The Art of the Steal Read Online Free Page A
Author: Frank W Abagnale
life the wrong way. I feel I’ve been handed a rare and precious gift. Clearly, I’m in a flourishing industry. For so many people, fraud has become the tactic of maximal gain. Fraud has grown so enormous throughout the world that it touches everyone. To be honest, it will never go away. If I lived to be four hundred years old, I’d still have a good job.
One of the nice things about my new life is that I’m making more money trying to prevent fraud than I ever did by committing fraud. Going straight does pay.
Estimates are that businesses lose an unprecedented $400 billion a year from fraud of one sort or another. I’m not talking about armed robbery, burglary, or narcotics, but fraud. It’s a staggering sum, equal to twice the budget of the U.S. military. If we were able to do away with fraud for just two years, we’d erase the national debt. We’d pay off Social Security for the next one hundred years.
Today bank tellers and salespeople are asked to accept so many different forms of payment, not just cash and checks but traveler’s checks, credit cards, debit cards, money orders, NOW accounts, and credit union share drafts. Each and every one of them is susceptible to fraud. And it’s not only embezzlement of money that’s a problem. It’s also embezzlement of information. Because information has become extremely valuable. And so far as restitution is concerned? Unheard of.
About a third of that $400 billion is from embezzlement, employees stealing from their employer. Out of embarrassment, the vast majority of companies never report these thefts to the police. They merely fire the employee, then tell human resources that if they receive a call about this person, say that they worked here but no longer work here. Consequently, the person goes on to steal from somebody else.
One of the things that always amuses me is that back when I was on the other side of the law, it was harder to commit fraud than it is now. You’d think it would be the opposite. And five years from now, it will be easier than it is today. And that’s because of one word—technology. Technology breeds crime and it always has. Thirty-five years ago, if I had to make a check, I literally had to print the check, and so I had to be a skilled printer. I had to know how to do color separations, make negatives, and make plates. It was very time-consuming and tedious. Today, sitting at home in an apartment with a PC, a scanner, a color printer, and a color copier, you can reproduce just about any type of document, including hard cash.
So when people ask me, if I were a con artist today, what would be different? I tell them, “Instead of making $2.5 million, I’d make $20 million. It’s that much easier.”
And we look on white-collar crime a lot differently. China, many years ago, printed a warning on its currency that whoever forged counterfeit money would be beheaded. Until the early 1800s, forgery in England qualified as a hanging offense. Justice got a bit more civilized, but thirty-five years ago you at least got sent to prison. Today, I’d probably get probation or community service, and maybe have to make some restitution. That’s not deterrence, that’s encouragement.
It’s a dark, morally ambiguous world today, but one problem we have in our society is that people don’t really care if some big company was embezzled for $100,000. They figure that’s the company’s problem; they’ve got billions. Instead, people want to know what law enforcement is doing to clear the streets of murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and other violent criminals. People want them off the street, because they pose a physical threat. If you ask them about some guy selling counterfeit Gucci bags for twenty bucks down by the supermarket, their reaction is, “Well, I don’t care about that. If the purse looks good, I’ll buy one myself.” In addition to the cost of fraud, counterfeit goods are responsible for $350 billion in losses in the
One of the nice things about my new life is that I’m making more money trying to prevent fraud than I ever did by committing fraud. Going straight does pay.
Estimates are that businesses lose an unprecedented $400 billion a year from fraud of one sort or another. I’m not talking about armed robbery, burglary, or narcotics, but fraud. It’s a staggering sum, equal to twice the budget of the U.S. military. If we were able to do away with fraud for just two years, we’d erase the national debt. We’d pay off Social Security for the next one hundred years.
Today bank tellers and salespeople are asked to accept so many different forms of payment, not just cash and checks but traveler’s checks, credit cards, debit cards, money orders, NOW accounts, and credit union share drafts. Each and every one of them is susceptible to fraud. And it’s not only embezzlement of money that’s a problem. It’s also embezzlement of information. Because information has become extremely valuable. And so far as restitution is concerned? Unheard of.
About a third of that $400 billion is from embezzlement, employees stealing from their employer. Out of embarrassment, the vast majority of companies never report these thefts to the police. They merely fire the employee, then tell human resources that if they receive a call about this person, say that they worked here but no longer work here. Consequently, the person goes on to steal from somebody else.
One of the things that always amuses me is that back when I was on the other side of the law, it was harder to commit fraud than it is now. You’d think it would be the opposite. And five years from now, it will be easier than it is today. And that’s because of one word—technology. Technology breeds crime and it always has. Thirty-five years ago, if I had to make a check, I literally had to print the check, and so I had to be a skilled printer. I had to know how to do color separations, make negatives, and make plates. It was very time-consuming and tedious. Today, sitting at home in an apartment with a PC, a scanner, a color printer, and a color copier, you can reproduce just about any type of document, including hard cash.
So when people ask me, if I were a con artist today, what would be different? I tell them, “Instead of making $2.5 million, I’d make $20 million. It’s that much easier.”
And we look on white-collar crime a lot differently. China, many years ago, printed a warning on its currency that whoever forged counterfeit money would be beheaded. Until the early 1800s, forgery in England qualified as a hanging offense. Justice got a bit more civilized, but thirty-five years ago you at least got sent to prison. Today, I’d probably get probation or community service, and maybe have to make some restitution. That’s not deterrence, that’s encouragement.
It’s a dark, morally ambiguous world today, but one problem we have in our society is that people don’t really care if some big company was embezzled for $100,000. They figure that’s the company’s problem; they’ve got billions. Instead, people want to know what law enforcement is doing to clear the streets of murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and other violent criminals. People want them off the street, because they pose a physical threat. If you ask them about some guy selling counterfeit Gucci bags for twenty bucks down by the supermarket, their reaction is, “Well, I don’t care about that. If the purse looks good, I’ll buy one myself.” In addition to the cost of fraud, counterfeit goods are responsible for $350 billion in losses in the
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