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54 stories matching scam
- The Panama Canal Mail Scam
A woman is arrested in a federal courtroom for running a scheme promising young men jobs in Panama for a 25-cent fee.
- The Great Grocery Heist of Citizens' Market
A shopkeeper and her manager vanish after running a credit-fueled grocery scam, leaving behind a trail of debt and hollowed-out stock.
- A $500 Promise and a Government Land Dream: The Homestead Scam Drawing Inquiries Daily
Operating out of Seattle, Tacoma and Bellingham, promoters allegedly charged would-be settlers $500 for 'prior rights' to Oregon land tangled in a federal suit against the Southern Pacific.
- The Wanted Kidnaper Who Once Walked Our Streets
A Tacoma detective identifies a notorious kidnaper as a local con man who scammed city businessmen a year prior.
- The Poultry and Pig Scam
Fly-by-night promoters are preying on Washington farmers with fraudulent 'poultry association' memberships and deceptive hog-buyback schemes.
- The Lawyer Who Saved a 'Sucker'
A South Prairie man was nearly swindled out of $1,000 in a fake lottery scheme until he sought the advice of a prominent Seattle attorney.
- The Penobscot House Mortgage Scam
A deal for a Third Street hotel ended in handcuffs after a landlord discovered his collateral was built on thin air.
- A Young Lawyer's Lesson in the 'Great American Game'
A visiting English lawyer is conned in Tacoma by an elaborate 'customs officer' scam; the suspect is arrested after a quick police coordination.
- The Unmasking of 'Julius the Fugitive'
A small-town swindler’s life of crime finally catches up with him after a string of scams across the Pacific Northwest.
- The Shell Game at Myers Cannery
Two women are swindled out of $300 by a gang of con artists near the Myers Cannery, leading to a police hunt for the perpetrators of this classic 'gold brick' scam.
- The Grave Robbery Insurance Scam
A Seattle man faked his own death using a stolen corpse to collect a massive insurance payout, but a lover's confession blew the lid off the plot.
- The Laundry Cashier Who Outsmarted the Bunko Gang
Laundry cashier Julia Folsom foiled four men's short-change scam, snatching back the money before they could take it.
- The Counterfeit 'Rye Straw' Cigar Scam
Tobacco merchants discover a deceptive new counterfeit cigar wrapper made of chemically treated rye straw.
- The Ex-Congressman's Lumber Scam
How a high-stakes lobbyist used a fake canal project to strong-arm mill owners for land titles.
- The 'Top and Bottom' Sting
A traveler is swindled out of his savings by a gang of con artists on a Seattle sidewalk, sparking a city-wide police sweep.
- The 'Free Lot' Scam
A Tacoma resident exposes a real estate scheme offering 'free' land to lure investors into paying high notary fees for worthless property.
- The Salvation Army’s Yellow Band Warning: A Seattle Scam Exposed
Adjutant Nelson of the regular Salvation Army steps into The Seattle Star to warn citizens that 'God's Regular Army' is a fraudulent group soliciting donations under false pretenses.
- The Great Benton County Gas Scam
A complicated legal battle erupts in Spokane over who actually owns the rights to Benton County's oil and gas leases.
- The Swindler Who Tried to Sell Insurance to a Ghost
A Seattle man attempts to scam his brother in California with a fake insurance policy, only to be outsmarted by a skeptical editor.
- The Great 'Puget City' Real Estate Scam
Promoters are peddling worthless 'paper towns' to investors by falsely claiming the Northern Pacific Railroad will build its western terminus there.
- The Great Port Angeles Gold Scam
How a clever land boomer used fake gold coins to manufacture excitement and swindle investors in the late 1880s.
- The Great Tacoma Smelter Scam
A smooth-talking promoter arrives in the dead of winter, promises a mining fortune, and leaves a town holding the bag.
- The City That Wasn't: Seattle’s First Real Estate Scam
In April 1876, a man named Charles Smith claimed to own the entire town of Seattle and tried to sell it to investors. The local press exposed him as a fraud, but his audacity reveals how fragile the young city's land titles were.
- The Patent Scam That Ended With a Frenchman's Last $3
A Seattle detective's account of a fake invention scheme shows how confidence men worked—and how the law let the swindlers slip away.
- The San Juan Island Forgery: A Soldier’s Scam and a Territorial Cover-Up
In the tense weeks of the Pig War standoff, a U.S. Army sergeant allegedly forged paymaster certificates to steal $1,604 from a local man in Olympia, sparking a legal battle that exposed corruption within the military ranks.