Catch Me If You Can

Frank Abagnale, Jr., knows something about fraud. And he knows a lot about forged checks.

By the age of sixteen, he was a runaway, faking his way through life. Why did he leave home?

There was no pressure on me to leave, although I wasn't happy. The situation on my dual home front hadn't changed. Dad still wanted to win Mom back and Mom didn't want to be won...

I had no plans to run away. But every time Dad put on his postal clerk's uniform and drove off to work in his old car, I'd feel depressed. (Catch Me If You Can, page 21)

Saying goodbye to no one, Frank walked out of his parents' lives and didn't return for many years. He thought it might be a good idea to pose as an airline pilot:

What if I were a pilot? Not an actual pilot, of course. I had no heart for the grueling years of study, training, flight schooling, work and other mundane toils that fit a man for a jet liner's cockpit. But what if I had the uniform and the trappings of an airline pilot? Why, I thought, I could walk into any hotel, bank or business in the country and cash a check. Airline pilots are men to be admired and respected. Men to be trusted. Men of means. And you won't expect an airline pilot to be a local resident. Or a check swindler. (Catch Me, page 27)

Frank Abagnale, real-life check forger, turned himself into a fake airline pilot. Of course, he didn't use his real name. And he did NOT learn how to swindle from his father.