Caroline Donahoe l Contra Costa Youth Journalism
Frank Abagnale, a former con artist who became a famous and respected fraud detection cybersecurity consultant, returned recently to the Newsmakers: Lesher Speaker Series and spent much of the evening educating the eager crowd with his in-depth knowledge about cybercrime, forgery and scams.
Abagnale told the audience Sept. 30 at the Lesher Center for the Arts’ Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek that his goal was to inform the public, as he asserts that prevention, verification and education are the best ways to protect privacy and avoid being a victim of cyberfraud.
“Education is the most powerful tool to fighting crime,” Abagnale said simply. “If I can explain to you how the scam works, and you understand the scam, then you will not fall victim to that scam.”
As part of the 20th anniversary of the Newsmakers: Lesher Speaker Series, a local nonprofit is featured at each event. For Abagnale’s appearance, the focus was Contra Costa Senior Legal Services, which has been providing free legal services to seniors and helping protect elders’ rights since 1976.
Since being released from prison four decades ago, Abagnale has lectured at FBI field offices and the FBI Academy about fraud and cybercrime. He has also worked with more than 14,000 financial institutions, corporations and law enforcement agencies about using his fraud-prevention programs. Based on his wealth of experience, Abagnale began his speech with a general observation.
“The world is changing all the time, and technology is getting better,” he said. “Technology breeds crime. It always has and always will. And there will always be people who are willing to use technology in a negative, self-serving way.”
Abagnale said he has found that the only truly effective way to avoid becoming a cybercrime victim is prevention. He said most cyberattacks take about 280 days to even trace, and less than 0.05% of cyberattacks ever get prosecuted.
Because the odds of recovering assets are so slim, he believes that efforts to avoid being a victim in the first place are crucial, especially since the consequences of cybercrime are so devastating.
“All the money that goes out — billions and billions of dollars for all of these scams, cybercrimes, identity thefts, fraud, embezzlement — all of that money boomerangs back into our society,” Abagnale said. “But it comes back to us in the form of narcotics, weapons, terrorism, human trafficking and child pornography.
“If we could put a small dent in that number, we’d save a lot of human misery along the way.”
Abagnale provided a couple of alarming truths regarding identity theft in recent years. He noted that every two seconds, someone’s identity is taken and misused. He said in 2024 alone, 3.6 billion identity records were compromised and that today more than 14 billion identity records are available on the dark web.
Alarmingly, he warned that today no better identity theft victim exists than a child. Abagnale proposed that society needs to work harder to build reliable security into modern technology.
“As I remind people all the time, there is no foolproof system,” Abagnale said. “If you believe you have a foolproof system, you have failed to take into consideration the creativity of fools.”
Abagnale’s ability to incorporate humorous twists while conveying serious knowledge was noteworthy, as he was able to keep the audience intrigued and establish himself as a credible source of information. One takeaway point he wanted everyone to be aware of is the importance of credit.
“Everything today is based on your credit,” Abagnale said. “You apply for a job, they check your credit. You apply for auto insurance, they check your credit. You apply for life insurance, they check your credit. So teaching young people the importance of maintaining and having good credit is very, very important.”
He also stated that when it comes to scams, every scam has a red flag, and there are two main ones. First, he advised that people need to be cautious if they are told to hand over money immediately. Second, he claimed that the best con men will wait for you to open the door, making it the easiest job in the world for them to take advantage of a situation.
Toward the event’s end, he reflected on his life with moderator Steve Lesher, the Lesher Foundation’s board president and executive producer of the series. The two discussed the many twists and turns of Abagnale’s life, which saw him turn to crime at age 15, impersonating an airline pilot and cashing bad checks worldwide before spending time in prison in three different countries.
A partly fictionalized autobiography of his life was published in 1980 and inspired the 2002 movie, “Catch Me if You Can,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as the FBI agent chasing him.
Abagnale shared his story, meeting the two stars and the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, and living with DiCaprio for three days as the actor prepared for the role. Abagnale said his actions as a teenager negatively affected him for years, even after he turned his life around and his story became well-known.
“Notoriety is one of the worst curses that can be put on an individual,” Abagnale said.
When Lesher asked Abagnale what advice he’d give to his younger self based on his complex and fascinating past experiences, he offered a couple of simple reminders.
“They tell you that life is short, but the reality is that life is very long,” Abagnale remarked. “Just think before you act. Redemption is very hard to achieve, and people don’t forget mistakes.”
Contra Costa Youth Journalism is a collaborative effort involving educational institutions and professional news organizations dedicated to expanding opportunities for Contra Costa County high school students to inform Contra Costa County residents about relevant local news.