Frank Abagnale

Frank Abagnale (born on April 27, 1948) is an American security consultant who is known for being one of the most famous check forgers and imposters in the history of crime.

Frank spent 16 years of his life in Bronxville, New York with his family. His parents decided to divorce when he was 14 years old. This had a dramatic effect on him. He ran away from home and found himself a teenager alone in the world. “I had to grow up very quickly and become very creative in order to survive” he said. Abagnale had a little money in his bank account when he left home and he had no formal education. He changed his driver’s licence to make himself 10 years older than he was. He also exaggerated his education. This helped him get better-paying jobs, but he couldn’t make enough money to survive. So he decided to quit working and write fake checks. Soon, he wrote hundreds of checks and made his bank account filled with thousands of dollars.

Later, it got difficult for him to get money from the banks with fake checks, so he decided to impersonate a pilot because he wanted to fly throughout the world for free. He called Pan American World Airways, telling the company that he was a pilot working for them who had lost his uniform. He obtained a new uniform from them with a fake ID. He then forged a pilot’s licence. He even took control of a plane flying at 30,000 ft (that is 9,100 m)in the air. No need to say that he enabled the autopilot! When police began catching on to Abagnale’s lies, he decided to change identities again and became a doctor. It didn’t take long and he decided to change jobs again. He became a teaching assistant at a university for a semester, then a pediatrician at a hospital for eleven months.

Abagnale was eventually arrested in Montpellier, France in 1969. He managed to escape from the police custody twice. In 1974, after he had been in prison for less than five years, the United States federal government released him on the condition that he help the federal authorities, without pay, to investigate crimes committed by frauds.

In 2002, Steven Spielberg made a film about his life, Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo di Caprio as Frank Abagnale.The film was based on the book that Abagnale wrote himself and was nominated for the Academy Awards.