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A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced Tuesday to five years and one month in federal prison for attempting to steal about $2.6 million by assuming Beverly Hills residents’ identities — often by lifting mail and packages from their homes. Oren David Sela, 36, of North Hills pleaded guilty last year to federal counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.
S. Attorney’s Office. Sela engaged in hundreds of fraudulent withdrawals and transfers from dozens of victim accounts, prosecutors said, and was successful in stealing at least $1.
81 million. Along with the prison term, he was ordered to pay that amount in restitution. According to court documents, from November 2021 to October 2023, Sela stole the mail of Beverly Hills residents to obtain debit cards, bank account numbers, credit cards, telephone numbers and other personal identifying information.
He used the information to gain unauthorized access to the victims’ bank accounts. Sometimes, to defeat two-factor authentication on a victim’s account, Sela would engage in “SIM swapping” of the victim’s telephone number to a SIM card that he would control, prosecutors said. SIM swapping is the process of fraudulently inducing a carrier to reassign a cell phone number from the legitimate subscriber’s SIM card to a SIM card controlled by another without the legitimate subscriber’s authorization.
This allows the perpetrator to take control of the victim’s various accounts through two-step authentication text messages sent to a victim’s cell phone. After gaining access to a victim’s bank account, Sela opened additional fraudulent accounts in the victim’s name and transferred funds from the victim’s bank account into those accounts. Sela would then withdraw funds from the fraudulent accounts or use the fraudulent accounts to make unauthorized purchases or transfers, federal prosecutors said.
Sometimes, Sela caused debit cards and credit cards linked to a victim’s account to be sent directly to him, and he then used those cards to make fraudulent unauthorized purchases, according to the 2023 indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court. In December 2022, Sela was arrested for driving a car reported as stolen, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint. On Sela’s person at the time of his arrest, authorities found six debit and credit cards in the names of four different victims, according to the document.
Subsequent to the arrest, during a search of Sela’s then-residence in West Hollywood, law enforcement uncovered extensive stolen mail containing victims’ personal information; bank statements and account information relating to at least 18 different victim accounts; five California driver’ licenses belonging to five confirmed victims of identity theft; seven debit and credit cards belonging to confirmed fraud victims; and checks and receipts for expensive retail items, including a watch worth nearly $17,000, that had been fraudulently obtained using victims’ money, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sela was found with about 33 pieces of stolen mail in December 2022, and at least 118 pieces of stolen mail on Oct. 10, the indictment says. At least two dozen victims have been identified.
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