A 25-year-old man from El Monte, California, is facing felony charges after deputies say he swooped into Grand Junction to intercept a package stuffed with $11,000 in cash. Investigators say the money had been mailed by a Mesa County resident who was coerced online by someone pretending to be from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and pressuring them to "secure" their bank account by sending cash to a Southern California address.
Investigators identified the suspect as 25-year-old Youbin Huang and say a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest on February 25. According to the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, Huang was arrested by the California State Patrol on April 13, then transported to Colorado and booked into the Mesa County Detention Facility on May 10. The sheriff's office said its Property Crimes Unit determined Huang was "intimately involved in the perpetration of the scam."
How authorities say the scheme played out
Deputies say the victim was told their bank account had been compromised and was instructed to mail $11,000 in cash to an address in Southern California. As reported by CBS News, the resident later tried to stop the shipment, but the package had already reached an initial shipping point in Grand Junction. There, investigators say, it was picked up by a man using identification documents tied to the victim.
Officials have not publicly said whether Huang was the person who allegedly made the original calls to the victim, leaving some of the higher-level orchestration of the scam an open question for now.
Charges and court process
Mesa County deputies charged Huang with three Colorado felonies: fraud and identity theft (Felony 4), computer crime, scheme to defraud (losses of $5,000–$20,000, Felony 5), and theft (losses of $5,000–$20,000, Felony 5). Per the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, the case is still an active investigation, and no additional details have been released. The agency has not identified any suspected co-conspirators.
CBS News reports that Huang posted an $11,000 cash bond on June 11 to secure his release from custody. His next court hearing is scheduled for July 9. The outlet notes that while the sheriff's office described Huang as heavily involved in the scam, it has not said whether he acted alone. Prosecutors have not indicated any federal charges in the case.
How to spot and avoid these scams
Federal consumer watchdogs say imposter scams, where callers pretend to be bank or government officials, remain among the most common frauds in the country and often rely on urgency and fear to get people to move money quickly. The Federal Trade Commission urges consumers never to send cash, gift cards, or cryptocurrency in response to an unsolicited request and to verify any alarming contact using a trusted phone number, according to the FTC. Reporting suspicious calls to the FTC and to local law enforcement can help investigators track patterns and build cases.
Local coverage noted that the Mesa County Sheriff's Office offers fraud-prevention classes and other resources for residents, per KKCO. Investigators encourage anyone with information about similar incidents to contact the sheriff's office as the probe continues. For now, they say the case is a cautionary tale about the risks of pulling money out of normal, reversible banking channels and putting it straight into the mail.
