Cape Coral police say a bank-impersonation scheme rerouted victims' debit cards to Cape Coral addresses, and have arrested a 31-year-old on identity theft and grand theft charges

Money & World

The Editorial Team · July 26, 2026

A close-up of a dark grey payment card showing its embossed account digits and gold chip, resting on a yellow card.

Photo: Towfiqu barbhuiya / Pexels

What it changes

The useful part of this case for Southwest Florida residents is not the arrest, it is the method the police department laid out, because that method defeats the security step most people believe protects them. By the department's account the fraud did not begin with a stolen card or a breached database. It began with a phone call from someone claiming to be the bank, and what the caller wanted was the one-time passcode, the six digits the bank texts you and tells you never to share. Once that code was handed over, police say the credentials were enough to reach the bank's own call center, change the mailing address on the account to a Cape Coral location, and order an expedited replacement debit card. The card then arrived legitimately, at an address the account holder never authorized, and the withdrawals and money order purchases followed. That sequence is worth reading twice, because it means the account holder in these cases could have had a strong password, a card still in their wallet, and text-message two-factor authentication switched on, and still lost the account. The passcode is the key, and the entire scheme is built on persuading someone to read it aloud. A bank does not call and ask for it. The other detail residents should register is who the charge names. One of the counts is the enhanced statute for fraudulent use of personal identification information of a victim 60 years of age or older, a second-degree felony in Florida rather than the ordinary third-degree charge. That enhancement exists because these operations select for older account holders, and Lee and Collier counties are exactly the kind of market where that selection pays. The department also says the compromises spanned multiple states while the replacement cards were routed here, which suggests Cape Coral was chosen as a delivery point rather than as the victim pool. Anyone who has given a passcode to a caller in the last few weeks should call the number printed on the back of their own card, not any number the caller supplied, and ask the bank to verify the mailing address on file and whether a replacement card has been issued. Beyond that, this remains an accusation. The department has released the charges and its description of the scheme, and has not released a loss figure, a victim count, or the states involved. Guerra has not been convicted of anything, and nothing here should be read as a finding that he committed these acts.

The Cape Coral Police Department said on July 24 that detectives from its Economic Crimes Unit have arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with what the agency describes as a sophisticated identity theft and grand theft scheme that targeted bank customers across multiple states. WINK News reported the arrest, and the department published its own news release.

According to that release, the investigation began in early July 2026 after corporate security specialists at a financial institution alerted law enforcement to a pattern of coordinated account compromises.

The department describes the method this way. People impersonating bank representatives contacted customers and obtained one-time passcodes and account verification details from them. Using those credentials, the release says, the callers reached the financial institution's call center, changed the customers' mailing addresses to locations in Cape Coral, and requested expedited replacement debit cards. Detectives then connected the resulting cards to fraudulent cash withdrawals and high-value money order purchases.

On July 23, according to the department, Economic Crimes detectives executed a search warrant at a residence on Northeast 24th Avenue in Cape Coral with assistance from the agency's SWAT team. Santino Parreno Guerra, 31, was taken into custody and transported to the Lee County Jail.

The department lists the charges as fraudulent or illegal use of personal identification information of a victim 60 years of age or older, a second-degree felony under Florida Statutes section 817.568(6); grand theft, a third-degree felony under section 812.014(2)(c)1; and resisting an officer without violence under section 843.02.

These are charges filed by the police department, not findings of a court. Guerra has not been convicted, and every description of the scheme above is the department's account of what it says its investigation found. Nothing in this brief should be read as a determination that he committed any offense.

Several things the department has not released are worth naming plainly. There is no total dollar loss, no count of how many customers were affected, no identification of the financial institution, and no list of which states the compromised accounts were in. The release does not say whether anyone else is being sought. WINK News, which covered the arrest, reported the same set of facts and did not add details beyond the release.

For residents, the operative fact is the one at the front of the department's description: the scheme turned on victims sharing a one-time passcode with someone who called them claiming to be the bank. Banks do not call and ask for that code. A customer who wants to confirm the mailing address on an account, or check whether a replacement card has been issued, should call the number printed on the back of their own card rather than any number given to them by a caller.

This brief credits WINK News for the local reporting and links the Cape Coral Police Department news release as the primary source. Every factual claim about the alleged scheme and the arrest is attributed to the police department.

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