A Tacoma woman said a man tried to sell her magazine subscriptions over the weekend, telling her that he was fundraising for the University of Washington men’s soccer team. She reports that he said the magazines would be donated to Seattle Children’s Hospital or “Seattle Veterans Hospital.”

The woman said she wrote a check she knew she could cancel to United Circulation LLC. The website for a company by that name says: “This company is NOT affiliated with schools, students, charities, or fundraisers. … Sales people are not employees of United Circulation, they are Independent Contractors. … In the event that …

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Pierce County arraignments started today after a six-month undercover investigation that ended Tuesday with 21 people in custody and 26 stolen cars recovered, including one owned by a soldier who was deployed.

Detectives from several agencies bought stolen property from suspects as part of the Auto Crimes Enforcement Task Force, an operation they called “Shiny Penny,” according to Lakewood police.

The investigation involved auto theft, firearms violations, residential burglary and fraud across Washington state, including Pierce County, police said.

Officers identified 26 suspects during the investigation and recovered 16 firearms, among other stolen property.

SWAT teams served warrants Tuesday at …

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We got a call the other day from Laurel Bates of Puyallup about a phone scam that was recently run on her.

She was able to get her money back but wanted to alert others to be guard against swindlers.

Here’s her account of what happened:

A man with a heavy East Indian accent woke me up out of a sound sleep, so I wasn’t thinking about what he was saying when he told me my computer was badly infected with viruses.

I told him I was sleeping and was not getting up.

After I got up, this guy

…

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The Washington State Patrol says it has gotten reports of numerous calls soliciting donations for the AMBER alert system, calls troopers say appear to be a scam.

At least one such caller said he or she was seeking the donation on behalf of the State Patrol.

No one from the State Patrol or local agencies is seeking donations for the program, according to troopers.

The alert system is used to help find children who are abducted or those missing under suspicious circumstances.

The State Patrol says the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and ambertalert.com are not fundraising either. …

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A man posing as a Tacoma Public Utilities worker tried to talk his way into a woman’s home Wednesday, according to the agency.

The man was wearing civilian clothing and a safety vest and he carried a clipboard.

He knocked on the door of the woman’s South Tacoma home, identified himself as a TPU worker and said he needed to come inside to check the water pressure.

When the woman refused to let him inside, he left in a station wagon.

TPU urged customers to ask for workers’ identification badge, which have the employee’s photo and the utility logo on …

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We got a call today from an 82-year-old Tacoma woman who wanted to alert us to a telephone scam directed at her.

She didn’t fall for the bait – a $1.5 million prize purportedly from Publishers Clearing House – but she also didn’t lose the $455 the scammers were looking for.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, gave us the gist of her dealings with her phone companion in hopes others would not fall for the fraud.

She said she got a call early, about 7 a.m., from a man saying she’d won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, …

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Pierce County prosecutors have filed 17 felony counts against a woman suspected of bilking people seeking rental homes out of thousands of dollars.

Erica Brown, 39, targeted members of the military, people receiving state and tribal assistance and others, court records show.

Brown pleaded not guilty Monday to leading organized crime, identity theft, forgery and multiple counts of theft. She’s jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.

Brown ran businesses that acted as a go-between for landlords and people seeking rental houses and apartments in the Tacoma area. She advertised her companies – The Department of Relocation Services and Armed …

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Pierce County prosecutors have charged a 28-year-old woman with being an alleged leader of a fraud ring that is thought to have bilked military exchanges, Tacoma Public Utilities and other businesses out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise and services.

Jannie Lee is being held in the Pierce County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Lee is charged with leading organized crime, two counts of first-degree identity theft, two counts of first-degree theft, two counts of second-degree identity theft and one count of second-degree perjury.

Not guilty pleas were entered on her behalf in Superior Court …

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