How a hardened fraudster became a financial security expert and the hero of a Spielberg film: Frank Abagnale

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the 60s of the last century, Frank Abagnale managed to get a reputation for being the hardened US fraudster, who managed to carry out scams not only in all states, but also in 26 other states of the world. It is interesting that the fraudster did not act for very long: his criminal career began at the age of 16, and came to an end at 21.

Smart teen

Frank Abagnale was born in 1948 in the small American town of Bronxville. His father, who was also called Frank, had a small business of his own, and his mother Paulette, a native of France, was in charge of the house. In addition to Frank, this family had three more children. The boy adopted some character traits from his own father, who showed interest in all areas of public life and, by the nature of his work, communicated with representatives of different classes of society.

When the youngest Frank was sixteen, his parents decided to divorce. As Frank himself later said, his father did not want this at all, but the divorce nevertheless happened, and at that time the underage teenager remained to live with his father.

By the way, it was the father who was "lucky" to become the first victim of the then young swindler. The guy was at the age when interest in the fair sex was already awakening. And in order to win the attention of the girls, funds were needed. And Frank had money, taking it off his own father's credit card, which he begged as if to buy gasoline for the car, which, by the way, was also given to him by his father.

Frank negotiated with the employees of the gas station, who, for a certain fee, pushed through an amount that significantly exceeded the actual amount, and gave the difference in cash. Frank Jr. regularly threw out the receipts that the postman brought, so his father found out about his tricks only when an impressive debt formed on his bank card. This caused a quarrel between father and son, after which Frank Jr. ran away from home.

Banking career start

Without a penny in his pocket and special hopes for a decent wage, Abagnale arrived in New York. It should be said that at sixteen, the guy looked at all 26. For adults, he was made tall and early gray hair, which was already gleaming in his dark hair, before his years. Deciding to take advantage of this circumstance, Frank forged his ID, changing his year of birth from 1948 to 1938. He just carefully corrected the number, thus adding himself a whole ten years. With the new document he managed to open a bank account. The clerk offered the guy temporary checks that he could use until the checkbook was ready. In addition, the clerk clearly explained that Frank, when he has a desire to deposit funds, can use the deposit forms that are located in the lobby of the institution. To do this, you need to indicate the current account number on the form.

Without thinking twice, Frank grabbed an impressive stack of blank forms in the lobby. After that, all that remained was to buy ink, similar to that used by bank employees to print account numbers on deposit checks, and then print the details of their newly opened account on the stolen forms. And so he did. Then he replaced the stack of "processed" deposit forms. On this day, Frank Abagnale received his first forty thousand dollars, because all the deposits received from the bank's clients went to his account without hindrance.

Handyman

The case with the bank marked the beginning of the career of the famous fraudster. Other banks got it from him too. During his tenure, Abagnale has carried out many such operations, not only in the United States, but also in many other countries of the world. Over the course of five years of his criminal career, Frank Abagnale managed to obtain an amount of two and a half million dollars from false documents.

For this, the guy even got a job as a pilot of one of the largest American airlines. The role of a pilot gave him many advantages. Firstly, at the expense of the company, he flew more than one million miles, for which he received good money. And secondly, it helped him to use the services of the hotel business in many countries of the world for free. And thirdly, between flights, he managed to turn scams with fake checks. And Frank constantly avoided flying the plane, which was his immediate professional duty, citing the presence of alcohol in his blood.

Then Abagnale's career developed rapidly. The fraudster did not stop at forging checks. What kind of scams did not come up with Abagnale. Once he even took out a security guard's uniform and settled down at night near the bank building with a mailbox and a stencil that read: “Dear clients! Due to the failure of the box intended for evening deposits, please leave your money with the security guard."

Oddly enough, but not a single person felt that something was wrong, and almost four dozen unsuspecting clients dropped their deposits into Frank's box without even looking at the false guard.

What kind of images did Frank Abagnale not try on, hiding from police pursuit. He showed real miracles of reincarnation. So, in the state of Georgia, having obtained a fake document on the corresponding education, Frank got a job as a doctor, in the state of Louisiana he worked in a law firm, and in the state of Utah as a teacher at the university. By the way, for this occasion, he even changed his own name. Now he has become Frank Adams.

From criminal to expert

The legendary swindler was caught only in the late sixties in one of the cities of France. An employee of the French airlines, in which Frank also managed to work, told the police that he recognized one of the pilot as a wanted criminal. Abigail was sent to America, where he was sentenced to twelve years in prison, but he served only a third of the time. The FBI officers helped to get out of the prison dungeons, who involved him in cooperation in detecting counterfeit bills in the money circulation and calculating their creators.

After prison, the former swindler tried to get a job and live honestly, but he was refused everywhere. As a result, Frank did not think of anything better how to contact one of the banks. He told the story of his past and proposed a deal: he demonstrates ways of financial fraud and forgery of bank documents. If the information turns out to be useful, he receives the agreed amount of money and a recommendation to the next bank. Due to the fact that the speeches of the former fraudster were very useful, Abagnale very soon became an official consultant in the financial security of banks.

After that, Frank Abagnale taught at the FBI Academy and, in addition, advised large financial corporations in different countries. The description of the life of the legendary swindler became the basis of his autobiographical work entitled "Catch Me If You Can."And subsequently Steven Spielberg created a film of the same name based on him, in which the famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio played the role of a fearless swindler. Abagnale himself did not stay away from the filming. He got the episodic role of a policeman who took part in the arrest of the criminal.

However, fraudsters are not only an achievement of the West. Continuing the theme, a story about how the most talented Soviet schemers made money, whom the legendary Ostap Bender would envy.