A look at the life of a prolific fraudster

Catch Me If You Can – by Frank Abagnale

Frank Abagnale is one of the most well-known con men in American history.  As a former financial crimes’ investigator, his story is well-known to me.  He operated as an FBI consultant and public speaker at events around the fraud investigator world.

Abagnale, a Bronx native, came from a family that fell on hard times when he was a teen.  At 15 he started a life of crime by ripping off his father in a credit card scam.  He never looked back, running international fraud schemes for years. 

 

Abagnale’s life of crime eventually got him sent to prison – several times.  He became well known enough in law enforcement circles that he needed to change careers.  Abagnale went from fraudster to fraud consultant.  He eventually wrote about his escapades in 1980 when he penned Catch Me If You Can.

This book is a primer on how to conduct check kiting, check counterfeiting, and synthetic identity fraud.  Abagnale details his tour of the country, and later Europe running scams.  He is not a typical fraudster, running a scam here and there to make money and then returning to a normal life.  Abagnale lives his frauds. An airline pilot, a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, he adopts a completely new identity and lives the scam.  Posing as an airline pilot he takes on a new name and works his way into cockpits.  Taking on the attorney role Abagnale actually passes the bar exam in his adopted moniker.  Concocting a story about his medical degree to impress women, he finds himself working in a hospital.  He details his bouncing from one life to another – the FBI always one step behind. 

Check fraud has been a problem since the banking industry invented the check.  Even today there has been a rejuvenation of this fraud modus operandi.  Abagnale goes into detail about how he duped banks, tellers, hotels, and airlines.  He explains the banking system and how the loopholes allow for fraud – it’s a timing thing and it remains that way today. 

Catch Me If You Can is a page turner.  Abagnale was living on the edge of incarceration for years.  He talked himself into an out of tight spots in one scam after another.  It makes for an interesting story and a fascinating look into the mind of a fraudster. 

 

The problem – the book is part of his fraud scheme.  Several of the claims in the book have been debunked.  Abagnale talks himself up as a gentleman white collar criminal.  The truth is less than that.  In addition to his financial crimes, he was a petty thief, a car booster, and a burglar.   No scruples or sophistication.   Is he hiding additional crimes or just lying?  I would guess the latter, but he definitely knows his business.  The stories might not be completely factual, you get his expertise none the less.

In my years in the NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force, we would occasionally run into a Frank Abagnale type.  People who were so deep into a scam that their real persona is a distant shadow.  Perps who committed scams for the thrill of it.  People who lived for the high of beating the cops.  But they are few and far between.  Most fraud perps are driven by simple greed – the high-end car, designer clothes, the flash, the life.  Both types leave a trail of destruction and broken lives – both are equally despicable.

Catch Me If You Can is about 250 pages and is a light read.  Easily finished in a weekend.  You can snag it on Amazon for $10.  Enjoy a trip through the life of a fraudster.  Like a good detective, see if you can determine where the lies end and reality begins. 

Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!