MINI SUMMARY

Frank W. Abagnale, Jr.

Frank William Abagnale. Jr., born in 27 April 1948 as one of the fouur
children of Paulette Abagnale and Frank Abagnale Sr., is widely
recognized as the best con artist, check forger, impostor and escape artist
in U.S. history. He is a capable impostor who did the swindle/fraud for 5
years since 1960.

As a teenager, Frank Jr. got caught up in petty crimes, including

shoplifting. He soon grew tired of these practices, though, and decided to
move into more sophisticated forms of burglary. Specifically, Abagnale
began using his father's gas credit card to make a tidy profit. Frank Jr.
convinced gas station attendants to give him a portion of his sale back in
cash and allowed them to pocket a portion of the proceeds. The scam fell
apart, though, when Frank's father got the credit card bill, which added up
to thousands of dollars.

Frank's mother left his father when he was twelve, and finally got divorced
when he was fourteen. Because of the tension in the family, Frank
reportedly left his house at sixteen and try to live by himself. In order to
survive, Frank learned how to make money by falsifying checks. He
learned that through seeing the process of how the check is being
liquefied in the bank. At first he was just faking small checks. Then, as he
gets better with experience, he continuously did fraud massively.

His first fraud began when he was 16 years old. He wrote a check on his
own with a nominal greater than his savings. He also managed to get
more than 50,000 USD by printing his bank account number on the empty
deposit slip and put it within a stack of original bank slip.
For two years, he disguised himself as a pilot of Pan America Airlines so
that he could travel around the world freely. Pan Am estimated that
between the ages of 16 and 18, Abagnale flew more than 1,600,000 km on
more than 250 flights and flew to 26 countries by deadheading (the
practice of allowing employees of a common carrier to use a vehicle as a
non-revenue passenger). As a company pilot, he was also able to stay at
hotels for free.

Frank was even disguised as a pediatrician for 11 months in the Georgia

Hospital, under the name of Frank Williams. He befriended a real doctor
from his apartment complex at that time, then agreed to become the
supervisor of resident interns in the local hospital. It was not difficult for
Frank, as supervisors never did any medical work. Eventually, he was
nearly exposed as he was not able to help a dying infant with oxygen
deprivation. He then left the hospital as he realized he could put others'
lives at risk from this con.

Next, he also had falsified educational certificate of Law from Harvard

University, passed the Louisiana bar exam, and got a job in a lawyer's
office. His alias at that time was Robert Black. The premise of his legal job
was an errand boy, or as he states it gopher boy, who simply make
coffee and fetch books for his superior. Later, as a real Harvard Graduate
started to get suspicious of this background, he resigned from the office.

All the knowledge for his job are learned through the films and
documentary videos. During the 5 years of his fraud, he lived with eight
fake identity. As a result, he managed to steal more than 2.5 million USD
in 26 states in United States. Most of the fraud outcome is used for a
lavish lifestyle.
He was finally captured in Montpellier, France in 1969. He was captured
by the FBI after being a fugitive for almost six years. There were a total of
twelve countries seeking for extradition to their country as they had suffer
losses from his crime. He served six months in a French prison and six
more in Sweden before being deported to the United States, where he
was sentenced an additional 12 years in the federal pen. Despite two
attempts to escape, Abagnale was paroled after five years, on the
condition he'd help federal authorities uncover check forgers.

Frank tried a variety of jobs after he was released from the prison for
good. He became cook, grocer, movie projectionist, but was fired from
most after his criminal past is revelead.

After failing to find legitimate work, he used his unique skill for a consulting
career, advising banks and and businesses on how to avoid fraud. Ever
since being freed from prison in 1974, Frank has assisted the FBI to catch
some counterfeiters who are the most elusive/difficult to be caught in the
world. He was never paid any consideration for his help to the US
Government.

As Frank Abagnale, Jr. is considered as one of the world's leading

authorities on bank fraud and forgery, his income came mostly from the
private sector. Frank designed a check security for a large number of
banks around the world. Hes got a prosperous life because of the 500
checks used everyday by worlds giant corporations and hes paid tens of
million dollars annually. Eventually, he established "Abagnale & Associates
Security Consultants".

Since the year of 1974, he had written a number of publications about

ethics, embezzlement, and mostly protection against fraud. He believes
that because punishment for fraud and recovery of stolen funds are so
rare, prevention is the only viable course ofaction.

Today, the majority of his work is for the U. S. government. He is now a

member of the Board of Editors for Bank Fraud and IT Security, as well as

the Financial Fraud Law Report. His company does not sell products or

provide services, with the exception of his public speaking engagements.

REFERENCES

Abagnale, Frank W. (1980). Catch Me If You Can. New York: Broadway

Books.

Abagnale, Frank W. (2001). The Art of the Steal. New York: Broadway
Books.

Abagnale & Associates. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2017, from

http://www.abagnale.com/

Spielberg, Steven. (Producer). (2002). Catch Me if You Can [Motion

picture]. United States: DreamWorks Pictures.

Top 10 Imposters. (2009, May 26). Retrieved March 24, 2017, from

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1900621_1

900618_1900788,00.html