He managed to become an FBI consultant while being the most well-known fraudster of the period: Who is Frank Abagnale?

Catch Me if You Can was a 2002 comedy-drama movie inspired by the life story of Frank Abagnale Jr. The real-life story of the youngest con artist on the FBI's famous "Most Wanted" list...

Before he was 18, Frank Abagnale Jr. had worked as a doctor, a lawyer, and an assistant pilot for a major airline company. A master of disguise, Abagnale was also an extremely clever con artist. He continued his check fraud, which he started when he was 16, in 26 countries, and committed million-dollar fraud. He committed the most successful bank robbery in US history. The film told about the chase adventures of Abangale and Carl Hanratty, who was determined to catch him, and their unexpected friendship that developed over time.

Frank William Abagnale Jr. (born April 27, 1948) is an American security consultant, author, and convicted felon who committed frauds that mainly targeted individuals and small businesses. He later gained notoriety in the late 1970s by claiming a diverse range of workplace frauds, many of which have since been placed in doubt. In 1980, Abagnale co-wrote his autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, which built a narrative around these claimed frauds. The book inspired the film of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg in 2002, in which Abagnale was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. He has also written four other books. Abagnale runs Abagnale and Associates, a consulting firm.

The real Frank William Abagnale Jr. (born April 27, 1948) was a check fraudster in the 1960s. From 1964 to 1967, he successfully impersonated a Panam Airways pilot and flew more than 2 million miles for free. During the same period, he worked as an inpatient pediatrician at a hospital in Georgia and as an assistant prosecutor in the state of Louisiana. When he was caught, he was considered the youngest and bravest con artist in United States history.

He cashed $4 million worth of fake checks in 26 foreign countries and all 50 states, all before he turned 19. He was caught in France and sentenced to 12 years in prison. After a while, with the offer from the FBI, he started working in the Check Fraud department of the FBI to serve the remaining sentence. He left the FBI after his sentence ended.

Life story

Abagnale was born in 1948 as the youngest member of a family of four children. Abagnale, whose parents divorced when he was a child, made a decision that would affect his whole life and ran away from home. In fact, after this escape, he never returned home again. Throughout his life, he defrauded hundreds of people and earned astonishing amounts of money. The first person Abagnale defrauded was actually his father. He earned cash income by buying auto parts such as batteries and tires and selling them with the card his father gave him to buy gas for the car. His father faced a bill of $3400 after this incident. After running away from home, he never met his father again. In fact, this incident was a harbinger of the great frauds that Abagnale would commit.

When he first left home, he did not have enough money to live on. At that time, he took advantage of the fact that there was no photo on the driver's license, so he doctored the document and increased his age so that he could prepare fake checks. While he was going to cash these checks, he also thought of wearing a pilot uniform so that it would not be understood that he was underage. He was so fascinated by this uniform that he managed to become a pilot even though he had no training. He called Pan American World Airways and said that he was a pilot who worked for them in the past, but his uniform was lost during hotel cleaning and asked them to send him a new form with a fake employee ID.

He later obtained a fake Federal Aviation Administration pilot license. Frank, who was 16-18 years old at the time, used the name "Robert Black". Using the name "Frank Adams", he worked as a lecturer in sociology at Brigham Young University for a semester. Frank was nearly caught after a flight to New Orleans. That's why he fled to Georgia. He had to write a different name and occupation on the lease so that his old company couldn't find him. When he came to the profession section, the word "doctor" suddenly appeared. Coincidentally, he ended up staying in the same room with a real doctor. This coincidence changed his life once again. His doctor friend mentioned that the hospital needed someone to manage the interns. Frank decided to work here until someone qualified was found. A baby had "blue baby syndrome" and Frank had to do something about it, but since he didn't know what the syndrome was, the baby was left without oxygen and was rescued at the last minute.

Abagnale, who defrauded 12 countries, was found to have no toilet, no bed, and very limited food/water after he was caught; He was kept naked in a dirty, lightless, tiny cell. He tried to escape many times during his time in prison. At that time, he was going out of prison once a week to assist the FBI free of charge with his knowledge of fraud. He continued to work as a consultant after completing his sentence.

More than 14,000 institutions have accepted the prevention programs of Abagnale, who taught fraud and corruption courses at the FBI Academy for more than 40 years. Since he had now stepped into a life free from crime, he wanted to compensate for the damages of the hotels and people he defrauded in order to clear his past. However, all losses were covered by insurance. Abagnale married Kelly, whom he met while working undercover for the FBI, and one of their three sons also works at a high level in the FBI.