Real life Catch Me If You Can con artist reveals tricks | 60 Minutes Australia

you're one of the greatest con men of all time you're the daddy of them all what does it take to be a good con man you know I have to smile because people always say you're the greatest con man or the greatest confidence man you know I was a 16 year old boy who ran away from home and ended up on the streets of New York City and said okay how am I going to survive now and I first realized that I can't survive as a 16 year old I have to have people believe I'm an adult so you know the first thing I did was alter my driver's license to make myself ten years older man and started out with me more as survival how am I going to survive so I started writing checks and I found it very easy to go in and cash checks two and a half million dollars with a two and a half million dollars but everything had a purpose so you know I walk down the street I saw an airline crew come out of a hotel and at first I thought to myself if I could get one of these uniforms when I walk in a bank they'll be much more apt to cash my check as this pilot and then I got the uniform and I walked up to a ticket counter one day and the girl said to me are you flying or are you paying or riding and I said I wouldn't mean are you riding the jump seat are you gonna buy the ticket I said well no I'll ride the jump seat and then I realized I could fly all over the world for free and then I could stay in the hotels as a crew member so everything was just a step up for me I saw up I was more of an opportunist who saw things and then took advantage of them you know it goes from survival then people were chasing you so then you're starting to say how do I stay ahead of these people that are chasing me and outsmarting them until it gets to where you know you just get tired of doing it and tired of running it and I think in my case it was more about maturity I started getting older and so consequently I started realizing that's not the way I want to live my life my conscience started to bother me you can't have a conscience and be a conman as well you can't have a conscience and be a conman and and you know you can only change if you want to change so you have to be willing to want to do that and you can't expect someone else to do it for you you have to do it and it's not easy you got to change your life when you actually doing it like babe into riding a jumpsuit you know things like that in those instances in those moments they're amazingly brazen audacious acts I mean where does somebody find the inner confidence to do and I and I truly believe looking back on it now it that I truly believe I was able to accomplish all those things because I was just a teenage boy I had no really conscience I had really no fear of being caught I really didn't care about consequences I was just a kid I always believed had I been a little older sad started doing that at 21 to 26 I wouldn't have done half the things because I would have rationalized and said you'll never get away with that no one will believe you're a doctor or you're a pilot or I would have probably never done it but because I was a kid I had this kids imagination that I can do anything I can get away with anything or at least I'm willing to try it and had no fear of consequences so in my case it wasn't that I was brilliant or that I was a genius I think it was more about the fact that I was very young and I looked at it through the eyes of a kid than the eyes of an adult it was the naivety of years right yes a good excuse yeah and even when I was doing the things that I did I paid back two million dollars of that money because I hadn't spent it and then I eventually paid the other half a million dollars back only because I felt it was right to pay all the money back but as a kid I couldn't spend two million dollars so it was never really the money it was more of just going on the venture and and doing it and seeing how much you could get away with you know I would just add that when I when I did all the things I did one of the things that I realized very quickly later on is that all the people I met that I really never did anything to in fact I took them places I spent money on them I bought them lots of things they were the people most upset with me because those people felt deceived that I thought you were my friend and yet you weren't who you say you would you didn't trust me enough to tell me who you really were so it's kind of like the people who say you know the guy's got into my house but they didn't steal anything but they went through all my belongings that bothers them more than if they had stolen something and I had to come and realize that with maturity that that's very devastating to people hello I'm Liam Bartlett thanks for watching so keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 1,626,539

Rating: 4.9342098 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Karl Stefanovic, Ray Martin, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Tracey Curro, Peter Harvey, George Negus, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, Catch Me If You Can, Leonardo DiCaprio, Frank Abagnale, con artist, conman, money, swindle, real life story, hollywood movie, secrets

Id: 3UmcxQto7UU

Length: 4min 33sec (273 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019