Frank Abagnale
Every form of payment has some risk associated with it.
I was always accepted at par value. I wore the uniform of a Pan Am pilot; therefore, I must be a Pan Am pilot.
I learned early that class is universally admired.
Almost any fault, sin or crime is considered more leniently if there's a touch of class involved.
If you look at any successful professional - a salesperson, a marketer, a real estate agent, a trader - they all have the same qualities as the con man. The only difference is that one side uses their talents in the right direction and the con man is taking the easy way out.
I went to the library and learned how checks work. I found out that routing numbers are like zip codes: the checks are sent to the bank that correlates to the routing number. If I manipulate those numbers to a bank far away, it would take longer to get back to the bank, which gave me more time to write more bad checks.
It's about taking the time to research and think things out. Honest people and criminals do the same thing; just the direction, good or bad, is different.
You have to believe in what you do. Take something you truly believe in and go about it in an honest way.
You should know, whether you live in the U.S. or in the U.K., that your identity has already been stolen.
You fight technology with technology, so you have to stay one step ahead of the criminal. It's very much a chess game - they make a move, you have to make a move.
I have never witnessed, nor will I live long enough to witness, a more simplistic crime than me stealing your identity.
It is amazing the information we give away. We make it easier and easier for criminals.
I'm glad I'm a draw. People know that, not only am I the guy that did it, I spent 40 years on the other side.
Too many of us are vulnerable, and I look forward to working with AARP to advise people about the safest ways to conduct their financial transactions and manage social media.
I make my home in Tulsa.
I know that people are fascinated by what I did as a teenager, but what I did was immoral, illegal, unethical, and something that I am not proud of - nor will I ever be proud of.
You can sit in a room and create anything you want on a laptop. That's why the real con men are gone.
I always knew I'd get caught sooner or later. And I knew I would end up going to prison.
When I was 28 years old, I thought it would be great to have a movie about my life. I was egotistical and self-centered.
A lot of people say I was brilliant. I wasn't. I was an opportunist: a young entrepreneur who saw things and took advantage.
Had I been older, I would've never been able to pull it off because I would've analyzed it to death. When I was 16, there was no such thing as 'what if.'
Everything I have today was because of the love of a woman.
Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.Collection: Perseverance
If you believe you have a foolproof system, you've failed to take into consideration the creativity of fools.Collection: Believe
I always tell people what I did 50 years ago as a teenager is now 4,000 times easier to do today than when I did it. Technology breeds crime - it always has and it always will. There's always going to be people willing to use technology in a negative, self-serving way. So today it's much easier, whether it's forging checks or getting information. People go on Facebook and tell you what car they drive, their mother's name, where you are going on vacation, where you've been on vacation. There's nothing you can't research in a matter of a couple of minutes and find out about someone.Collection: Couple
I was always in the right place at the right time, always willing to take advantage of an opportunity.Collection: Opportunity
It's not what a man has but what a man is that's important.Collection: Men
When I was a child at sixteen, I was just a child. All sixteen year-olds are just children. As much as we like them to be adults, they are just children. And like all children, they need their mother, and they need their father. All children need their mother and their father. All children are entitled to their mother and their father.Collection: Mother
I live a much better life without having to worry about people chasing me. I spent five years in prison from 21 to 26, which is probably the best part of my youth behind bars. I was in some very bad prisons overseas as well. It was not a fun life, it was a very lonely life in reality. I was a smart enough kid to know that I was going to get caught. The law sometimes sleeps, but the law never dies. I knew it was just a matter of time. I would be caught and I'd get punished and face the consequences.Collection: Lonely
Dear dad, you always told me that an honest man has nothing to fear, so I'm trying my best not to be afraid.Collection: Funny
Remember what being an adult is: It has nothing to do with money or awards.Collection: Awards
What bothered me most was their lack of style. I learned early that class is universally admired. Almost any fault, sin or crime is considered more leniently if there's a touch of class involved.Collection: Class
Im a true believer that you have a moral obligation to keep your employees honest, and that is why you have controls, so Im never tempted or put in a position where I could do something to defraud my employer.Collection: Moral
If my forgeries looked as bad as the CBS documents, it would have been "Catch Me In Two Days."Collection: Two
I made a lot of exits through side doors, down fire escapes or over rooftops. I abandoned more wardrobes in the course of five years than most men acquire in a lifetime. I was slipperier than a buttered escargot.Collection: Men
I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings, fantastic foxes, and other sensual goodies. I partied in every capital in Europe and basked on all the world's most famous beaches.Collection: Beach
The former police chief of Houston once said of me: "Frank Abagnale could write a check on toilet paper, drawn on the Confederate States Treasury, sign it 'U.R. Hooked' and cash it at any bank in town, using a Hong Kong driver's license for identification."Collection: Writing
When people ask me about being portrayed onscreen by Leonardo DiCaprio, I always say, 'I love it - no matter how old I get, people are going to think that's what I look like.Collection: Thinking
I look at my life today at 69 and I think about all the things that have happened after all my imprisonment. We truly live in an amazing country, America is where you can do things and pay your debt back to society and literally change your life if you want to.Collection: Country