Frank Abagnale - The Art of the Steal

Some birth certificates have very good security features. Some have none at all. I guess it’s obvious that the best birth certificate to use fraudulently is a genuine one. Normally, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to get one. In many states, birth certificates and death records are part of the public record and are readily available to anyone for the asking. I’ve seen estimates that more than 80 percent of requests for birth certificates are processed through the mail for people who gave nothing more than a name and a return address. Some states have a few requirements, but nothing so onerous that a smart criminal can’t circumvent them. For instance, in certain states, only the next of kin or an attorney can request the birth certificate. But you don’t have to go to law school to become a lawyer. All you need to do is pay a visit to a print shop and get some business cards and letterhead that will transform you into a lawyer, enough of one, at least, to get access to public records.

As with checks, forgers are adept at altering birth certificates. The biographical information is printed onto the surface of the paper. This means it’s easy for the forger to remove it either mechanically or chemically, substitute new information, and be left with a genuine document imprinted with phony information, which can be very hard to detect. And with document scanners, computers, copiers, and the other technologies I’ve mentioned, it’s quite simple to run off counterfeit birth certificates that will pass muster.

I’ve designed high-tech birth certificates for a number of states to guard against counterfeiting and alteration. The security features void the document if someone tries to copy it or chemically change it with bleach, acetone, or other substances. But I tell state officials, “This isn’t going to stop an impostor from getting someone else’s actual birth certificate. You need to make it harder for that to happen.” And their response is, “Well, we know that, but that’s another issue.”

I no longer get involved in securing a state’s birth certificate or driver’s license, if they’re not going to close the other loopholes. A few years ago, I worked on the Florida certificate. Florida makes it very hard to get a legitimate birth certificate. But the document itself was easily counterfeited. And with all the illegal immigrants down there, it was a highly desirable piece of paper. In Miami, a Florida birth certificate had a street value of five thousand dollars. So I designed a very secure document, and the counterfeiting problem has abated.

PICK A LICENSE, ANY LICENSE

Driver’s licenses were initially intended simply to confirm that the holder had the right to drive in the state. But our customs have transformed them into commonly requested identity documents as well. And that has made them of keen interest to criminals.

The validity of a license is hard to determine, because there are so many in circulation and they differ so much. There are hundreds of variations, depending on when and where they were issued. In many states, you can get a legitimate driver’s license simply by showing a driver’s license from another state. Virginia, for instance, does that. So if you get away with passing off a counterfeit Kansas driver’s license in Virginia, bingo, you can obtain a real Virginia one.

In California, they spent a fortune on their new driver’s license. They put holograms on them, used sophisticated sealants in the printing, just poured a ton of money into the design. And a few months after the new license was introduced, the police arrested a forger with fifty licenses in fifty different names. Why? Because it was still easy for someone to go to the Driver’s License Bureau and get a license with false identification. I told the state, “All you’ve done is stop some kid from changing the birth date on his license in order to buy a beer.”

Either close all the loopholes, or you’ve closed none.

FEELING SECURE?

Another case in point is the U.S. passport. We all know how handy a fake passport is to a crook on the lam. So it makes a lot of sense to really secure it. The passport has long had some good features, and I added a new one a few years ago. For the U.S. passport, I helped develop with Standard Register a technique called Mirage Image, which adds encrypted information onto the passport photo. When you put a special piece of milled glass over the photo, your name and birthday are visible. The passport has become a hard document to successfully counterfeit, which is why a fraudulent American passport commands ten thousand dollars on the streets.

Unfortunately, the other loopholes haven’t been closed. Nearly anyone can acquire a fake Social Security card and birth certificate that are good enough to get a genuine passport. Until these other documents are made more secure, the passport remains at risk. Right now, the U.S. Social Security card is about as vulnerable as it gets. Border Patrol Agents routinely intercept thousands of fake Social Security cards every year at traffic checkpoints. In 1999, they collected something like a hundred and twenty thousand of them, more than one every five minutes. This is frightening, because the Social Security card has become our ad hoc identity card, enabling the holder to collect government benefits and to certify that he’s eligible for employment. When you flash a Social Security card, people know you’re for real.

At the moment, there are more than twenty different versions of the Social Security card, and they vary a great deal in their security features. Earlier cards, meaning those issued prior to October of 1983, have no security features whatsoever. Those issued since then contain various things like intaglio engraving and microprinting. But criminals know that it’s possible to get a genuine Social Security card if you have one of two other documents: a birth certificate or a resident alien card.

In recent years, the INS has been steadily tightening its own documents. Just a few years ago, the INS had twenty different types of Permanent Resident and Employment Authorization cards that were valid, too many for comfort. Now there are just five. No longer are the cards good for a lifetime, the way Social Security cards are, but expiration dates have been added, which enables the agency to update photos and implant new security features when a card is replaced. One new feature is a personalized engraving of the person’s photo, signature and biographical data right on the optical stripe. These are important steps in the right direction, for they make it just about impossible for counterfeit cards to be mass produced.

BALL PARK PRANKS

Large public events of any type—sporting, political, religious—invariably draw a great many uninvited participants: crooks. Con artists go where the money is. Wherever there are crowds, there are opportunities for scams. You’d be amazed at how common it is for criminals to make counterfeit tickets and passes. It routinely happens at the World Series, the Super Bowl, and big golf tournaments. Two disasters at soccer matches where scores of fans were injured, some seriously, were attributed to stadium overcrowding. Why were the stadiums so crammed? Because thousands of people had gotten in after buying counterfeit tickets from scalpers.

I’ve worked on a lot of golf passes and the Disney World pass. Generally, I put an invisible dot on them. Then the guard at the entrance gate has a reader that reveals it. Disney also has cruise ships. Most of the employees are foreigners who need a special pass that allows them to get on and off the ship, and so I designed a secure version of that, too, which is printed by the Standard Register Company. With these documents, it makes no sense to incorporate the level of security features that you would put into a check, because you have to consider the value of what you’re securing. If a pass is worth $30, it only pays to put maybe one security feature on it. But a check can cost you millions of dollars.