Lynnwood police have arrested a criminal mastermind responsible for an elaborate gift card fraud scheme that defrauded approximately 100 victims.
Hayley Natasha Brown, 28, visited Victoria’s Secret stores in Lynnwood, Bellevue, Auburn and Tacoma for the plot. Victoria’s Secret claimed its stores and customers lost about $100,000. Victoria’s Secret stores in Oregon, Colorado and Arizona were also affected.
More financial crime: Washington auditor sees largest fraud case among civil servants in 15 years
When Lynnwood police arrested Brown at a Monroe apartment, investigators discovered several weapons, about a pound of illegal drugs, $40,000 in cash and the tools she used to make fake checks. Investigators determined the weapons were stolen, including an Uzi-like firearm with an attached silencer.
Court documents obtained by KIRO 7 show that one way Brown stole the funds was through a process called “sequencing,” in which suspects obtain gift cards and use the sequences of numbers to guess the numbers on other gift cards.
According to Maren McKay of the Lynnwood Police Department’s public information department, Brown has been previously convicted of eight felonies.
More financial crime: Leader of pandemic fraud scheme worth nearly $7 million sentenced to five years in prison
Brown was charged with organized shoplifting, identity theft, illegal possession of a firearm, possession of a stolen firearm, financial fraud and manufacturing/delivery of illegal drugs. Brown was released on $200,000 bail, but investigators expect more charges and future arrests of other co-conspirators, according to The Lynnwood Times.
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and email him here.
