Quotes from Frank Abagnale

The front of a cheque alone gives someone enough information to steal your identity.

If you tell me your name and date of birth, that's all I need to steal your identity.

It's amazing how much information we share in social media, then we wonder why people steal our identity.

If you happen to tell me where you were born, your date of birth and that kind of information, then I'm 98 percent of the way to stealing your identity.

Unlike most divorces, where the children were usually the first to know, my parents were very good about keeping that a secret.

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.'

You should know, whether you live in the U.S. or in the U.K., that your identity has already been stolen.

I don't do online banking.

People say that life is short, but it isn't short. It's very long.

Technology breeds crime and we are constantly trying to develop technology to stay one step ahead of the person trying to use it negatively.

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.

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.

In the old days, a con man would be good looking, suave, well dressed, well spoken and presented themselves real well. Those days are gone because it's not necessary. The people committing these crimes are doing them from hundreds of miles away.

When I look back at my life now, I'm not amazed by what I did at 16 to 21.

Criminals look at identity theft and say only 1 in 700 criminals gets convicted of it. And they look at check forgery and they know that for every 1,400 forgers arrested, only about 123 get convicted and about 26 go to jail. So the rewards are great, but the risks are very slim. So that's one of the reasons that make it very popular.

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.'

I contend that there really are no more con men. There's no need for con men anymore. There's no need for the very sophisticated, suave guy, the well-dressed guy. Today, you steal with the computer from thousands of miles away - from China, from Libya, from Hong Kong. Your victim's never going to see you, so there's no need to be any of that.

A real man loves and respects his wife and is not only a good father but a man that his kids want to call 'Daddy.'

Dear dad, you always told me that an honest man has nothing to fear, so I'm trying my best not to be afraid.