the american frank abagnale is considered the biggest forger in modern history. he baffl ed the security and federal investigation services in america and several european countries for many years, and dazzled their agencies while he was still a teenager. because of the funny part of his story, hollywood produced a movie ‘catch me if you can’ and went on to win many awards for the exciting and funny events.
a b a g n a l e was born to an american father and a french mother. he studied at a strict catholic school in bronxville, new york. he started scamming when he was sixteen. his parents’ separation played a role in his deviance. he defrauded his father and managed to rob him of $3,400, using his bank card to buy fake spare parts.
at the next stage, he succeeded in convincing the famous pan american airline company, at the same age, that he was a pilot, and he flew 1.6 million km, during which he visited 66 countries, without paying a dollar, by claiming that his mission was to bring a plane from another airport.
he slept and ate in the most luxurious hotels, with the company bearing all his expenses. he fled after it became clear that he had been exposed to the company. he got a job as a pediatrician in a famous hospital in another state, with the help of his doctor friend, with whom he shared an apartment.
he also worked as a lawyer, after successfully forging a law degree from the harvard university, and reached the position of attorney general of the state of louisiana, at the age of 19.
abagnale was arrested for the first time in france in 1969 when he was working for air france. he was imprisoned for six months and was handed over to sweden, but his lawyer there dropped the charge against him, so sweden handed him over to america.
while on the flight, he escaped by taking off the toilet seat, and decided to collect his savings and flee to brazil, via canada, but he was arrested in montreal and extradited to america, and he succeeded again, in 1971, in escaping from prison.
after several attempts and various frauds, he was arrested and received a 12-year prison sentence. after seven years, he was released in exchange for helping the federal authorities, without pay, in uncovering fraud crimes.
abagnale tried working in various professions, such as cooking, grocery, and fi lm production, but he failed in them due to his criminal past. but a bank manager, convinced of his talents, agreed to hire him to help him uncover fraudulent tricks, and thus began his life as a security consultant.
in 2015, abagnale was named a fraud watch ambassador for aarp, where he teaches clients, via online programs and social forums, how to protect themselves from identity theft and cybercrime.
in 2018, he began presenting a radio program entitled “the complete fraud,” which talks about fraudsters and the nature of their work. abagnale currently lives on daniel island with his wife, kelly, and their three sons.
the occasion for writing about this fraudster goes back to the “success” of a filipino domestic worker in hiding and disappearing from the eyes of all state agencies for more than 31 years, after she fled from her sponsor’s house in 1993, and she was finally caught ... by coincidence!
the citizen who told her story called on the authorities to form committees and create an information base that would help using the worker’s testimonies, to help the security forces find out how many people have succeeded in ‘disappearing’, as if they were ghosts, in a small country like kuwait.
how did she live without an identity, or with false identities, and who protected her, and how did she visit hospitals, and how did she manage her affairs during the two years of corona and where did she live and work? have you committed crimes, for example?
the abagnale of kuwait needs to be studied, and perhaps a statuette made of it.