Famous Fraudster Says 6 Months to Forge ID Card

ONE of America’s most famous fraudsters arrived in London yesterday to warn Britain about identity theft.

Frank Abagnale, 58, whose life story inspired the Leonardo DiCaprio film Catch Me If You Can, is to advise banks, utility companies and large retailers on how to combat fraud.

His advice to the Government is that identity cards will provide new and greater opportunities for identity theft. And he has told the public: never trust e-mail, buy a “criss-cross” shredder and employ a security company to monitor your bank account 24 hours a day ...

... Plans to introduce identity cards will be even more problematic because “there will be so much information about someone on one card”, Mr Abagnale said. “It’s more information to steal. You will be dealing with someone in a government office on a low salary. The details are going to be vulnerable. These sorts of cards are very easy to forge.”

And how about ID cards - like the one the UK government is pushing to introduce as quickly as possible?

"I give it six months before someone replicates it perfectly," he says. "Everything you need to clone an identity is in one place."