Frank Abagnale - The Art of the Steal

We sorely need stiffer penalties and real jail time for white-collar criminals. I think it’s ridiculous that if I have drugs on me I’ll get five or ten years in prison, but if I rip off $20 million I’ll probably get probation. I’ll give you another solution that I’ve been propagating without success for years. Companies don’t care enough about losses from fraud, because in most cases they can deduct a hundred percent of their losses from their income taxes. By lowering their taxes, that write-off cuts their losses significantly. Well, if Congress passed a law that said from now on businesses can deduct only half of their losses from fraud, companies would wake up and get much more proactive and fraud would decline. But who’s going to introduce such a bill, and who would vote for it?

One thing we can do without any legislation is teach our kids better ethics. I was talking with a top executive of a big company, and he told me something his teenage son confided to him. After school lets out, his son gathers with his friends in the parking lot and they take out their homework sheets. They look at the math assignment and divvy it up: “You do problems 1–5, you do 6–10, I’ll do 11–15. And then we can e-mail each other the answers.” It was a sobering discovery. The executive told his son, “You get an A for creativity and a D for not learning anything.”

I heard about high school students at another school who were counterfeiting tickets to the annual school musical and selling them. There’s hardly any money involved—but it’s the thrill of the scam. Otherwise decent kids are being corrupted, because it all seems so harmless. It’s not about lawbreaking as much as beating the system. Everyone wants to get from point A to point B as quickly as they can.

I’m not trying to overly scare you. I don’t like habitually skeptical people, and it’s not my desire to breed a country of paranoid citizens. But in this land of milk and money, I’ve seen too many cons, come across too many phony products, watched too many slick pitches. Once you become a victim of a major fraud, your whole life changes. It takes the average person two years to clear his or her credit once it’s been corrupted. And it may take a lifetime to recover from the emotional anguish.

You need to start looking at the world the way I do, with eyes wide open. Ask me when fraud will stop and the answer is never. Fraud has become one of the constants of life. To bet against its continued inroads without action being taken is a sucker’s bet. We have to decide: Do we take control of fraud, or does fraud take control of us? We have the might to reduce fraud. The question is, do we have the will?

APPENDIX

[FRAUD RESOURCES]

Abagnale & Associates

(800) 237–7443

www.abagnale.com

Secure document consultants.

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)

(800) 424-3410

www.aarp.org

A national organization of people fifty years or older, it offers tips on fraud prevention, especially crimes against the elderly.

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

(800) 245-3321

www.cfenet.com

An international organization dedicated to fighting fraud and white-collar crime through prevention and education.

Authentication News—Reconnaissance International

www.reconnaissance-intl.com

(303) 779-1096—U. S.

44 (0) 1784-497008—England

A trade publication that covers counterfeiting of all manner of products and news of the latest techniques to combat counterfeiting.

Boise Cascade

(503) 224-7250

www.bc.com

A leading manufacturer of secure check stock. Although individuals or companies can’t buy checks from them, printers can purchase their paper.

Consumer Federation of America

(202) 387-6121

www.consumerfed.org

A national organization of consumer groups, it dispenses information on fraud and acts as an advocate for consumers.

Council of Better Business Bureaus

(703) 276-0100

www.bbb.org

An organization of local Better Business Bureaus, it provides consumer assistance and tries to arbitrate consumer complaints. It can direct you to your local Better Business Bureau.

Council of Foundations

(202) 466-6512

www.cof.org

A nonprofit association of grantmaking foundations, this is a good resource to check on the legitimacy of a charity or foundation.

Department of Justice—Identity theft:

www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.htm

This government website offers tips on how to prevent identity theft and lists recent cases.

Equifax

Credit Bureau

(800) 525-6285 (report fraud)

www.equifax.com

One of the three major credit reporting agencies. It furnishes information and tips about preventing fraud.

Experian

Credit Bureau

(888) 397-3742

www.experian.com

Another of the major credit reporting agencies that also offers suggestions on guarding against fraud.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

(202) 324-3000

www.fbi.gov

The Justice Department’s law enforcement arm, the FBI investigates federal crimes and offers tips on fraud prevention and lists of the most common frauds.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

(800) 934-FDIC

www.fdic.gov

The entity that insures bank deposits and promotes sound banking practices. It provides consumer assistance in dealing with banking matters under federal consumer protection laws.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

(202) 326-2222

www.ftc.gov

The government agency that enforces many federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. The place to go for information, or to file a complaint for things like loan scams, telemarketing fraud, charity scams, phone swindles, lottery scams, and identity theft.

Immigration and Naturalization Services

(202) 514-1900

www.usdoj.gov

The government agency that deals with immigration matters, and the place to go for information about passport fraud and scams involving fraudulent immigration documents.

InterGov

(317) 823-0377

www.intergov.org

An international organization devoted to safe use of the Internet, it offers online scam prevention services.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

(800) 829-1040

www.irs.ustreas.gov

The IRS provides information on tax frauds and investigates tax crimes and related financial crimes. Companies can report embezzlers to the IRS and consumers can file complaints about fraudulent or deceptive charities with the agency.

The Nilson Report

(805) 983-0448

www.nilsonreport.com

The leading trade publication covering consumer payment systems.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

(800) 613-6742

www.occ.treas.gov

The agency of the Department of Treasury that regulates national banks and deals with fraud involving these banks.

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

(619) 298-3396

www.privacyrights.org

A nonprofit consumer information, research, and advocacy program that offers tips on how to safeguard your personal privacy. It deals with issues like Internet privacy, identity theft, telemarketing, medical records, workplace privacy, among others.

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