Frank Abagnale: AI Will Make This Common Scam Much WorseArtificial intelligence is predicted to be either humanity's biggest boon or its dire finish.
Now into the fray comes Frank Abagnale Jr., security consultant and subject of "Catch Me If You Can," his autobiography that inspired the film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, about his teenage years as a fraudster.
"AI is going to be a criminal's dream come true," Abagnale tells ThinkAdvisor in a recent interview. "Technology breeds crime. It always has, and it always will."
AI can capture someone's voice without the person realizing it, and this ruse helps criminals gain access to financial information. One route that fraudsters take is forging checks.
Even in an age of online payments, people are still writing billions of paper checks. Criminals are stealing checks out of U.S. Postal Service mail boxes, washing checks with chemicals to alter the payee's name and check amount, bribing private truck drivers for access to corporate mail and other nefarious acts.
As a teen, Abagnale forged $2.5 million in checks, for which he served 12 years in prison. For the past 50 years, he has worked as an unpaid consultant to the FBI, providing his expertise in forgery, embezzlement and secured documentation, and he remains popular on the lecture circuit.
Abagnale & Associates' clients include Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Beyond writing "Catch Me If You Can," Abagnale authored "The Art of the Steal," about check forging and counterfeiting. His most recent book is 2019's "Scam Me If You Can: Simple Strategies to Outsmart Today's Rip-off Artists."
In the phone interview, Abagnale advises financial advisors with high-net-worth clients on how they can avoid being victimized: For instance, use high-security checks such as those from SAFEChecks or write them with a Uni-Ball 207 pen, whose ink can't be washed or altered.
Here are excerpts from our conversation:
THINKADVISOR: Why is check forgery seriously on the rise?
FRANK ABAGNALE: It's become much easier to do because of technology. There are so many ways to get hold of checks and alter them. Criminals are always looking for the easiest way. They aren't looking for challenges โ they're looking for opportunities.
There will always be criminals who aren't smart enough to know how to get on a computer and make demands with ransomware or commit other cyber-related crimes.
It's somewhat surprising that so many people are still writing checks instead of paying online. Thoughts?
Checks are still very relevant in our society, especially on the commercial side.
I get so many emails from people who have had their savings wiped out because of forged checks.
Doesn't new technology help prevent this type of crime?
All the automation and AI that we're coming up with just makes it easier for criminals.
AI is going to be a criminal's dream come true. Technology breeds crime. It always has, and it always will.
There will always be people using technology in a negative, self-serving way.
Why will AI be so enabling to criminals?
There's nothing it can't do. And things can be done so easily. Criminals will take advantage of these tools, as they always have.
What's an example of criminal use of AI?
If you get a phone call, and someone says, "Mrs. Clark?" and you say, "This isn't Mrs. Clark. You have the wrong number," that's all they need.
Now they have your exact voice. So they can pretend to be you.
They can create anything โ passports, driver's licenses. With AI, they can simply replicate whatever the document is.
Will check forgery increase because of AI?
Oh, yes. Twenty-five years ago, a reporter asked me, "When will we see the paperless society?" I said: "When you see the paperless toilet."
And 25 years later, people are still writing billions of checks.
What are some methods that crooks use to steal checks and private information?
There's check washing with chemicals. If you write a check to me and someone steals it out of a [USPS] mailbox, they can remove my name and the amount of the check and put in a new name and new amount and then deposit that check into their account.
What's another way?
Let's say I take a check out of the mailbox that you made out to ExxonMobil for $600. I write my own account number for deposit on the back and take it to the ATM.
That check will automatically go into my account because no human being will see it.
A big bank, like Chase, Bank of America or Citibank, may not look at checks under $50,000. A small or medium-size bank may look only at checks over $5,000.
So it's very easy to get by the bank.
What can people do to avoid being victims of check forgery?
It's up to the consumer whether they catch it in their bank statement.
The law says you have 30 days from receipt of your statement to notify the bank of any discrepancy.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don't reconcile their bank statements. You can't believe how many people and companies, especially smaller businesses, don't reconcile; they don't even open their statements.
So how would they know if someone forged a check?
What's another way that fraudsters are using someone else's checks for their own gain?
They replicate the mailbox key that the mail [carrier] uses to open the mailbox.
In addition, all the big Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies contract with drivers to get their mail.
They go to the post office every morning in a little white van, pick up the mail for a company and deliver it.
But along the way, these guys [often] get bribed.
For instance, [the criminals] tell them: "Stop on 41st Street, and let me come in the truck."
Then they go through the mail, pull out a few checks, and the driver continues on.
Please talk about thieves selling checks on the dark web.
Not only do they steal the checks, they steal all the account numbers. If I know your bank account number, routing number, name and address, I can create a check on my computer, and it's going to clear the bank.
So I don't need the actual check. I just need the information on that check. These people make up checks with your information and start writing them.
[Forging checks is a crime] that's so simple to commit. If I steal a business check that's made out to you, using the same font, I type, [a line up in the payee space]: "Frank Abagnale and/or Jane Wollman [Rusoff]" and deposit it. That check is going to clear.
What's the punishment for check forgery?
There's very little. They're not sending people to jail for murder, burglaries and robberies โ so it's less likely they'll be sending you to jail for altering or forging a check.
If they catch you, they have to find out who you are and prove that you did it.
In my day, they caught me and sent me to prison for 12 years.
What happens nowadays?
Even if you're caught, there would be no bail. So you probably wouldn't even show up for a court hearing.
If you did, you'd probably end up with probation or community service.
What should financial advisors be telling their clients about these serious issues?
You might have a client with a high wealth management account or private banking account who could have, say, $100,000 or $1 billion in it.
Yet they write checks off that account at the grocery store or CVS for $20.
Companies like Merrill Lynch encourage [clients] to use [their firm's checks].
If somebody [unscrupulous] gets one of those checks, they can simply deposit it and then have access to a lot of money.
What else could happen if advisory account checks are used for payment in stores?
[A criminal] could say to a kid working there, "Here's how you can make a lot of money: When somebody comes in and writes a check that says, "Wealth Management" or "Private Banking" on it, all I need you to do is write down the person's name, the bank name and the account number.
"Put the check in the register, but text me the information and I'll send you $100 via Venmo.
That's another way they can get your information and create a check. It's going to clear because there are so many checks written, and the banks rarely look at them.
What should advisors say to their clients to protect their assets from forgers?
"Do not use those checks to pay for things at CVS or the grocery store."
Also, tell them that in order to protect the money in their account, they need to be using a high-security check, like one from SAFEChecks or at least a Uni-Ball 207 pen, which has ink that can't be changed.
Then they don't have to worry about somebody washing or altering the check.
Tell me more about SAFEChecks.
It has security built into them. Most companies aren't putting a lot of security in their checks.
Almost 30 years ago I designed a check for SAFEChecks. They've never had any of those checks forged, altered or counterfeited.
I built them so you couldn't wash a check or alter it because it's too difficult to do.
Can't banks do something about check forgeries?
There's software that major banks can use to detect these things, but small or medium-sized banks don't want to spend the money to do it.
[SOURCE]
https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2024/01/11/fra...scam-much-worse 
Apr 27 2025, 01:37 PM, updated 8 months ago
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