Government Accuses Man of Credit Card Scam : Crime: Prosecutors say he targeted Latinos and collected nearly $100,000 in ‘service fees’ nationwide.

A North Hollywood man was arrested on suspicion of mail fraud for swindling credit card applicants out of nearly $100,000, the U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday.

Charles Oberman, 50, who also uses the name Helmut Brunjes, faces nine felony counts of mail fraud, said Carole Levitzky, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

If convicted, Oberman could receive a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the counts, she said. Prosecutors said Oberman ran advertisements for his Goldcard Services Inc. in Latino newspapers across the country for five months in 1988.

The ads promised that “he could get his clients credit cards regardless of no credit or bad credit,” Levitzky said.

Applicants received a letter from Oberman stating that they had “received preliminary approval for a VISA or a Mastercard when he had no authority from VISA or Mastercard to solicit cards,” Levitzky said.

She said the applicants were then asked to pay a “service fee” amounting to $60.

More than 1,600 people nationwide paid the fee, but received no cards, Levitzky said.

Oberman was arrested Wednesday and held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

He was expected to be arraigned today.