Frank Abagnale, who evolved from being a brilliant young mastermind of international deception and fraud into one of the world's most respected authorities on forgery and embezzlement, tells his life story. His intercontinental saga prompted Steven Spielberg to turn Abagnale's life into the movie *Catch Me If You Can* starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Frank William Abagnale Jr. is an American security consultant best known for his history as a former confidence trickster, cheque forger, skilled impostor, and escape artist. He became notorious in the 1960s for successfully passing $2.5 million worth of meticulously forged checks across 26 countries over the course of five years, beginning when he was 16-years-old. In the process, he claimed to have assumed no fewer than eight separate identities, successfully impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, a Bureau of Prisons agent and a lawyer. He escaped from police custody twice (once from a taxiing airliner and once from a US federal penitentiary), all before he was 21-years-old. Abagnale's life story provided the inspiration for the feature film Catch Me If You Can. He is currently a consultant and lecturer at the academy and field offices for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also runs Abagnale & Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company.