--- title: The Guy From 'Catch Me If You Can' Says It's Much Easier to Scam People Today description: Frank Abagnale Jr., who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in "Catch Me If You Can," says it's a lot easier to do what he did today authors: - name: Lisa Marie Segarra url: https://money.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 44 covers: - Identity Theft - Business - Career Advice - Economy and Politics - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/lisamarie_lynn former_staff: true published: '2017-09-22T18:03:19.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T06:53:11.000Z' section: Identity Theft tags: - onetime - Scams word_count: 217 canonical: https://money.com/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![DreamWorks Premiere of Catch Me If You Can - Jeff Kravitz](https://img.money.com/2017/09/gettyimages-111153169.jpg) *Frank Abangale Jr and Leonardo DiCaprio during Dreamworks Premiere of Catch Me If You Can at Mann Village Theater in Westwood, California, United States.* [Frank Abagnale Jr.](https://time.com/70245/5-amazing-stories-of-runaway-kids/), who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in [*Catch Me If You Can*](http://motto.time.com/4216226/world-travel-movies/item/catch-me-if-you-can/), says it's a lot easier to scam people the way he did today. "I always tell people what I did 50 years ago as a teenager is now 4,000 times easier to do today than when I did it. Technology breeds crime—it always has and it always will. There’s always going to be people willing to use technology in a negative, self-serving way. So today it’s much easier, whether it’s forging checks or getting information," Abagnale told the Wall Street J*ournal*. He added that using social media makes it easy to find information like someone's maiden name, their children's name, their car or when they're on vacation. More specifically, he noted that the "grandparents scam" is particularly common — when someone calls a grandparent using a spoof number and pretends their grandchild needs to be bailed out of jail. Abagnale also noted that paying with checks can make your account vulnerable very easily, as the account and routing numbers are prominently displayed on the check when it is passed to a store clerk. "It’s amazing to me that people are writing $9 checks from their wealth-management account, their private banking account, and giving them to some stranger in a store," Abagnale said. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Identity Theft", "item": "https://money.com/identity-theft/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Scams", "item": "https://money.com/scams/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Guy From 'Catch Me If You Can' Says It's Much Easier to Scam People Today" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/", "name": "The Guy From 'Catch Me If You Can' Says It's Much Easier to Scam People Today", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-09-22T18:03:19.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:53:11.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Guy From 'Catch Me If You Can' Says It's Much Easier to Scam People Today", "articleSection": "Identity Theft", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/09/gettyimages-111153169.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1375, "caption": "DreamWorks Premiere of Catch Me If You Can - Jeff Kravitz" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lisa Marie Segarra", "url": "https://money.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/lisamarie_lynn" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-09-22T18:03:19.000Z", "description": "Frank Abagnale Jr., who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in \"Catch Me If You Can,\" says it's a lot easier to do what he did today", "abstract": "Frank Abagnale Jr., who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in \"Catch Me If You Can,\" says it's a lot easier to do what he did today", "@id": "https://money.com/frank-abagnale-catch-me-if-you-can-scams-easier/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:53:11.000Z", "wordCount": 217, "keywords": [ "onetime", "Scams" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Identity theft", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Scam", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scam" ] } ] } ] } ```