By Emily Stegman

"The true story of a real fake." A fitting tagline for Steven Spielberg's 2002 film "Catch Me If You Can" – or is it? The movie was inspired by the 1980 book Frank Abagnale co-wrote about his experiences as a resourceful confidence man on the run, and, according to the director, by the person he has become.

"I did not make this film about Frank Abagnale because of what he did ... but because of what he has done with his life the past 30 years," Spielberg said.

Hoda Esphahani, president of Tuesday's all-day sponsor, SAFDICO USA INC, welcomed Abagnale, who was eager to give Symposium attendees a firsthand account of his life story. It was important for the former white-collar criminal to note that certain aspects of the book and the film were not entirely accurate; both contained outside interpretations of the life he chose to reform.

Means to an End
Abagnale was only 16 when the judge at his parents' divorce hearing asked him to choose which parent he wanted to live with.

"I was just a child at 16. I still needed my mother and father," he said. "There was no choice that day, so I ran."

The child on his own quickly realized that a teenage delivery boy could never make enough money to live independently, so he tried on a new profession and an older age.

Posing as a Pan Am pilot was one of Abagnale's first facades as he worked to make money and earn the respect worthy of the 26-year-old man his altered identification card said he was. He passed as a pediatrician in Georgia, an attorney in Louisiana and at one point, a college professor.

The former master forger said his success with financial fraud was due to his "always inquisitive" nature, and his infamous reputation a result of simply being the first to think up such schemes.

"I did a lot of things that had never been done before, which is why they got so much attention," he said.

That includes his purchase of a magnetic encoder that paid for itself many times over. He used it to print his checking account number on a pile of deposit slips that he placed back on the bank shelves for customers to fill out and unknowingly bolster his account balance.

Abagnale was apprehended in France at the age of 21 – an arrest he knew was inevitable; he had written more than $2.5 million worth of bad checks in all 50 states and 26 foreign countries. He also spent time in a Swedish prison before returning to the United States to begin a 12-year sentence.

"The law sometimes sleeps," he said, "but it never dies."

A New Leaf
The FBI approached Abagnale in his fifth year of U.S. prison time and offered him a job helping the government combat the very type of financial crimes he had committed. The job was meant to last the remaining seven years of his sentence; he is now in his 31st year with the bureau.

Abagnale is a firm believer that only his present actions can exonerate him from the crimes he committed and has refused several offers of a formal legal pardon.

"What I did in my past is immoral, and I will never be proud of it," he said.

Today, thousands of financial institutions trust Abagnale's IPS (Integrated Payment System) Official Check, and businesses of all sizes use SAFEchecks and Check Plus, two less expensive programs for securing checks.

In addition to authoring The Art of the Steal, Real U Guide to Identity Theft and the upcoming Stealing Your Life, Abagnale periodically publishes The Client Service Bulletin to keep law enforcement and other institutions abreast of the latest high-tech crimes.

Abagnale's reputation is built on his expertise in check fraud, identity theft and embezzlement prevention tactics – knowledge he was glad to impart to his Symposium audience during the question and answer portion of his lecture.

One audience member was concerned that authorities do not give enough attention to credit card fraud and wanted to know the best way to get the law's attention. Abagnale said this is not a huge priority for major credit card companies because, compared to the amount of revenue they gain, money lost through fraudulent transactions is an inconsequential percentage.

He added that the FBI is not permitted to investigate financial claims less than $100,000 – a reasonable regulation, he said, considering there are only about 12,000 agents, and most are preoccupied with fighting terrorism and other security and legal matters.

"You cannot rely on the police or the government to protect you from these crimes. You have to be a smarter business owner and a smarter consumer," he advised.

He said that today's technology makes the crimes he committed as a teenager even easier, which is why prevention is the key.

"The one thing I've learned is that the bottom line is simple: we live in an extremely unethical society. Ethics aren't taught at home and ethics aren't taught in school; even most companies don't have an ethics code in place," he said.

"Until we bring ethics back into those areas, these crimes will continue."