The author is Police Inspector of the Oakland, California Police Department. In this volume he describes a hundred or more of the main varieties of swindling activity, ranging monetarily from a few cents up to sums in six figures. This is another exposé so common in the present decade. The material is quite valid though superficially presented and often ‘slangy’ to the point where the average reader may have some difficulty in understanding what is indicated.

The surface psychology of the victim is correctly presented. He usually is not urged, but hears such glowing pictures that he asks to enter the scheme. Often he believes he actually has outdone the swindler. Swindling often is not so perfunctory a process as the author indicates,