On August 6, 2025, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office arrested 34-year-old Los Angeles resident Caihong Lei for serving as a money mule for a Social Security scam, where
- The scammers call their victims, in this case a 77-year-old woman, to falsely claim there were “unauthorized charges” on their Amazon account and that there were multiple bank accounts opened under their name.
- The call will then be transferred to a co-worker posing as an agent with the Federal Trade Commission, demanding the victim withdraw $30,000 from their bank account, put it in a sealed box, and hand it off to a designated courier or money mule.
Lei is currently being held on a $500,000 bail at the Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of grand theft by false pretense and the conspiracy to commit fraud. Deputies are investigating any potential connections to larger organized scam networks.