I went from 198 pounds to 109 while I was in prison in France, and I had to tie my clothes on with rope.
A lot of times, when I met somebody and took them out on a date, I obviously didn't tell them my background, because I didn't think I'd see them but once or twice.
Had I been older, I would've never been able to pull it off because I would've analyzed it to death. When I was 16, there was no such thing as 'what if.'
A lot of people say I was brilliant. I wasn't. I was an opportunist: a young entrepreneur who saw things and took advantage.
When I was 28 years old, I thought it would be great to have a movie about my life. I was egotistical and self-centered.
I always knew I'd get caught sooner or later. And I knew I would end up going to prison.
I know that people are fascinated by what I did as a teenager, but what I did was immoral, illegal, unethical, and something that I am not proud of - nor will I ever be proud of.
I make my home in Tulsa.
Unlike most divorces, where the children were usually the first to know, my parents were very good about keeping that a secret.
Too many of us are vulnerable, and I look forward to working with AARP to advise people about the safest ways to conduct their financial transactions and manage social media.
I teach ethics at the FBI academy, which is ironic.
I'm glad I'm a draw. People know that, not only am I the guy that did it, I spent 40 years on the other side.
It is amazing the information we give away. We make it easier and easier for criminals.
I have never witnessed, nor will I live long enough to witness, a more simplistic crime than me stealing your identity.
You fight technology with technology, so you have to stay one step ahead of the criminal. It's very much a chess game - they make a move, you have to make a move.
You should know, whether you live in the U.S. or in the U.K., that your identity has already been stolen.
You have to believe in what you do. Take something you truly believe in and go about it in an honest way.
It's about taking the time to research and think things out. Honest people and criminals do the same thing; just the direction, good or bad, is different.
Almost any fault, sin or crime is considered more leniently if there's a touch of class involved.
I learned early that class is universally admired.
Every form of payment has some risk associated with it.
If I check into a hotel, a lot of times, they know who I am.
Most people don't recognize me, but they know my name. TSA people rarely recognize my name, ironically, and they are the security people.
I don't believe that a piece of paper will excuse my actions. In the end, only my actions will.
If I wanted to lay down a baby con, I could say I was the product of a broken home. But I'd only be bum-rapping my parents.
You get to a point in your life where you go, 'I don't remember what I did.'
It's amazing how much information we share in social media, then we wonder why people steal our identity.
I didn't sit outside the bank and plan. I just went in and ad libbed because I was so young. But I was smart enough to know I would absolutely get caught.
Had I been older - maybe 25 or 30 - I would have never tried half the things I did because I would have rationalized everything and never did it.
If I had walked into a dry cleaning store, and I had looked over, and the register drawer was open with money inside, I wouldn't have taken it.
I didn't like taking money from individuals.
People care about others in their immediate network.
My father was never really the con-man type that the film shows him to be: he was straight as an arrow, though he did have problems with the IRS.
Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye played my parents so well that I really thought I was in my living room at Christmas. My mother couldn't have been played more correctly.
Airline pilots are men to be admired and respected. Men to be trusted. Men of means. And you don't expect an airline pilot to be a local resident. Or a check swindler.
I partied in every capital in Europe, basked on all the famous beaches, and good-timed it in South America, the South Seas, the Orient, and the more palatable portions of Africa.
I wasn't a Pan Am pilot or any other kind of pilot.
One thing I've found is that if you educate and show people the risk, they will do something about it.
We really need to get control over Social Security numbers. My children's generation, they're past it. But their children should be able to have a number that is secure.
One of the most popular scams is what they call account takeover. You write me a check, and I simply go online to a check-printing service and order 200 checks with your account information.
At the FBI, very rarely do they investigate crime under $100,000.
We buy into the computer, and everything that comes from the computer, we believe to be the truth.
You have to be very limited in who you give your social security number to.
I spent five years of my youth in prison - some very bad prisons.
People have found very significant and simple ways to cheat their employer and get money out of their employers, and many companies lack good internal controls.
When I look back at my life now, I'm not amazed by what I did at 16 to 21.
I owe a debt to my country 800 times greater than I could ever repay.
I use a credit card for everything - and I choose one of the ones which gives you money back.
When people write about me, they usually start off with the headline 'World's Greatest Con Man.'
While I was on an undercover assignment in Texas, I met my wife, Kelly.
I never use debit cards. I only use credit cards. This way, if someone does get my account number... and charges $1 million, by federal law, my liability is zero.
You cannot rely on the police, you cannot rely on the government, you cannot rely on the bank to protect you.
You have to be smarter and a wiser businessperson and consumer. You have to learn to protect yourself through education.
