It’s sickening: Ric Blum’s new name a ‘gift’

Rosemary Zillig’s mother warned her to be careful of crooks, but she is now questioning if she is just another victim of serial fraudster Ric Blum.

Rosemary Zillig is questioning if she was swindled by serial fraudster Ric Blum.

Rosemary Zillig’s mother warned her to be careful of crooks, but she is now questioning if she is ­another victim of serial fraudster Ric Blum.

Ms Zillig, 81, inherited a collection of rare European stamps from her parents, and two decades ago approached dealers about selling them. She was put in touch with a man she believes was Mr Blum, who took them and eventually returned a payment that was much less than she ­expected.

She’d long moved on from her concerns about the deal – until The Australian revealed that not only had Mr Blum allegedly deceived and stolen from a series of women, he’d also strangely tried to adopt her surname.

New evidence is due to be given about the activities of convicted fraudster Ric Blum, pictured, when the Marion Barter inquest resumes on May 31. Picture: Tessa Flemming

Mr Blum, 83, is a central figure at an ongoing inquest into the 1997 disappearance and presumed death of Queensland teacher Marion Barter. He denies any knowledge of what happened to Barter, and rejects separate ­allegations he swindled other women, who were typically widows or divorcees he’d met through personal ads.

In March, this newspaper ­reported that in 2005 Mr Blum formally applied in NSW to change his name to Zabdiel Zillig, citing “personal transformation” as the reason he wanted the new identity. Zabdiel is a Hebrew name that means “gift”.

Ms Zillig suggests the real reason Mr Blum wanted to use the name may have been that he’d received a benefit from her stamp collection – that it was a gift from Zillig.

“Maybe it’s got something to do with ‘that was a great gift’, that gave him quite a gift,” she said. “Otherwise, why would he use our name?”

There has been no trace of Marion Barter since 1997.

Ms Zillig’s parents were living in Switzerland when a friend gave them a suitcase full of stamps.

Many were “very rare”, and by selling just a few her parents were able to repair an antique lounge room setting.

“They had some extraordinary albums,” Ms Zillig said.

After inheriting the collection, and in need of money, Ms Zillig went to a stamp collector in Ballina in northern NSW and inquired about selling them. She was put in touch with a man she believes was Mr Blum, who visited her house in nearby Lismore.

They both spoke French and developed an easy rapport. She handed over the albums without giving it too much thought.

“He told me he was going to go to Europe. I think he said there was going to be a stamp fair,” she said. “He was quite charming and then he gave me a book.”

The cover of the book Rosemary Zillig was given.

She believes it was a spiritual book titled A Treatise on White Magic by Alice Bailey.

Later, after being paid “maybe two or three thousand” dollars for the sale of the stamps, she regretted her decision to trust Mr Blum.

Ms Zillig, who has never spoken to police, says that at the time of the sale acquaintances told her that Mr Blum was a “crook”.

“My mother said, before she passed away, ‘you have to be very careful, among all these stamp collectors, most of them are crooks’,” she said. “It’s quite sickening that he was using our name.”

In his application to change his name to Zillig, Mr Blum stated that each letter represented “a principle by which I want to live the rest of my life”.

Known to have used at least 50 different names in his lifetime, Mr Blum failed to disclose in the application all his past identities as required and his request was ultimately rejected.