# What's the (old) scam here? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905 "2007-03-21T19:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/1 "2007-03-21T19:13:25Z")
From _Something New_ by P.G. Wodehouse (published 1915) > [@](#): > > “But you haven’t read the advertisement pages? Read them. They may contain just the opening you want.” > > “Well, I’ll do it; but my experience of advertisement pages is that they are monopolized by philanthropists who want to lend you any sum from ten to a hundred thousand pounds on your note of hand only. However, I will scan them.” > > His spirits sank as he did so. It was the same old game. A Mr. Brian MacNeill, though doing no business with minors, was willing–even anxious–to part with his vast fortune to anyone over the age of twenty-one whose means happened to be a trifle straitened. This good man required no security whatever; nor did > his rivals in generosity, the Messrs. Angus Bruce, Duncan Macfarlane, Wallace Mackintosh and Donald MacNab. They, too, showed a curious distaste for dealing with minors; but anyone of maturer years could simply come round to the office and help himself. Okay, I give up. What sort of scam are these guys trying to pull? And is anyone still trying it, or has it gone out of fashion? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/2 "2007-03-21T19:21:35Z")
That should have been in GQ, someone please alert a moderator. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/3 "2007-03-21T19:22:58Z")
Well, if this were today, I would assume it was an offer to pay young men for sex. The mention of minors makes it kind of fishy. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/4 "2007-03-21T19:24:33Z")
I suspect that the same business is going on today: they are money-lenders, who lend to those with poor credit history at high interest rates. Not really a scam, unless the interest rate is extortionate relative to the risks implied by the poor credit. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/5 "2007-03-21T19:29:29Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Well, if this were today, I would assume it was an offer to pay young men for sex. The mention of minors makes it kind of fishy. [/QUOTE] But they didn’t want to deal with minors. I think the key to that is, the rule that minors can’t be sued for breach of contract, except for the purchase of necessities. It looks like the standard kind of easy credit scheme, which always turns out to have a million loopholes, and costing the sucker a fortune. Note, too, that all of these gentlemen are Scotsmen – the joke being that nobody should be stupid enough to believe that a Scot will give you a break financially. Given the time Wodehouse was wrilting, though, I’m a little surprised that there isn’t anybody named Finkelstein or Shapiro. Jokes about cheap Jews and Scotsmen were pretty common back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/6 "2007-03-21T21:48:42Z")
This sounds exactly like the Nigerian scam to me. When the time came to get the money, the sucker would need to put up some of his own money to get the deal done, and at that point that scammer vanishes. Minors probably couldn’t sign bank documents or make deposits. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/7 "2007-03-21T22:38:30Z")
My guess would be the really bad loans idea. The Nigerian scam (or indeed, almost any other: Most scams are powered by the greed of the victim) would be a possibility, except that I think that at that time, that one was usually framed in terms of a Spaniard trying to escape political persecution, not an established Scot. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/8 "2007-03-21T22:51:24Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] I suspect that the same business is going on today: they are money-lenders, who lend to those with poor credit history at high interest rates. Not really a scam, unless the interest rate is extortionate relative to the risks implied by the poor credit. [/QUOTE] Yep, moneylenders. Key points to note: > [@](#): > > on your note of hand only i.e. unsecured by anything other than your signature > [@](#): > > whose means happened to be a trifle straitened Struggling to keep up with your payments, need some money to tide you over till payday, or wanting to make a special purchase? Don’t worry, simply call 1-800-DEEPER-IN-DEBT. Same old same old. I think it highly unlikely these were all actual full-on scams for the simple reason that newspaper advertisements cost money to place. The odd one or two might have been, but spamming newspapers with fraudulent adverts is the exception rather than the rule. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/9 "2007-03-21T22:59:15Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] That should have been in GQ, someone please alert a moderator. [/QUOTE] Done. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-old-scam-here/396905/10 "2007-03-21T23:05:21Z")
Moving thread from Cafe Society to General Questions.