Book Review

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

By Frank Abagnale & Stan Redding

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake, is a non-fiction book co-
written Frank Abagnale himself and in his own perspective. He was a famous
conartist and an expert check-forger. Even though the book is written as an
autobiography, the book was co-written by Abagnale and author Stan Redding.
Originally published in 1980, Catch Me If You Can became famous when a 2002
film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio was released.
The book also inspired a Broadway musical of the same name.
Talking about the summary of the book; Most of Catch Me If You Can talks about
Frank Abagnale’s experience as a con artist from 1964 to 1969. Between the ages
of 16 and 21, Abagnale takes upon a wide variety of professional disguises and
acquires jobs accordingly. These professions include a co-pilot, a doctor, a lawyer,
a sociology professor, an FBI agent, and U.S. Bureau of Prisons agent. With the
cashing of over $2.5 million in forged cheques, Abagnale is able to live a luxurious
lifestyle, purchasing high quality suits, expensive cars, and traveling around the
world.
Tired of constant travel, Abagnale moves into a luxury apartment outside of
Atlanta and takes an identity of a doctor to avoid questions from the landlord.
After this, Abagnale jumps from town to town and takes the identity of a lawyer
and a sociology professor.
Both to ease his restlessness and to stay away from the FBI, Abagnale decides to
reassume his pilot identity and go to Europe. He flies around Europe, cashing fake
cheques.
Abagnale again grows weary of his constant movement and decides to settle in
rural France. There, he is caught and imprisoned by the French police. The French
prison conditions were harsh and affects his health. Next, he is extradited to
Sweden, where prisoners are treated with care and dignity. He is then sent to
prison in the United States. While in the U.S., he manages to escape police
custody twice.
After serving four years in a prison, Frank found it very difficult to find a job. He
decided to profit from his criminal talents and reputation and got to work for the
FBI. Frank obtained a job as an American security consultant, and remains
considered one of the country’s leading experts on financial foul play which is
mentioned by the end of the book.
I found it very interesting that at the start of the book, Abagnale explains how he
impersonated a pilot, doctor, lawyer, and college professor and made millions of
dollars all at the tender age of 19.
Just the fact that he impersonated these professionals in such a skillful way and
managed get away with everything had me intrigued to read more.
What I found the most fascinating is, while Frank clearly became a criminal and
possibly suffering from his issues that affected his mental state, he was just
extremely talented and clever. For instance, when he decided to start presenting
himself as a pilot for Pan Am, he didn’t just put on the uniform and see what
would happen but he also researched the terminology, equipment, and even a bit
about Pan Am too, to make sure he could really blend in without being suspicious.
He even made himself a fake ID card and pilot’s license that multiple actual
professionals looked at and did not realize were fake.
I realize I may be glorifying this guy’s criminal talents, and maybe I am, but if
you’ve read this book, I’m sure you can understand my amazement. Pulling
something like this off is really impressive for a 17 year old boy.
Talking about my experience, not only was the story fascinating, impressive and
most importantly based on a true story, the book was incredibly well written too.
You can literally tell that you are reading a book written by an intellectual. Also
the first person perspective made it easier to get a glimpse into the incredible life
of Abagnale. Although he was a criminal, the part where he was thrown into
solitary confinement made me feel for him. It was really fascinating to see how an
individual can take the identity and personality of completely a different
individual of completely different profession. However at the same time it is
frightening how he could make such cheque frauds so easily and for such a long
period of time without being caught. It was such a relief to find out towards the
end of the book that Abagnale is now using his talents and skills to help the FBI
employees to deal financial forgeries, cheque frauds and with con artists like
himself.
When I first read the book’s title, ‘Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real
Fake’, I expected the book to be revolving only around the criminal and the
people chasing after him for whatever might be the reason. However the book
revolves around the autobiography and early life of Frank Abagnale from his
perspective and how he disguised himself as various professionals and made
money illegally at a very young age and shows a much larger picture. The delivery
of the content and story was very close to my expectations from the book.
There’s a great deal of lessons to be learned from his life, but here are a few that
most stood out to me:
Through his life story, Abagnale taught me that confidence is the key, the first
time Frank boarded a plane impersonating a pilot, he had never even been to an
airport! So how did he successfully trick a plane full of flight professionals? He
acted like he was supposed to be there. Even when his gut was churning on the
inside, on the outside he projected unshakable confidence. When in doubt, fake it
till you make it.
He impersonated some of the most educated careers in America without any
knowledge of background education. But he had an ability to learn quickly and
think on his feet, allowing him to blend well with his highly educated colleagues.
So next time you see some required qualifications on a resume don’t panic, use
your natural abilities to compensate.
Frank is able to easily change his appearance to meet the “character” he is
impersonating. From this I learnt that if we have an interview for an upper
management position, Dress like we already have the job. Appearances can be
deceiving, make people believe you deserve to be there.
His story also teaches us that age is just a number. When he was only 17,
Abagnale had already forged hundreds of thousands of checks, and impersonated
business professionals, effectively conning everyone into believing his story.
Abagnale was just a 16 year old kid when he ran away from his home. He had
never been on a plane and knew little about the banking system he was about to
take on for the next 5 years. Now he owns a multi-million dollar security
consulting company and is one of the FBI’s most well respected educators on
fraud. This wasn’t an overnight occurrence, it took time and lots of on the spot
education, but if you never try you’ll never know.
To conclude Catch Me If You Can is a great story. Funny, memorable and so much
to learn from. If you love a books based on true stories or if you are interested in
a crime or dramatic genre, then this book is for you.