Frank Abagnale was born in Bronxville, New York, and lived there until he was sixteen. His first con victim was his father, who gave him a gasoline credit card and a truck when he was fifteen, so that he could get to and from his part-time job. Instead of using the card to buy gas as intended, Abagnale used it to buy tires, batteries, and other products at gas stations and then sold the products to people for cash. His father was liable for a bill of $3,400 for all the products Abagnale charged to the card.
Abagnale's next tricks focused mostly on cashing personal checks for money that was not in fact in his bank account. This never works for long at a single bank, so he began to open other accounts at different banks, eventually adopting several different identities to enable this. Abagnale's cons grew in scale and sophistication. He became very skilled over time, and he devised a variety of schemes for defrauding banks.
As his crimes became increasingly serious, Abagnale went on the run and adopted a variety of false names and identities to evade police.

License information: CC BY-NC 2.0
MPAA: PG-13
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