What are the famous pretense incidents in history? Taking stock of Frank Abagnale’s pretentious life

Speaking of people who pretend to be god-like, we have to mention the most legendary American fraudster in the world. Before he was 21 years old, he successfully disguised himself as a lawyer and a pilot. , doctor, professor, and he is also the youngest wanted criminal in the history of the FBI in the United States. And now, he has transformed into the ace security consultant of the US FBI. For this person, showing off is no longer a practice, it is simply a form of self-defense, and he has spent his whole life pretending. This man is Frank Abagnale!

The first time Frank showed his "talent" for fraud was when he was 15 years old

That year, Frank's father wanted him to give him He refueled his car (yes, he was still a second-generation rich man) and gave him a gas card. However, Frank gave full play to the environmentalist spirit of low-carbon travel - instead of using the money in this card to refuel, he went to the gas station to buy a bunch of car accessories, and then returned them to cash.

Whether this matter is a big deal or not, it is my father who is being tricked anyway. Normally his parents can just go home and give him a good beating. But what no one expected was that this was just Frank's "debut work" in his "fraud" career.

Next, the good show officially started

Out of guilt for his father about the gas card incident, Frank decided to go out alone to prove the meaning of his life. After running away from home, Frank found a living on the streets of New York - being a gangster. However, after working for a few days, I felt that these people were simple-minded and had strong limbs, so they would never become great people, so I felt ashamed to associate with them.

Although Frank abandoned his gang of friends at this time, the problem of food and clothing has become a big problem. However, Frank, who couldn't bear to beg for food, confirmed the saying "Hunger is the most important productivity" - after many days of painstaking research, Frank actually forged a bad check that could withdraw money!

And he felt that this was not enough, and he needed to play at a higher level.

He first went to the bank and got a lot of blank deposit slips, then printed his own account on the deposit slips, and then secretly transferred these The deposit slip is returned to the bank.

The result of this is: successfully incorporating other people’s deposits into your own account, highlighting a white wolf with nothing.

In the process of committing bank fraud, he also discovered that the profession of pilot is conducive to developing "business" to every corner of the earth, so he decided to pretend to be a pilot.

After a period of selection, he set his sights on Pan Am Airways. He first called Pan Am's purchasing department and told him that his pilot uniform had been lost in the hotel and he needed a replacement. Then after getting an address where uniforms could be replaced, he made up a work number and deceived the staff to get the uniforms.

Photos of Frank when he was a pilot. After getting the uniform, Frank immediately called the ID production company and said that he wanted to make a batch of IDs in their company and needed to go to their company to see the version. The production company thought it was a big deal and received Frank with tea and water.

In this document production company, Frank successfully found a sample of Pan Am's work permit, and then he told his boss:

"I think this version is okay, you take mine first." Let’s make a prototype with the photos and information, and I’ll show it to our colleagues when we get back, and we’ll decide if it works.”

In this way, Frank got the Pan Am work permit and the pilot’s boarding pass. During the process of making the certificate, Frank pretended to be a college student and conducted a series of "interviews" with the person in charge of Pan American Airways, and obtained first-hand information about being a pilot of the company.

At this point, a "pilot" who can do everything except fly a plane was born.

According to Pan Am records, before Frank was discovered, he flew 1,600,000 kilometers for free in 26 countries. And during this period, there were countless luxury hotels where he could eat and drink.

And most importantly, this helped Frank commit fraud in banks around the world. Fake deposit slips printed with his own deposit account number followed his footsteps and spread to every corner of the planet. What’s even more terrifying is The local police couldn't catch him at all. The tactic of shooting and changing places was a perfect match for the profession of pilot.

Although the matter was later exposed, he managed to escape with his amazing acting skills...

The Internet conditions at that time were not like they are now, so the police discovered these criminal records There was generally no video data at the time, but when the police station finally learned of Frank’s whereabouts, they were about to go in and round up the police with their guns raised. Unexpectedly, Frank rushed out first, waved his wallet in front of the police and said :

"I'm from the FBI. Is XXX here?"

