Frank Abagnale
The biggest thing that concerns me is when we start getting countries using cybercrime to shut down infrastructure, electricity, communications systems, the Internet, et cetera.
When 'Catch Me If You Can' was published back in 1980, I never dreamed that it would become a bestseller, much less a major motion picture and now a big Broadway musical. What's amazing about the book is that it has never gone out of print.
I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.
It's amazing to me that we live in such a wonderful country where anyone can have a problem in life and get up, dust themselves off and start all over again.
If you took a child in London and took their iPhone and took them somewhere else in the country, they'd probably not be able to find their way back. That's a shame.
I would have thought technology would have made it harder to do what I did.
I was very blessed it was Steven Spielberg who made the movie. He was very much into the redemption side of the story. They asked him in an interview why he had owned the rights to this story for 20 years before he made the movie, and he said, 'I wanted to see what the real Frank Abagnale did with his life before I immortalised him on film.'
It's quite flattering to have Leonardo DiCaprio play you in the movie. He's a great-looking young man.
I served my time and came out of prison when I was just 26 and have worked with the government for 37 years. But people only remember me for what I did before that.
A lot of times, when I met somebody and took them out on a date, I obviously didn't tell them my background, because I didn't think I'd see them but once or twice.
There are many ways to manipulate chip cards. For example, a number of years ago when American Express issued the first chip card, criminals would take a small hammer with a little device and bang the chip to destroy it without hurting the physical appearance of the card.
I went from 198 pounds to 109 while I was in prison in France, and I had to tie my clothes on with rope.
I speak at a lot of universities, and people are always worried about Facebook, and when I explain how to use it properly, they immediately go back and make those changes.
Criminals know that if they stay under certain thresholds, nobody is going to come after them.
Mostly, cybercriminals are motivated to commit crime for financial gain.
The Internet can be used to hurt many people.
You have to be smarter and a wiser businessperson and consumer. You have to learn to protect yourself through education.
You cannot rely on the police, you cannot rely on the government, you cannot rely on the bank to protect you.
While I was on an undercover assignment in Texas, I met my wife, Kelly.
I have to be honest with you: When the FBI let me out of prison early to advise the agency on preventing fraud, I wasn't a changed person. I wasn't rehabilitated. But when I started working with the FBI, one of the most ethical groups of men and women in the world, I couldn't help but have some of that character rub off on me.
When people write about me, they usually start off with the headline 'World's Greatest Con Man.'
I owe a debt to my country 800 times greater than I could ever repay.
When I look back at my life now, I'm not amazed by what I did at 16 to 21.
As the lawyer, I found most of it was a matter of research, which I was great at - that's what I did to death - and then basically persuading people that you're right, and they're wrong... I found that the easiest of all the professions to impersonate.
People have found very significant and simple ways to cheat their employer and get money out of their employers, and many companies lack good internal controls.
You have to be very limited in who you give your social security number to.
We buy into the computer, and everything that comes from the computer, we believe to be the truth.
In all the years I've taught at the FBI Academy, I've only seen crime get easier, faster, and harder to detect.
At the FBI, very rarely do they investigate crime under $100,000.
The truth is, your identity already has been stolen.
Most people don't reconcile their bank accounts.
We really need to get control over Social Security numbers. My children's generation, they're past it. But their children should be able to have a number that is secure.
It's really frustrating when you're an identity-theft victim, and you go to the police and you say, 'This guy in Florida, he stole my name and got a credit card - this is his address,' and they say, 'We don't have jurisdiction in Florida. You need to go to the FBI.'
One thing I've found is that if you educate and show people the risk, they will do something about it.
I wasn't a Pan Am pilot or any other kind of pilot.
I partied in every capital in Europe, basked on all the famous beaches, and good-timed it in South America, the South Seas, the Orient, and the more palatable portions of Africa.
My father was never really the con-man type that the film shows him to be: he was straight as an arrow, though he did have problems with the IRS.
People care about others in their immediate network.
We're coming down to an extremely unethical society. Very few colleges offer courses in ethics, and very few companies have a code of conduct or code of ethics.
I didn't like taking money from individuals.
If I had walked into a dry cleaning store, and I had looked over, and the register drawer was open with money inside, I wouldn't have taken it.
Had I been older - maybe 25 or 30 - I would have never tried half the things I did because I would have rationalized everything and never did it.
I didn't sit outside the bank and plan. I just went in and ad libbed because I was so young. But I was smart enough to know I would absolutely get caught.
It's amazing how much information we share in social media, then we wonder why people steal our identity.
You get to a point in your life where you go, 'I don't remember what I did.'
If I wanted to lay down a baby con, I could say I was the product of a broken home. But I'd only be bum-rapping my parents.
I don't believe that a piece of paper will excuse my actions. In the end, only my actions will.
Most people don't recognize me, but they know my name. TSA people rarely recognize my name, ironically, and they are the security people.
If I check into a hotel, a lot of times, they know who I am.