ILLUSTRATION BY MOLLY ROSE DYSON
39Q&A Advice From a Former Con Artist
Frank Abagnale was a notorious impostor. He wrote Catch Me If You Can
about his exploits. After doing time he became a security consultant to the
U.S. government. His book Scam Me If You Can: Simple Strategies to Outsmart
Today’s Rip-off Artists is out this month. �Dimitra KessenidesThe cybersecurity battle can seem like a losing
one—is it?
Every breach, without exception,
happens because somebody
in that company did something
they weren’t supposed to do or
somebody failed to do something
they were supposed to do—hackers
don’t cause breaches, they take
advantage of them. Equifax [Inc.]
didn’t fix its tech, it didn’t update
patches, so the hackers got millions
of pieces of data.So this falls mostly on companies to fix?It falls squarely on the company
that is not putting proper
procedures in place and not
training its people. Companies
must do a better job of educating
employees and making sure
they understand that the most
important job they have is keeping
the information entrusted to them
by their clients, customers, and
citizens safe, whether they are the
CEO or the janitor.Isn’t technology part of the problem?
Yes, but that’s also companies
not doing what they’re supposed
to. Most of the technology that
goes through to consumers, the
companies never follow through—
they want to get it out fast. Mostdon’t develop a device—like the
voice-activated assistants—and
then say, “Now, before we put this
in the marketplace, how do we
build it to block hackers?”How would you try to persuade Americans
suffering from hacking fatigue to protect
themselves?
We’ve all had our identity stolen.
I have. I mean, more than 1 billion
IDs have been stolen in the U.S.,
and there are only 240 million
people—so we know hackers have
the data. Will they ever get around
to using it? Maybe not. Many scams
are ones you can prevent by just
knowing what to listen and look
for. In every scam, no matter how
sophisticated or how amateur, there
are two red flags: I’m going to ask
you for money—wire me the money
immediately—or I’m going to ask you
for information—what’s your Social
Security number?Knowing this can
prevent a lot of scams.What’s one thing we should be doing
but aren’t?
Until last September, only eight
states allowed you to freeze your
credit for free. It had become
costly and timely, especially for
seniors. Congress passed a law
prohibiting the credit-monitoring
companies from charging to
freeze credit. That’s not going to
stop a hacker from getting your
information from Capital One
[Financial Corp.], but it will keep
scammers from getting your
name and using it to open a bank
account in your name, get credit in
your name, buy a car in your name,
get a mortgage in your name, getmedical treatment in your name,
get a job in your name, or commit a
crime in your name.Who’s most vulnerable?
Statistically, millennials fall for
more scams, but seniors lose
more money. Most scams, when
we look at the statistics, aren’t
reported. The smartest people
in the world are scammed, so
it’s nothing to be ashamed of. If
you don’t tell anybody—a senior
might think, I don’t want to tell my
daughter, because she’ll take away
my independence—nothing will be
done, and it doesn’t help.Total security is a fantasy, right? Is it possible?
It’s not, and the reason is because
you cannot have convenience and
security at the same time. People
tend to want convenience, and they
don’t want to give it up.Scams have changed a lot since your con man
days. What’s one of the biggest changes?You know, in the old days, the con
man, the con woman, had a little bit
of compassion. Today, no emotion
enters into it because con artists
never see their victims—it’s data on
the internet. I was 16 when I started
as a con man, I had no fear. But as
I got older, my conscience started
to bother me. I used to walk into
the bank and cash a forged check.
Then, as I got older, I’d say, “I hope
the teller won’t lose her job,” and
that started to bother me. If I had
been doing that today, over the
internet, never seeing them, I don’t
think I would have felt that way.