"I don't know. If he is here, he might be in front."

"Okay. , you guys stay here, I’m going to see if XXX is here.”

At this point, Frank, who had just passed away from the life of squatting, decided to wash his hands and stop engaging in financial fraud. However, he also successfully became the youngest wanted fugitive in the history of the FBI - he was 17 that year.

After washing his hands, he fled to Atlanta. When renting a house there, the form required him to fill in his professional information. Probably because he was embarrassed to fill in that he was a "fraudster" or "unemployed vagrant," he actually filled in the form. He knew that he was a doctor, and the funny thing was that his neighbor happened to be a doctor.

'Doctor Frank' was probably because his doctor neighbor was a little excited when he heard that Frank was also a doctor. After going back and forth, Frank actually became familiar with this doctor neighbor, and after that Frank made a strange mistake. He was promoted to the position of doctor, which can be said to be a pretense.

Fortunately, his position is usually to manage intern doctors, and he has never encountered a situation that requires him to go into battle in person during his term of office. However, he also understood that it was only a matter of time before someone discovered him if he continued to do this. With a responsible attitude toward life, Frank resigned.

After that, Frank’s addiction to pretending to be a certain profession became more and more intense, and sometimes he got too involved in the drama and actually became a practitioner - after making a girlfriend who was a flight attendant. , he met through his girlfriend, a lawyer who worked in the state attorney's office.

At that time, Frank was already very good at bragging. With his sharp tongue, the other party quickly believed that Frank was a talented student who graduated from Harvard Law Department.

But do you think Frank sneaked into that lawyer's firm and pretended to be a lawyer? Well, Frank, who wanted to make a big deal, actually took the U.S. judicial examination on the advice of this lawyer - —Of course, before that, he didn’t forget to go to the fake ID dealer to get himself a Harvard University diploma.

From then on, Frank’s daily life consisted of visiting the library to study law. After finally swimming in the ocean of knowledge for a while, Frank, who took the U.S. Judicial Examination for the third time, actually passed the U.S. Judicial Examination and obtained a lawyer's license. After becoming a lawyer, his monthly salary reached 13,000 US dollars. You need to know that But in 1967, he was only 19 years old!

Later, a real Harvard graduate came to the law firm, and he especially liked to chat with Frank about every detail of his studies at Harvard. Frank, who had a guilty conscience, because This one quit his job as a lawyer.

After resigning from the law firm, Frank also went to the university and pretended to be a university teacher. The method he used was not much different from before. It was nothing more than relying on his excellent eloquence and obtaining fake certificates... .

Later, Frank gave up the teaching job because the income was too little. But this was Frank's last disguise, because after that, his ex-girlfriend, who was a flight attendant, reported him to the police, and he was successfully jailed. He was 21 years old that year.

At this point, Frank's fraud career is officially over. Looking back on his fraud career in just a few years, Frank got almost everything that people dream of, including money, beautiful women, and social status. But what should not belong to you will not belong to you after all, so Frank spent 5 years in jail. After being released from prison, he became penniless and worked as a waiter.

But the legendary story of his life is not over yet!

After learning that Frank lived a very miserable life after being released from prison, the FBI agents were very sad. A genius criminal artist fell into this trap, and after that, the FBI hired Frank back as a security consultant...

As the saying goes, "There are specialties in the industry." , Frank, who became a security consultant, was just as comfortable as Fan Wei who opened the anti-scam hotline back then - not only did he teach FBI agents every day, but all the fraud cases he had handled were immediately discovered like a child.

In addition, Frank also published an autobiography, the title of which was later used by Spielberg as the film title "Cat and Mouse Game".

Now Frank not only owns his own security consulting company, but also designs security checks used by banks and consortiums. The service fees paid to him every year are millions of dollars...< /p>

Of course committing a crime is wrong, but if we talk about the famous show-off incident in history, I think it must be him. . .