Frank William Abagnale Jr. (/ˈæbəɡneɪl/; born April 27, 1948) is an American security consultant, author, and convicted felon who committed frauds that mainly targeted individuals and small businesses.

[21] In June 1965, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Abagnale in Eureka, California, for car theft after he stole a Ford Mustang from one of his father's neighbors.

[5] After his release on December 24, 1968, 20-year-old Abagnale disguised himself as a TWA pilot and moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he talked his way into the house of a local music teacher, whose daughter was a Delta Air Lines stewardess he had met in New York.

[26] The following day, detectives determined that Abagnale had stolen blank checks from his host family and a local business in Baton Rouge, and he was subsequently charged with theft and forgery.

[5] After returning to the United States, 22-year-old Abagnale dressed in a pilot's uniform and traveled around college campuses, passing bad checks and claiming he was there to recruit stewardesses for Pan Am.

[34] After his release, Abagnale stated that he performed numerous jobs, including cook, grocer, and movie projectionist; he was fired from most of those after he was discovered to have been hired without revealing his criminal past.

He also claimed he eluded the FBI with a daring escape from a commercial airline bathroom via the toilet bowl, while the plane was taxiing at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

[38][39] In 1978, Abagnale told a Honolulu Advertiser reporter that he was familiar with the toilet apparatus, squeezed himself through the opening, swung down through the lower hatch, landed on the pavement, ran across the runway, and hailed a cab.

In 2015, Abagnale was named the AARP Fraud Watch Ambassador, where he helps "to provide online programs and community forums to educate consumers about ways to protect themselves from identity theft and cybercrime."

In addition, he stated that he started a fake stewardess trainee program, traveling with them throughout Europe for two months, and logged over three million air miles disguised as a pilot.

I don't trust people as much anymore.His claim that he passed the Louisiana bar examination, worked for Attorney General Jack P. F. Gremillion, and closed 33 cases, was challenged by several journalists in 1978.

"[60] Abagnale told his audiences that over the course of his one year at Cobb General, no one doubted his position as a physician: "So I made the rounds, picked up the clipboards, scribbled a few lines, initialed them, and everyone thought I was doing a fine job.

According to Paul Holsen, who was an older university student and licensed commercial pilot at the time,[62] Abagnale informed him that he was there on behalf of Pan Am to recruit and conduct physical examinations on candidates.

[67] Despite claims of a photographic memory, when queried by USA Today journalist Andy Seiler regarding details of his imposter roles and movements in the 1960s, Abagnale responded by saying, "You get to a point in your life where you go, 'I don't remember what I did.

I'd say this guy is as phony as a $3 bill.In 2002, Abagnale addressed the issue of his story's lack of truthfulness with a statement posted on his company's website, which said in part: "I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times.

In True Detective, Abagnale claimed to Redding that he passed the Louisiana bar exam, worked as an assistant attorney general, was employed as a sociology professor, worked as an Atlanta pediatrician, escaped from an airplane toilet, escaped from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, recruited University of Arizona students (and traveled with them throughout Europe for weeks), and cashed $2.5 million in checks.

[8] In 2006, KSL journalist Scott Haws challenged Abagnale with his claim that he worked as a PhD-holding sociology professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) for two semesters.

As part of this process, Logan combined earlier newspaper articles, numerous administrative documents, and public records that had not been the subject of scrutiny by major media outlets.

[6] Various media outlets have asked Abagnale to respond to Logan's book content, which included victim statements and citations to publicly accessible records.

[6][8] Abagnale has told the press, "I was convicted on $2.5 million dollars' worth of bad checks" and that he later hired a law firm to get all the money back to hotels and other companies.

[77] Federal court records, though, show that Abagnale was convicted of forging 10 Pan American Airlines checks in five states (Texas, Arizona, Utah, California.

[35] Public records show that almost two years after his parole, in October 1975, Abagnale was hired by Aetna Insurance, and was abruptly fired by the company after he allegedly cashed bad personal checks during his employee training.

Brown spoke to investigative journalist Javier Leiva and acknowledged that the Atlanta field office simply acted on a teletype request to pick Abagnale up at the Squire Inn, in Marietta, Georgia.

In his "Talks at Google" lecture, Abagnale claimed that because of his photographic memory, Kelley asked him to memorize the components of military hardware and infiltrate bases as a lieutenant.

"[51] Jerri Williams, a retired FBI agent who specialized in white-collar crime and fraud, spoke to investigative journalist Javier Leiva about these claims.

[5][31] Ira Winkler, former intelligence analyst for the United States Department of Defense, and chief security architect for Walmart stores internationally,[97] describes an encounter with Abagnale.

When asked why he talks about being an attorney general and passing the state's bar exam, and yet failing to acknowledge his arrest and conviction in Baton Rouge, Abagnale said, "That's because I work for the FBI.

A member of the audience, Jim Grinstead, the host of the podcast Scams and Cons,[111] asked Abagnale, “So I wonder, in light of the ethics award you’re going to be presented tonight, would you come clean?

Furthermore, in the letter to GSSU, Abagnale stated that he was cancelling all college speaking engagements because the criminal aspects of the life story he was presenting "[are] not something to which young impressionable minds should be exposed.

"[114] In the midst of this controversy, Abagnale was queried by journalist John Dagley, who asked him if his biography was a lie, to which he replied:[113] "Well, then, I am the world's greatest con man.