Israeli Man Sentenced to 45 Months for Sophisticated Phone Porting Scam

A judge has sentenced a man to 45 months in prison for orchestrating a complex fraud scheme that defrauded 19 victims of over 837,000 shekels. The sentence, handed down by Judge Shamai Becher, also includes over 220,000 shekels in compensation to the victims and a monetary fine. The defendant pleaded guilty to 134 fraudulent acts committed between late 2024 and the summer of 2025.

The elaborate scam involved the perpetrator building a sophisticated network using multiple mobile phones, dozens of SIM cards, and compromised databases containing personal information, bank account details, and credit card numbers. The core of the operation was a technological takeover of victims' phone lines, often by porting their phone numbers to devices he controlled without their knowledge.

This allowed him to impersonate victims when calling bank and credit card company service centers, using the stolen personal information to authorize fund transfers. In other instances, he directly accessed victims' bank accounts and payment apps to make purchases. Bank transfers alone amounted to 550,500 shekels, with credit and foreign exchange transactions making up the rest of the total stolen amount.

During sentencing arguments, the prosecution sought a five-and-a-half-year sentence, highlighting the sophistication of the crime and its impact on public trust in the banking system. The defense argued that the defendant only personally received about 200,000 shekels and that many victims were reimbursed by their banks. The defendant claimed he was in debt after his coffee machine import business collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic and was working for others.

Judge Becher rejected attempts to downplay the severity, noting the defendant lived lavishly off the stolen funds, using them for travel and luxuries. He also acknowledged the psychological distress inflicted on victims, including account freezes, anxiety, and sleep disturbances, stating that bank reimbursements do not erase the harm. The judge settled on a sentence near the lower end of the 3.5 to 5.5-year range due to the defendant's early confession, which saved judicial time and avoided the need to call dozens of victims to testify. In addition to the prison time, the defendant was ordered to pay 165,461 shekels in compensation for unreimbursed amounts, 3,000 shekels to each of the 19 victims for distress, and a 10,000 shekel fine.

Cybersecurity experts are warning of a new wave of sophisticated scams utilizing artificial intelligence and number porting, with one CEO noting that "dozens" of people fall victim daily and that 2026 presents significant challenges due to AI-enabled hackers.