Israel's Notorious Con Man Oren Avraham Dies in Hospital at 50
Oren Avraham, dubbed Israel's number one con artist, died at 50 from pneumonia complications. Over three decades, he orchestrated elaborate scams using only prison phones, while struggling with homelessness and severe mental distress.
Oren Avraham, dubbed by the Israel Police as Israel's number one con man, died early Tuesday morning at the age of 50 at the Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh) after a week-and-a-half hospitalization due to complications from severe pneumonia. His death marks the end of one of the most unusual, brilliant, and tragic criminal sagas in local history—a story of extraordinary intellect and phenomenal persuasion skills that repeatedly collided with a total inability to adapt to life outside prison walls.
For three decades, Avraham served numerous prison sentences totaling nearly 30 years behind bars. Operating entirely without computers, cyber tools, or advanced technology, he relied solely on payphone cards and the prison wing telephone receiver to outsmart government ministries, banks, judges, police officers, and private citizens. Back in the 1990s while detained at Nitzan Prison, he managed to extract personal details of then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from police and court databases, later obtaining Sara Netanyahu's bank account details from a bank clerk.
Among his most notorious exploits, Avraham ordered dozens of pizza trays directly to a government cabinet meeting and the prime minister's residence using fraudulently obtained credit cards. In other instances, he exacted revenge on judges who sentenced him and police officers who investigated him by ordering escort services, taxis, and flower arrangements to their homes, and even draining tens of thousands of shekels from the private bank account of a judge presiding over his case.
Alongside sophistication that repeatedly embarrassed the Israel Prison Service and prompted stringent protocols against him, Avraham's story carried a surreal and tragic dimension: prison was the only place he felt secure. On several occasions, he filed unprecedented court petitions begging judges not to release him even after completing his sentence. Avraham explained that outside bars he found himself homeless, without supportive family or a penny to his pocket, inevitably dragged back into scams. There were periods when he slept as a homeless person near the walls of Ramla Prison, hoping familiar guards would take pity and provide food and water.
His personal tragedy stemmed from childhood in Ness Ziona, drifting through boarding schools. He served his first prison sentence at age 18, turning prison into his virtually exclusive home. For years he cried out for help, demanding professional rehabilitation through the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority. His profound mental distress led to suicide attempts, most notably in December 2020 when he set himself on fire at a health clinic in Ramla in protest of being abandoned. He was evacuated in critical condition, fighting for his life for months with burns covering 75% of his body. Despite severe physical scars, he later returned to fraud offenses in Eilat and received another prison sentence. In recent years he repeatedly tried turning over a new leaf, but his health and mental state continued to deteriorate until he succumbed to pneumonia.
