Episode Details

Catch Me If You Can

Cyber security and credit protection advice from the real Frank Abagale

The man who inspired the Stephen Spielberg billion-dollar blockbuster movie, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, who worked for the FBI for 40 years advising governments and corporations on cyber security recently gave a talk at Google.

His advice on how to protect yourself against cyber crime might surprise you and even scare you.

In case you haven’t seen the movie, it tells the story of how a 16-year-old boy managed to con his way onto airlines and fly free all over the world posing as a pilot. He also defrauded banks out of millions of dollars through cheque fraud and worked as a hospital doctor and a lawyer despite leaving school at 16 never having studied medicine or law at university.

He was eventually caught in France and spent years in French and Swedish prisons before being extradited back to America where he spent four years of a 12 year sentence in a federal prison for his crimes.He was given a ‘get out of jail’ card when asked by the FBI to join the fraud team (the only person ever to have been asked) where he has had a glittering career.

Technology breeds crime

Answering an audience question, Franks said that today it is far easier to commit fraud and steal from banks, companies and people through cyber-crime.

However, he added that nearly all security breaches are caused by people either not following procedures or committing crimes from the inside.

Millions of people are victims of fraud, such as identity theft, phishing and card cloning.

Here are two of Franks’s top tips to protect yourself.

1. Never use a debit card. Frank only uses credit cards, which are safer and easier to replace if it has to be cancelled due to fraudulent use. If someone gets hold of your debit card details they can wipe out the contents of your bank account because they are an extension of that account.

This is a useful tip for building a strong credit rating because as long as you pay the balance off each month your credit rating will go up.

He also gave his children credit cards, rather than debit cards, when I went to college, but control the limits and spending as he was the guarantor. This had the added advantage that his children were able to build up a credit rating during the college years which enabled them to obtain a mortgage purchase a house much earlier.

1. Monitor your credit rating on a monthly basis.

There are a number of companies which offer the service and he suggests using a company where you can login and monitor your own credit rating with the various credit reference agencies. That way, you can see in real time whether someone has used his details or searched his credit details.

This is great advice from the man who sent it all from both sides and virtually wrote the book on the subject.

Nowadays, so many things are connected to credit history. It used to be only important when you applied for a loan or mortgage. Now, every time you open an account, apply for insurance, utilities, mobile phone contract, renting a property and even applying for some jobs your credit history is checked. There are number of ways you can protect and build your credit rating which require very little effort. The important thing is to stay on top of it.

Here are my top 7 tips for protecting your credit rating:

1. Protect your credit rating with your life, because so much of your life depends on your credit rating! This is serious stuff, so don’t play around with it.
2. Check your credit rating regularly and protect it by never allowing you