Man arrested in Orange, accused in mail scam targeting the elderly

ORANGE — A 22-year-old Citrus Heights man was behind bars Monday on suspicion of scamming at least seven victims out of thousands of dollars in an alleged mail scam, police said.

Xingsheng Yang was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of scamming elderly victims into sending him cash from all over the country, said Sgt. Phil McMullin of the Orange Police Department.

A woman in Minnesota had called Orange police, saying she believed she was scammed into sending money to a home in the 500 block of East Washington Street in Orange, McMullin said.

Yang was accused of calling victims and representing himself as an employee of a cable TV company, McMullin said. He allegedly told the victims there was some sort of breach in their account and that he would walk them through it on their computer, McMullin alleged.

Yang would allegedly offer to rebate the victims $200, but would then say he accidentally gave them too much and would ask them to return the excess money in cash through the mail, McMullin said.

He was renting a home in Orange, where he would allegedly receive the packages of cash, McMullin said.

Police had recovered $35,000 in deliveries, McMullin said. Police suspect there have been at least seven victims so far, but there could be more, he added.

Police advised residents to just hang up when called by someone requesting cash payments and then report it to police, McMullin said.

“Hang up, do not engage and call police,” McMullin said.