Frank Abagnale Quotes
-
I know that people are fascinated by what I did as a teenager, but what I did was immoral, illegal, unethical, and something that I am not proud of - nor will I ever be proud of.
-
In the old days, a con man would be good looking, suave, well dressed, well spoken and presented themselves real well. Those days are gone because it's not necessary. The people committing these crimes are doing them from hundreds of miles away.
-
We buy into the computer, and everything that comes from the computer, we believe to be the truth.
-
Why do the Yankees always win? The other team can't stop looking at the pinstripes.
-
I contend that there really are no more con men. There's no need for con men anymore. There's no need for the very sophisticated, suave guy, the well-dressed guy. Today, you steal with the computer from thousands of miles away - from China, from Libya, from Hong Kong. Your victim's never going to see you, so there's no need to be any of that.
-
You have to think a little smarter, be proactive, not reactive.
-
Airline pilots are men to be admired and respected. Men to be trusted. Men of means. And you don't expect an airline pilot to be a local resident. Or a check swindler.
-
I made a lot of exits through side doors, down fire escapes or over rooftops. I abandoned more wardrobes in the course of five years than most men acquire in a lifetime. I was slipperier than a buttered escargot.
-
Criminals know that if they stay under certain thresholds, nobody is going to come after them.
-
When people write about me, they usually start off with the headline 'World's Greatest Con Man.'
-
A lot of times, when I met somebody and took them out on a date, I obviously didn't tell them my background, because I didn't think I'd see them but once or twice.
-
I was always accepted at par value. I wore the uniform of a Pan Am pilot; therefore, I must be a Pan Am pilot.
-
I'm a true believer that you have a moral obligation to keep your employees honest, and that is why you have controls, so I'm never tempted or put in a position where I could do something to defraud my employer.
-
You fight technology with technology, so you have to stay one step ahead of the criminal. It's very much a chess game - they make a move, you have to make a move.
-
There is no technology today that cannot be defeated by social engineering.
-
I make my home in Tulsa.
-
My father was never really the con-man type that the film shows him to be: he was straight as an arrow, though he did have problems with the IRS.
-
The Internet can be used to hurt many people.
-
I kept a notebook, a surreptitious journal in which I jotted down phrases, technical data, miscellaneous information, names, dates, places, telephone numbers, thoughts, and a collection of other data I thought was necessary or might prove helpful.
-
Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye played my parents so well that I really thought I was in my living room at Christmas. My mother couldn't have been played more correctly.
-
We really need to get control over Social Security numbers. My children's generation, they're past it. But their children should be able to have a number that is secure.
-
My proudest moment was probably when my oldest boy finished law school and went on to become an FBI agent. It was just beyond my imagination that - with my background - my own son would become an FBI agent.
-
I taught at the FBI for four decades - how to think outside of the box and deal with social engineering.
-
I'm glad I'm a draw. People know that, not only am I the guy that did it, I spent 40 years on the other side.