White Deer News (White Deer, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 40, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 22, 1973 Page: 3 of 8
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1973
WHITE DEER NEWS
PAGE 3
The
Consumer
Alert
by John L. Hill
Attorney General
AUSTIN—Usually, when a new
scheme for taking advantage of
people who have managed to put
away a few hard-earned dollars
domes on the horizon, it is short-
lived.
Some of these schemes are re-
ferred to commonly as "con"
games, because the originators
or practitioners are "confidence
men" who have the type of per-
sonality or spiel to gain the ave-
rage person's trust, and convince
that person that he stands a chan-
ce to "get rich quick. "
But the consumer's confidence
threshold drops to zero as soon as
he or she begins to suspect that
not only is there no pot of gold
at the end of the "con man's"
rainbow, but the savings inves-
ted in a fraudulent investment
program are endangered.
As soon as the dream dust evap-
orates, the deluded consumers
begin to complain, and about
the time that they do, the purvey-
ors of dreams begin to disappear,
along with the money they have
taken.
The Attorney General's Con-
sumer Protection Division staff
often has observed that just about
the time a rash of complaints
springs up about one deceptive
practice, the operators have be-
gun to pack up to ply their game
in another state. Or, they may
turn up later as the objects of
another type of complaint.
That is the reason, as we have
stated previously, that we are
working for coordination of con-
sumer protection efforts between
Texas and other states and Texas
and the federal government —
to put dishonest operators out of
business entirely.
Obviously, Texas consumers
who had been lured into decep-
tive commodities futures options
schemes had reached their sat-
uration point by the end of Aug-
ust.
They have complained of losing
large sums of money from purpor-
ted purchases of "options" on
commodities such as silver,
grain and other items important
to international trade. The hitch
was that the self-styled dealers
did not have any claim to or
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control of the options they were
offering.
When this problem came to
the specific attention of our off-
ice, the Attorney General's
staff immediately started working
on this problem with the State
Securities Board. On September
13, we issued a joint declaration
that commodities futures options
are securities, and therefore
must be licensed and regulated
by the State.
I appointed a special investiga-
tory task force headed by Joe K.
Longley, chief of my Consumer
Protection Division, and Bill
Flanary, an assistant attorney
general who has specialized in
securities cases. Their work and
efforts by other state, local and
federal enforcement groups led
Dallas District Judge Dee Brown
Walker to convene a court of
inquiry^ on the commodities op-
tions business, now in progress,,
In the meantime, two other
Dallas trial courts have upheld
our declaration that commodities
futures options are securities
subject ot regulation, but an
Austin court has decided to the
contrary.
Our efforts are aimed at pro-
tecting Texans from commodities
field being offered through mem-
bers fo the Chicago Board of Trade
and members of stock exchanges
who engage in a highly sophis-
ticated level of accounting in
international trade.
These regulated brokers would
be quick to caution you against
banking all your assets on the
hope of "getting rich quick" in
a speculative market.
Beware of anyone who tries
to sell you on "a sure thing. "
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White Deer News (White Deer, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 40, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 22, 1973, newspaper, November 22, 1973; White Deer, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1170713/m1/3/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Carson County Library.