Frank Abignale was born in New York in 1948, immediately receiving the addition “junior” to his name. Father and namesake Frank Abignale Sr. was a successful businessman, who by the nature of his work was associated with people of different social status, which later played a role in the biography of the son.

Frank Jr.'s mother was French, thanks to which he felt confident on both sides of the Atlantic.

Having reached the age when interest in the opposite sex awakens, Frank for the first time thought of a scheme that allowed him to get money without much effort.

His father gave Frank a car, and he periodically spent money from Frank Sr.'s credit card to pay for gasoline. Only after some time it turned out that the son “made a profit” on his father of almost 3500 dollars.

The scheme was simple as hell - coming to the gas station, Abignale asked the cashier to punch the card for gasoline and related products the amount more than they cost in reality. Frank split the difference with the gas station employees.

Since there were no SMS notifications in those days, transaction reports came to the cardholder's address in the form of letters. Which the cunning young man simply burned.

When the scam was uncovered, his father asked Frank what he was spending the money on.

“On girls,” the son confessed. - I'm crazy about them.”

Father considered the reason valid, but the mother was more strict and placed the child in a Catholic school for re-education.

His parents' marriage, meanwhile, was falling apart. Eventually they divorced. By court order, Frank Jr. stayed with his father. For the teenager it was a shock, and he could not come to terms with what had happened. Up until the death of his father, Frank did not leave attempts to glue the broken cup, but he did not succeed.

The relationship between the two Franks was not a warm one. His father thought that his son would never make anything good out of him, and he didn't worry about it much, preferring to think more about business.

Frank Jr. ran away from home, launching his incredible and dizzying career as a world-class con man.

An important factor working in his favor was that he looked much older than his years.

The young man began posing as a Pan American pilot. Having acquired a pilot's uniform and false documents, Frank thus managed to make about 250 air flights in 26 countries. In total, he flew over 1,000,000 miles.

The whole point is that pilots and other airline personnel are transported free of charge on duty. They are also given free accommodation in hotels, which Frank took full advantage of. Of course, from time to time the real pilots and flight attendants would ask their “colleague” why he himself was not at the wheel. Then he would sigh, lower his eyes and quietly say: “Suspended... Once during a check-up they found alcohol in my blood. It's a silly story, I ruined my own life.

he would open a bank account but not deposit anything in it. Then he would write himself a bank check for a certain amount and receive the money. The account, of course, went into deficit, but the bank gave the client a loan. Of course, it was impossible to fool one bank for a long time, but there are many banks in the U.S., so Abignale did not suffer from lack of cash.

A more elegant trick of the fraudster was the use of deposit slips. Customers came to the bank, took a blank form from the stack, filled it out and performed the operation they wanted. Because this transaction was repeated regularly and repeatedly, few people would look at the form. Abignale printed similar forms with the only difference being that his own account information was entered in advance. When he came to the bank, he would put the forms in a pile and leave. In the end, people would transfer money to him, which was only to be withdrawn. Frank did not flirt - before the bank raised the alarm, he received $ 40,000 dollars and was so.

With the “tour” he moved from state to state, from country to country, and everywhere he had good luck.

Naturally, over time, rumors about the “pilot” spread so widely that it became difficult to hide under this mask. When registering in one of the hotels, he indicated that he was a doctor, and soon got acquainted with a “colleague” - a medical doctor who lived nearby.

Frank so charmed a new acquaintance that he persuaded Abignale temporarily work as head of pediatrics in one of the hospitals in Georgia.

Fate really favored him - in his new position he dealt mainly with administrative matters rather than treating children, so he didn't do much damage. Although a couple of times he was really on the verge of complete failure when he was required to demonstrate medical skills. It helped that there were subordinates around, and he confidently delegated the care of patients to them.

In the end, after 11 months (!!!) of work, the “doctor” left his position unexposed, having received a parting thank you for his cooperation.

But he didn't stop there. Through an acquaintance of a stewardess, he got in touch with a lawyer, to whom he also told him that he was his colleague - he had a diploma from Harvard Law School.

His new acquaintance suggested that he return to practice, but there was a problem - he had to pass an exam to work. It would seem that such a barrier for Frank was insurmountable.

But he really was a talented person with a great ability to learn. Having taken to preparation, having sat down for textbooks, he managed to fill up his baggage of legal knowledge to such a level, which allowed him to pass the exam. It is true that he did not pass the exam on the first attempt, but on the third, but the rules allowed it.

 

And as a result, the swindler became an employee of the Louisiana Attorney General's office. No miracles were required of him, for he performed purely auxiliary functions. But after a few months, Frank had to quit, as he began to be pestered by questions from a real Harvard graduate working in the office.

Abignale was too bright to manage to evade the police for too long. In 1969, he was identified as a wanted man by an Air France employee, and Frank was apprehended in his mother's homeland. The local court assessed his adventures in the country a 1-year sentence.

It's time to summarize the results: for five years of active fraudulent activity he changed 8 professions and stole about 2.5 million dollars from banks. Some, however, say that the amount was twice as much. Countries around the world lined up to extradite Abignale.

After six months in a French prison, his sentence was reduced and he was immediately handed over to Sweden. There he served another six months, after which he was supposed to go to Italian justice. But the Swedes made a deal with the United States, and Frank went home.

He almost escaped a couple of times. He managed to brainwash the prison authorities by convincing the warden that he was actually an embedded FBI agent. One day Frank announced that he needed to personally contact the authorities for an urgent need, and he ... was released. Quickly detained, though.

One high-ranking American police official described Abignale this way: “He could write a check on toilet paper, sign it, and get the money from any bank in the city with a Hong Kong driver's license as identification.”

In 1971, an American court sentenced him to 12 years in prison. But soon FBI agents came to Frank, offering him a reduced sentence in exchange for professional counseling. Since, as strange as it may sound, Abignale was not a hardened criminal, he easily agreed to the deal. And four years later, he was free.

In the late 1970s, Frank and his story became a welcome guest on TV shows. He wrote several books, including his autobiography, the screen rights to which were bought by Hollywood.

True, they went from hand to hand for a long time, until they finally got to Steven Spielberg. In 2002, the movie “Catch Me If You Can” with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role was released.

Frank himself also starred in this movie as a French police commissioner who arrests DiCaprio - that is, in fact, himself.

For many years, the former con man has been lecturing to FBI employees. Abignale's relationship with this organization has become truly familial - one of Frank's sons became an FBI agent.