Mandan police have arrested two women for illegally selling magazine subscriptions door to door.

Selling magazine subscriptions door to door in residential areas is illegal in Mandan if a business does not have a state transient merchant license and a license from the city, said Mandan Police Deputy Chief Dennis Bullinger.

Parrell Grossman, director of the state attorney general's consumer protection division, said Thursday that, since the sales were illegal by state law, the attorney general's office considers the sales void.

Mandan Detective Dave Shipman said the two women have not been formally charged but may face Class B misdemeanor charges of failure to obtain a transient merchant license. A Class B misdemeanor is punishable by up to 30 days in prison and fines up to $1,000.

They will be released if they post $250 bond, Shipman said.

One woman is 20 years old and from Boca Raton, Fla., and one is 25 years old and from Erie, Pa., Shipman said. Police also have identified four others, but they are not likely to be arrested, Shipman said.

"The other four are reporting to these two," he said.

He said the group has been in the Bismarck-Mandan area since Wednesday. They also have worked in West Fargo, Horace, Kindred and cities in Minnesota and South Dakota since at least Aug. 9, Shipman said.

Mandan and Bismarck police have each received numerous reports of young people claiming to sell magazine subscriptions to raise money for college.

Bismarck police identified four people involved in the business Thursday and advised them that it is illegal to sell door to door in Bismarck.

The two women were arrested in Mandan when they tried to cash seven checks written to "Cash," which is how they told many of the customers to write the checks.

Mandan officers gave the women the choice of voluntarily turning over the checks or being arrested.

"I can do it, but I'd rather not," one of the women said about turning the checks over.

Shipman said police have a stack of checks written to "Cash" and another stack of about 110 checks written to "AM Press." The checks will be returned, he said.

Police also confiscated all of the group's blank invoices so that they will not be able to make sales in the area, he said. The customers will be notified, he said.

Two companies are listed on receipts from the sales representatives - AM Press Association of Miami, Fla., and Mags R Us of Phoenix.

Though the door-to-door sales are being carried out in an illegal manner, area police have not learned if Mags R Us and AM Press Association are legitimate businesses.

Grossman said the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida had received 233 complaints against the companies in a 36-month period, which he said was "significant."

"Based on Better Business Bureau files this company has an unsatisfactory record with the bureau due to a pattern of failure to eliminate basic cause of complaints concerning delivery issues and a pattern of no replies to customer complaints brought to its attention by the bureau,"said the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida's Web site. "Consumer complaints allege this company failed to deliver the ordered magazine subscriptions."

A message left for the manager at the corporate office of Mags R Us was not returned Friday.

Shipman said anyone approached by door-to-door salespeople should ask for identification and to see their transient merchant licenses.

The purpose of the license is for out-of-state businesses to put up money for bond in case of customer complaints that cannot be resolved with the company, Shipman explained.

The state can do little to help people who do not receive their products if the business does not have a transient merchant license, he said.

Shipman said state law requires businesses to offer refunds for three business days after a sale. The law also requires businesses to offer refunds to people 65 years and older for 15 business days, he said.

Anyone with information about the sales should call their local law enforcement agencies. Anyone wishing to find out how to obtain refunds should contact the attorney general's office at 328-3404.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)