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In the 1960s, Abagnale attended high school in Long Island. His father owned a successful stationery store on Madison Avenue in New York City. After his father faced a business setback and his parents divorced, Abagnale left home in 1964 with about $100. At sixteen, he vowed to recover his father's losses and reunite his parents. Over the following years, he developed a remarkable talent for creative deception, starting by altering his driver's license to make himself appear a decade younger. Before turning 21, the teenager, who looked older, impersonated a Pan Am airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a history professor. Using forged checks, Abagnale amassed over $2.5 million.
During his five-year criminal career, FBI agent Carl Hanratty relentlessly pursued Abagnale in a cat-and-mouse chase. By the end of his spree, Abagnale was wanted in 26 countries and the entire United States as "The Skywayman," known for escaping by plane using a fake Pan Am ID. Arrested in France in 1969, he served a sentence there before extradition to Sweden, where he was imprisoned in Malmö. Eventually, Abagnale was sent to the U.S. and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 1974, he was offered early release in exchange for sharing his knowledge of fraud. He then worked with the FBI, conducting expert seminars in their financial crimes division. His expertise soon attracted the attention of authorities and companies worldwide.
Today, as an independent entrepreneur, Abagnale & Associates provides expert evaluation and consulting services on documents and certificates internationally. Abagnale married and had three sons. Using his company's earnings, he repaid the entire $2.5 million he had once stolen. The skilled impostor and clever fraudster has an IQ of 136. In 2001, he published "The Art of the Steal," a guide to preventing fraud and counterfeiting. Steven Spielberg adapted Abagnale's 1980 autobiography into the 2002 film "Catch Me If You Can," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the young Abagnale.
Ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November 2004, Abagnale supported the incumbent President George W. Bush. As a document forgery expert, he declared notes by National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Kilian, alleging misconduct by Bush in 1972, to be fake. Shortly after, CBS, which had released the documents during the campaign, admitted the error and apologized. In 2015, Abagnale was named an AARP Fraud Watch Ambassador, helping to provide online programs and community forums educating consumers about protecting themselves from identity theft and cybercrime. In 2018, he began co-hosting the AARP podcast "The Perfect Scam.
