Abagnale knows from experience how easy it is to steal aperson’s identity and says it can be done with little more than aname, date of birth, and birthplace. Abagnale, who is portrayed byLeonardo DiCaprio in the movie “Catch Me If You Can,” is one of themost famous impostors and claimed at least eight identities in hisyouth.
"If you tell me your date of birth and where you're born [onFacebook], I'm 98 percent [of the way] to stealing youridentity," he said at an Advertising Week Europe conference onWednesday. "Never state your date of birth and where you wereborn [on personal profiles], otherwise you are saying 'come andsteal my identity.'"
Abagnale has spent the past 37 years working as a securityexpert for US law enforcement agencies. He was captured for hiscrimes in 1969, but only served five years in prison before the USgovernment offered him a deal: he would be released from prison ifhe agreed to help the feds investigate crimes committed by otherfraudsters and scam artists.
With decades of work for the FBI, Abagnale has become acutelyaware of the dangers posed by social media sites like Facebook.Aside from the information that users upload, having a Facebook canalso make users susceptible to tracking – particularly if a userconnects his or her devices to their profile. One virus, forexample, allows hackers to track a Facebook user’s physicallocation, even if their cell phone is not currently logged on tothe website.
Another program that is owned by Google has the ability torecognize faces and match them with profiles on social networkingsites, such as Facebook. This can all be done “in just sevenseconds,” Abagnale said. If someone were to snap an image on aniPhone of a passerby and upload that photo to an app, likePittPatt, that app could then be used to determine who that personis.
But even though Facebook and Google offer ways for people todistribute their personal information, Abagnale believes users holdthe responsibility of their own Internet safety. He urges users tobe careful about what they fill out and to make smart decisions –because ultimately, people can control what they put on theweb.
"Your privacy is the only thing you have left," he said."Don't blame all the other companies – Google, Facebook – youcontrol it. You have to keep control of your owninformation."
Although his three sons have Facebook accounts, Abagnale hastaught his children how to use the site without putting themselvesat risk of identity theft, tracking or other sorts of unwantedprivacy violations.
And with the advancement in technology, the former conman sayscriminals are capable of much more than they were when he was achild.
“What I did was almost 50 years ago and it’s about 4,000times easier today to con people than when I did it,” he toldWired. “To forge a check 50 years ago, you needed a Heidelbergprinted press, you had to be a skilled printer, know how to docolor separations, negatives, type-setting… those presses were 90feet long and 18 feet high… Today, you open a laptop.”
And with information easy to come by, especially when Facebookusers post their personal information on their profile, fraudstershave everything they need in the confines of their home and alaptop.
“Technology breeds crime,” Abagnale said. Conmen nolonger have to be well-dressed, charming and well-spoken; conmenjust need an Internet connection.
