ShreyaBanking On His Looks
In an interview with CNN the 2-minute clipping of which is attached ahead, he said, “a lot of kids ran away in the 1960’s but they got into the hippie scene, the drug scene, instead I thought how do I survive now, I am 16 years old, I look a little older, use that as an asset and so the first thing I did was to lie to people about my age.” Frank knew that him looking older was an asset to him and he exploited it to its fullest.
Survival Of The Fittest
16- year- old, with no degree, no roof on top of his head, no certainty what he was gonna eat next, Abagnale decided to let his creativity flow in the wrong directions. His methods though illegal were artistic, that is why he managed to fool the authorities for so long. He employed his sharp mind and altered his age and other credentials on his newly acquired driving license to look at least 10 years older. Where to get the money from? Faking checks.
Check Fraud
Frank’s expertise was in committing check fraud, it is proven by the fact that he is FBI’s go-to person even today when it comes to such frauds. Anyway, he wrote fraudulent checks to withdraw money from his bank account but when the bank got a whiff of what he might be up to, it demanded payment. That’s when Frank thought of something more long-term, more full proof.
Mastering The Trade
Abagnale Jr. came up with a better plan to trick the banks. He opened various accounts in various banks which required him to create and live multiple false identities. In the interview with CNN attached ahead, he says, “what I did forty years ago is 4000 times easier to do today than when I did it.” And what he did was forge and print copies of his own checks, meaning he MADE his own checks, deposited them in banks and got advance cash. But that was not all.
Exploiting What Was Available
When Frank Jr. got his legs into fraud he kept getting better at it, coming up with new and more sophisticated techniques. He got a lot of unused bank slips from the banks, and with the help of magnetic ink, placed his account number on them. He then mixed them back with the pile of unused slips in the bank and naive customers ended up depositing money in Frank’s account! All this while, no one suspected this 16-year-old boy.
Loophole
Frank Abagnale Jr. managed to stay hidden from the authorities for a long time because of his sharp observation skills and laying low talent. His shrewd observation and luck acquainted him with a major loophole in the functioning of airports, which he didn’t lose a second to bank upon. Many airlines deposited their money in a bag which was kept at a drop-off box at the airport. He saw an opportunity to manipulate it.