The raising of checks and drafts is the principal method employed by the men who make a business of defrauding the unwary.  The simplest way of explaining the operation of raising a draft or check is as follows: 

Two men are necessary for success at any given point, and hence they are not so liable to detection as if a number of confederates were engaged.  It is the business of one of these men to enter a bank, and purchase a draft on New York City, for a certain amount of money, usually about fifteen hundred dollars, and a short time after this another draft would be procured from the same bank for a small amount, seldom over ten dollars.  These drafts procured, they are handed to the “raiser,” or the man who is to alter the paper for their dishonest purposes.  In a short time the small draft is raised to be a perfect duplicate of the large one, in every sense of the word, both as regards number, amount, place of presentation, etc.

This work of alteration being fully completed, one of the men would then remove to another city, and forward the “raised” draft to New York, by express, for collection, or else would go to that city himself, and have it cashed through some respectable person.  Immediately on receiving the money he would telegraph his companion, in words previously agreed upon, informing him of the successful result of the first move.  The other confederate, upon the receipt of this information, would at once go to the bank where the drafts had been procured, and presenting the genuine draft for the large amount of money, would request that the money be refunded, giving as an excuse for not using it, either that he could not be identified in the New York bank, and for that reason could not collect it, or that the business he had procured it for had not been consummated.  The bank officials would recognize him as the person who purchased the draft, and would unhesitatingly hand him back the money which he had paid.  Of course he would quickly disappear from the locality, never to be seen in it again—­and the forgery would not be discovered until, in the due course of ordinary business, when the other draft for the same amount would be returned for payment.

A favorite trick of forgers, and check and draft raisers, who operate on an extensive scale, is for one of them to open an office in a city, and represent himself as a cattle dealer, lumber merchant, or one looking about for favorable real-estate investments.  His first move is to open a bank account, and then works to get on friendly terms with the cashier.  He always keeps a good balance—­sometimes way up in the thousands—­and deports himself in such a manner as to lead to the belief that he is a highly honorable gentleman, and the bank officials are led to the belief that he will eventually become a very profitable customer.