise care and vigilance to discover the fraud, and must be prompt in repudiating his contract on the ground of such fraud, is a sound one. ”

“ The fraudful forfeit life and being here below;
Who fraud eschew the bliss of heavenly beings know.
Even their body will fail the fraudulent; but even the world of the gods will not fail those who are free from fraud. ”

“ Cheques are all very well if there be bullion in the bank cellars to pay them with when they fall due, but if that be not so, then the issuing of them is crime and fraud. Our resolutions, made and forgotten as so many of our good resolutions are, are very little better. ”

“ Fraudulent Contracts.—Examples of fraud in contracts are the following:
(a) in gratuitous contracts, a donee who by false representations obtains a gift, a lender who fails to make known to the borrower defects or dangers in the thing loaned;
(b) in onerous contracts, a landlord who conceals defects from one who is renting a house, members of a business concern who keep back information from partners or who give out false statements in order to entice investors, creditors who conceal their knowledge about the unreliability of a man for whom surety is given them ”

“ Finally I said, This is a fraud—that is what it is, it is a fraud—and if I had had any sense I might have known a cursed mud-turtle couldn’t sing. And then I said, I don’t wish to be hard on this fellow, and I will just give him ten minutes to commence; ten minutes—and then if he don’t, down goes his building. ”

“ Fraud is deception; it is inducing the other party to believe something which is not true, and, by inducing him to believe that, influencing his action. The ordinary way in which fraud is manifested is by misrepresentations. A purchase or sale of stock or of goods may be induced by fraud. A loan may be obtained from a bank by fraud, that is, by misrepresentation of material facts which influence the other side to act. ”

“ DROP COVES. Persons who practice the fraud of dropping a ring or other article, and picking it up before the person intended to be defrauded, they pretend that the thing is very valuable to induce their gull to lend them money, or to purchase the article. ”

“ If my future transactions be all honorable and trustworthy,—if by a fiction, only known to my own heart, I acquire that eminence from which I can distribute benefits to hundreds,—who is to stigmatize me as a fraudulent trader? ”

“ The points raised by the pleadings in behalf of complainant, for cancellation of the deed, were,--
1. Duress.
2. Want of consideration.
3. Fraud, growing out of the relation of the parties as parent and child, trustee and cestui que trust.
1. Duress. (Mr. Holmes commented upon the evidence in the case, to establish this.)
2. Want of consideration. It is admitted that mere inadequacy of price is not of itself a distinct ground of relief in equity. But, under peculiar circumstances, it may amount to such fraud as will be relieved against. ”

“ But come, sir, go with us, and we will prefer you.
ARTIFEX.
Good Master Fraud, remember me.
FRAUD.
Leave thy prating: I will, I tell thee.
ARTIFEX.
Good Master Dissimulation, think on me.
DISSIMULATION.
Thou art too importunate and greedy.
FRAUD.
Come after dinner, or some other time, when we are at leisure.
[DISSIMULATION, FRAUD, and LAWYER exeunt.
ARTIFEX.
Come after dinner, or some other time! I think so [170] indeed,
For full little do they think of a poor man's need.
These fellows will do nothing for pity and love,
And thrice happy are they that hath no need them to prove. ”

“ They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. ”

“ One of the most persistent beggars of this kind makes the rounds of residence districts with a printed card on which is stated the bearer's desire to reach his home in some distant city—the destination varies from time to time—together with a long-primer endorsement by a group of names which no one knows. The fraud always asks for some slight money offering—nothing can be too small—with which to assist him in the purchase of a ticket. ”

“ Over and over again, even to the point of wearisome repetition, must it be shown, both for the sake of true historical understanding and in justice to the founders of the great fortunes, that all mercantile society was permeated with fraud and subsisted by fraud. ”

“ How have you the effrontery to bring forward what you have procured by fraud? What place of safety will be left us if we cannot conceal our secrets even within our own walls and our own writing-desks? ”