Top 111 Frank Abagnale Quotes

I’m a true believer that you have a moral obligation to keep your employees honest, and that is why you have controls, so I’m never tempted or put in a position where I could do something to defraud my employer.

When people write about me, they usually start off with the headline ‘World’s Greatest Con Man.’

Technology breeds crime and we are constantly trying to develop technology to stay one step ahead of the person trying to use it negatively.

There’s no such thing as a foolproof system. That idea fails to take into account the creativity of fools.

At the FBI, very rarely do they investigate crime under $100,000.

I never use debit cards. I only use credit cards. This way, if someone does get my account number… and charges $1 million, by federal law, my liability is zero.

It’s amazing to me that we live in such a wonderful country where anyone can have a problem in life and get up, dust themselves off and start all over again.

I was just a guy who ran away from home at 16 because my parents were getting a divorce and the judge was making me choose which parent to live with. I didn’t want to make that choice. I ended up in New York City.

Had I been older, I would’ve never been able to pull it off because I would’ve analyzed it to death. When I was 16, there was no such thing as ‘what if.’

The police can’t protect consumers. People need to be more aware and educated about identity theft. You need to be a little bit wiser, a little bit smarter and there’s nothing wrong with being skeptical. We live in a time when if you make it easy for someone to steal from you, someone will.

People have found very significant and simple ways to cheat their employer and get money out of their employers, and many companies lack good internal controls.

I kept a notebook, a surreptitious journal in which I jotted down phrases, technical data, miscellaneous information, names, dates, places, telephone numbers, thoughts, and a collection of other data I thought was necessary or might prove helpful.

It’s about taking the time to research and think things out. Honest people and criminals do the same thing; just the direction, good or bad, is different.

I wasn’t a Pan Am pilot or any other kind of pilot.

The front of a cheque alone gives someone enough information to steal your identity.

I think I was so successful, not because I was brilliant, but because I was so young. I had no fear of consequences.

The Internet can be used to hurt many people.

What I did in my youth is hundreds of times easier today. Technology breeds crime.

Had I been older – maybe 25 or 30 – I would have never tried half the things I did because I would have rationalized everything and never did it.

Nothing has brought me more love, joy and peace than being a good husband and good daddy.

When I was 28 years old, I thought it would be great to have a movie about my life. I was egotistical and self-centered.

When people ask me about being portrayed onscreen by Leonardo DiCaprio, I always say, ‘I love it – no matter how old I get, people are going to think that’s what I look like.’

Criminals know that if they stay under certain thresholds, nobody is going to come after them.

Whether you’re earning $7 an hour or $700,000 a year, it’s very important to protect your credit rating.

I was just a guy who ran away from home at 16 because my parents were getting a divorce and the judge was making me choose which parent to live with. I didn’t want to make that choice. I ended up in New York City.

If I had been brilliant or a genius, I wouldn’t have needed to break the law just to survive.

Most people are fascinated by what I did as a teenager, but when I look back at my life, I don’t think very much about those years. I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.

When people ask me about being portrayed onscreen by Leonardo DiCaprio, I always say, ‘I love it – no matter how old I get, people are going to think that’s what I look like.’

A real man loves his wife, and places his family as the most important thing in life. Nothing has brought me more peace and content in life than simply being a good husband and father.

It’s quite flattering to have Leonardo DiCaprio play you in the movie. He’s a great-looking young man.

We buy into the computer, and everything that comes from the computer, we believe to be the truth.

If you took a child in London and took their iPhone and took them somewhere else in the country, they’d probably not be able to find their way back. That’s a shame.

When I look back at my life now, I’m not amazed by what I did at 16 to 21.

You have to think a little smarter, be proactive, not reactive.

I don’t do online banking.

There are many ways to manipulate chip cards. For example, a number of years ago when American Express issued the first chip card, criminals would take a small hammer with a little device and bang the chip to destroy it without hurting the physical appearance of the card.

A lot of people say I was brilliant. I wasn’t. I was an opportunist: a young entrepreneur who saw things and took advantage.

People say that life is short, but it isn’t short. It’s very long.

Banks are so protected from liability they would have to really do something that was their mistake in order for them to be liable for it. Banks don’t look at signatures. They’re processing millions of checks and they have very little liability.

Unlike most divorces, where the children were usually the first to know, my parents were very good about keeping that a secret.

You have to be very limited in who you give your social security number to.

I think I was so successful, not because I was brilliant, but because I was so young. I had no fear of consequences.

Every case involving cybercrime that I’ve been involved in, I’ve never found a master criminal sitting somewhere in Russia or Hong Kong or Beijing. It always ends up that somebody at the company did something they weren’t supposed to do. They read an email, went to a website they weren’t supposed to.

The biggest thing that concerns me is when we start getting countries using cybercrime to shut down infrastructure, electricity, communications systems, the Internet, et cetera.

I teach ethics at the FBI academy, which is ironic.

I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.

You can sit in a room and create anything you want on a laptop. That’s why the real con men are gone.

There is no technology today that cannot be defeated by social engineering.

As the lawyer, I found most of it was a matter of research, which I was great at – that’s what I did to death – and then basically persuading people that you’re right, and they’re wrong… I found that the easiest of all the professions to impersonate.

We really need to get control over Social Security numbers. My children’s generation, they’re past it. But their children should be able to have a number that is secure.

People care about others in their immediate network.

We should be very concerned: if identity theft is so simple to do, what’s to stop me from entering this country and assuming the identity of someone else for the sole purpose of living here illegally for terrorist reasons? That alone would be a concern.

I didn’t like taking money from individuals.

I’m a true believer that you have a moral obligation to keep your employees honest, and that is why you have controls, so I’m never tempted or put in a position where I could do something to defraud my employer.

You have to think a little smarter, be proactive, not reactive.

We really need to get control over Social Security numbers. My children’s generation, they’re past it. But their children should be able to have a number that is secure.

You fight technology with technology, so you have to stay one step ahead of the criminal. It’s very much a chess game – they make a move, you have to make a move.

Every breach you look at occurred because somebody inside did something they weren’t supposed to do. Sometimes there’s an accomplice, but most of the time, it’s innocent.

People say that life is short, but it isn’t short. It’s very long.

A lot of times, when I met somebody and took them out on a date, I obviously didn’t tell them my background, because I didn’t think I’d see them but once or twice.

Mostly, cybercriminals are motivated to commit crime for financial gain.

You can sit in a room and create anything you want on a laptop. That’s why the real con men are gone.

Whether you’re earning $7 an hour or $700,000 a year, it’s very important to protect your credit rating.

Most people don’t reconcile their bank accounts.

The front of a cheque alone gives someone enough information to steal your identity.

We should be very concerned: if identity theft is so simple to do, what’s to stop me from entering this country and assuming the identity of someone else for the sole purpose of living here illegally for terrorist reasons? That alone would be a concern.