The Internet can be used to hurt many people.
Mostly, cybercriminals are motivated to commit crime for financial gain.
Criminals know that if they stay under certain thresholds, nobody is going to come after them.
I served my time and came out of prison when I was just 26 and have worked with the government for 37 years. But people only remember me for what I did before that.
It's quite flattering to have Leonardo DiCaprio play you in the movie. He's a great-looking young man.
If I had the uniform on, you didn't doubt for a moment I was a pilot. No one ever blinked an eye if I tried to cash a cheque wearing that uniform.
If you took a child in London and took their iPhone and took them somewhere else in the country, they'd probably not be able to find their way back. That's a shame.
If I had been brilliant or a genius, I wouldn't have needed to break the law just to survive.
The law sometimes sleeps; it never dies.
It's amazing to me that we live in such a wonderful country where anyone can have a problem in life and get up, dust themselves off and start all over again.
I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.
I think my wife understood from the day I met her how important she was to me and how important it was for me becoming a husband and a father.
When people ask me about being portrayed onscreen by Leonardo DiCaprio, I always say, 'I love it - no matter how old I get, people are going to think that's what I look like.'
My proudest moment was probably when my oldest boy finished law school and went on to become an FBI agent. It was just beyond my imagination that - with my background - my own son would become an FBI agent.
Whether you're earning $7 an hour or $700,000 a year, it's very important to protect your credit rating.
I don't use a debit card. The safest thing is a credit card because you're using the bank's money. If someone accesses your information, they are stealing the bank's money, not yours.
I'm a true believer that you have a moral obligation to keep your employees honest, and that is why you have controls, so I'm never tempted or put in a position where I could do something to defraud my employer.
Why do the Yankees always win? The other team can't stop looking at the pinstripes.
What I did in my youth is hundreds of times easier today. Technology breeds crime.
I don't do online banking.
In all the years I've taught at the FBI Academy, I've only seen crime get easier, faster, and harder to detect.
I speak at a lot of universities, and people are always worried about Facebook, and when I explain how to use it properly, they immediately go back and make those changes.
The biggest thing that concerns me is when we start getting countries using cybercrime to shut down infrastructure, electricity, communications systems, the Internet, et cetera.
The Internet is a wonderful thing, but it opens the door to many crimes, so you have to stay ahead of it.
If you happen to tell me where you were born, your date of birth and that kind of information, then I'm 98 percent of the way to stealing your identity.
Only one thing makes a man a man. He loves his wife, is faithful to her, and puts his wife and kids as the most important things in life.
Everything I have today was because of the love of a woman.
I was always accepted at par value. I wore the uniform of a Pan Am pilot; therefore, I must be a Pan Am pilot.
I taught at the FBI for four decades - how to think outside of the box and deal with social engineering.
If my forgeries looked as bad as the CBS documents, it would have been 'Catch Me In Two Days'.
We're coming down to an extremely unethical society. Very few colleges offer courses in ethics, and very few companies have a code of conduct or code of ethics.
By the time I had reached the age of 16, in the 10th grade, my parents, after 22 years of marriage, one day decided to get a divorce.
Technology breeds crime and we are constantly trying to develop technology to stay one step ahead of the person trying to use it negatively.
I would have thought technology would have made it harder to do what I did.
There is no technology today that cannot be defeated by social engineering.
I think I was so successful, not because I was brilliant, but because I was so young. I had no fear of consequences.
Every breach you look at occurred because somebody inside did something they weren't supposed to do. Sometimes there's an accomplice, but most of the time, it's innocent.
There's no such thing as a foolproof system. That idea fails to take into account the creativity of fools.
People say that life is short, but it isn't short. It's very long.
The front of a cheque alone gives someone enough information to steal your identity.
I was just a guy who ran away from home at 16 because my parents were getting a divorce and the judge was making me choose which parent to live with. I didn't want to make that choice. I ended up in New York City.
If you tell me your name and date of birth, that's all I need to steal your identity.
Most people don't reconcile their bank accounts.
You can sit in a room and create anything you want on a laptop. That's why the real con men are gone.
You have to think a little smarter, be proactive, not reactive.
We all grow up. Hopefully, we get wiser. Age brings wisdom, and fatherhood changes one's life completely.
The truth is, your identity already has been stolen.
Nothing has brought me more love, joy and peace than being a good husband and good daddy.
A real man loves and respects his wife and is not only a good father but a man that his kids want to call 'Daddy.'
A real man loves his wife, and places his family as the most important thing in life. Nothing has brought me more peace and content in life than simply being a good husband and father.
