Ex-conman Frank Abagnale warns how Facebook users risk identity theft

I'm a tweet Europe and I'm joined by a Frank Abagnale who was memorably portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg's catch me if you can it was once the world's greatest con man but he's moved on since then that was a that was a long time ago friend yeah you're you know you work with the FBI yes for the last 37 years that's right it feels like what technology has clearly moved on since you and your your teenage years it's everyone stealing identities as you famously did on numerous occasions well how do you think technology has changed well you know back years ago for example to steal someone's identity you had to do a lot of research so you you know you read the newspaper and you read that somebody filed a bankruptcy but now today 20 years later they're very successful so you'd go back to the Bankruptcy Court you'd walk in it was public records you'd go in the microfiche and you'd fish out the bankruptcy filing you'd print it out you'd have their signature his wife's signatures date of birth her date of birth his social security her social security and you went on about stealing their identity the difference today is I don't have to make any trips I can just get on the internet and go to any one of these public sites and get all kinds of information about individuals so technology breeds crime it always has it always will there will always be people who are willing to use technology in a negative self-serving way so it's just amazing to me how much easier it is today 40 years later than when I did it and it said the technology hasn't actually helped people assist catching these forces but it's the other way around it's making more difficult it's it's it's making more difficult but at the same time we develop technology that helps law enforcement and helps a prevent a lot of these crimes but you basically you have to stay one step ahead of that criminal so to me all technologies are only good for a very short period of time so you develop a technology put it into effect after a period of a few years you revisit it and make it a little better so that you're staying one step ahead of the person and you issued a pretty stern warning today that people aren't actually helping themselves but they're you're too much of their own personal information on places like Facebook right now you know we have in the u.s. about 10 10 million children on Facebook both 13 10 years old using Facebook if you have your picture excuse me your picture on Facebook there's facial recognition software like pit-pat where I'm able to go to your Facebook page through that facial recognition program because of your photo so if I snap your picture it brings me to your Facebook page if on your Facebook page you told me where you were born in your date of birth I'm 98% of stealing your identity so Facebook's a wonderful tool you just have to teach young people how to use it properly so you don't put a frontal straight photograph of yourself on the Facebook page you never stay where you were born or your date of birth and you're careful what you say I mean you don't want a picture of you on your Facebook page nude with a bunch of drug paraphernalia laying on the beach and then you know your employer is going to look at that Facebook page five years later ten years later and considering to hire you so you have to be a little smarter a little wiser when you use those technologies so what would the young Frank of done would you have would have been too easy for you these days but if you look through would you why so the finger challenge iliyan dollars between 16 and 21 it probably more like 20 million today with the use of the internet what you could have achieved persecuted yeah and what was it like going from commenting to came from poacher to gamekeeper an effect this was after you a court you went to prison released early I was very fortunate because I went to prison at 21 served time five years was early stiff 26 and went to work with the FBI I was very fortunate I had that opportunity to do that I was also very fortunate I was very young so I got to grow up and mature a lot and realize that was not the way I wanted to live my life so I started out very young I was able to correct the course of my life and do something very very positive with my life but I would remind anybody no matter how old you are whether you're a drug addict whether you're alcohol like whatever the case may be if you want to change your life you can but only you can do that you have to make up your mind you want to do that and it felt like as an outsider you might have like quite a glamorous life in your early days but you said today it's been a burden you live with every day of your life and that you tried yourself to sleep every night when you were when you're on the run absolute I mean I I did all that between 16 and 21 there was no one to confide in so it was just me who knew everyone who associated with me thought I was 10 years older that I was a 26 year old adult when I was really just a 16 year old kid I never got to go to a senior prom a high school football game missed every birthday Father's Day Mother's Day Christmas spent it in a hotel room somewhere by myself had to take care of myself it was a very lonely life so for all of Hollywood making it somewhat glamorous it was a very lonely way to live and even if I knew where it brought me today I would never want to have to go back and live that over again mostly by being a gambler or not all like what's it hard to give it up in those early days well in the end it was people you know it started out as survival how am I gonna survive and so I started writing cheques then people started chasing me as for writing those checks so then was how do I stay ahead of the people chasing me so it all just finally caught up with me and like they always say in the end when you're caught you do feel this great relief that it's over and nobody's chasing you anymore even though you do got to pay your dues now you're glad it's over so it's not a life you want to live and it's a question that a lot of people ask me on Twitter what did you make of the film I thought they did a great job he was very careful was the first time Steven spielberger didn't ever made a movie about someone living so he wanted to be as accurate as he could so he went out and got the three real FBI agents who were retired and brought them on the set as his consultants and I thought he did a great job of staying very close to story changed very minor things that had no relevance to the actual and he didn't sensationalize do you think I don't think he didn't say so I think he stayed as close as he could to the actual facts of the story and your love stories become as become a book TV series probably Musial's economy you're not making any money from this rat now because because of my agreeing with the government I receive no compensation for those things just finally back to your work with the FBI do you still have sort of sneaking respect for some of the scams that you helped uncover and some other it's on the beginning turnover you must think what you know I mean there is amazingly creative people who come up with some very creative ideas and especially the people who use technology and part of their creative activity so you have to respect some of the things they do but like someone told me a long time ago and it's so true if you took just 50% of that ability and put it in the right direction you can make a lot more money than you can make in the wrong direction it's just people like the wrong direction because it's an easier road to take but if you take the little harder road you're gonna be a lot more successful and you're going to not stay out of jail - ok on that positive note Frank thanks very much good thank you my pleasure

Channel: The Guardian

Views: 44,490

Rating: 4.8842974 out of 5

Keywords: facebook, facebook login, identity theft, users, conman, con man, information, catch me if you can, Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, social networking, social, social network, Frank Abagnale, Frank Abagnale conman, fbi, security, tech, technology, tech news, news, interview, advertising, fraud, identity fraud, theft, law, criminal, police, computer, pc, computer security, media, theguardian

Id: RgYDcnFSzys

Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2013