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The Southern California man was sentenced to prison for stealing more than $1.8 million through mail, identity theft and bank fraud.
According to the U.S. Lawyer’s Office, Oren David Cera, 36, of North Hills, is usually targeted by using personal information to open fraudulent bank accounts.
From November 2021 to October 2023, SELA will obtain debit cards, bank account numbers, social security numbers and other personal information using stolen mail.
He used the victim’s information to access online banking and financial accounts.
Sometimes he used SIM swapping. This involves transferring it to a new SIM card, illegally obtaining the victim’s phone number to port the victim’s phone number, or gaining temporary control to overthrow the two-factor authentication protocol on the account, federal officials explained.
Sera then opened an additional account in the victim’s name and transferred the money to an intermediary account he controlled.
“He either withdraws money from these accounts or uses them to make purchases or transfers,” court documents state. “He also made him issue debit or credit cards linked to his victim account, so he could use them directly from those cards.”
Through this method, Serra has scamned the bank, resulting in hundreds of fraudulent withdrawals and relocations, and has taken at least $1,818,369 from at least 62 casualties.
He often spent stolen funds on expensive items, including watches worth nearly $17,000, prosecutors said.
Serra had previously been arrested for similar crimes. In 2022 he was arrested in Beverly Hills and found on nearly $25,000 in cash, various expensive gems, and numerous fraudulent debit and credit cards belonging to four elderly victims.
After he was released, during separate searches of his property in 2022 and 2023, law enforcement belongs to all victims including more than $70,000 in cash, expensive gems, stolen mail, stolen personal information, identification cards, debit cards and bank information, officials said.
Serra has been in federal custody since October 2023. In October 2024, he pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
On April 22, he was sentenced to 61 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,818,369 in reparations.
The incident was investigated by the US Secret Service and the Beverly Hills Police Department.
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