Customer Reviews

The Art of the Steal: How to Protect Yourself and Your Business from Fraud, America's #1 Crime

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Art of the Steal by Frank W. Abagnale is a must have for anyone with money. Abagnale, recently of "Catch Me If You Can" movie fame, was one of the youngest and most successful con-men of our time. After serving time and leaving the dark side for good, Abagnale reformed into the anti-criminal. This book uncovers the world's most common scams and describes ways to prevent them. The key word here is prevention.

Among the frauds that Abagnale describes are: credit card fraud, check fraud, embezzlement, counterfeit fraud, ATM fraud, brand-name fraud, and for all of you reading this, Internet fraud. He also discusses Indentity theft as the most important fraudulent trend of the 21st century.

I particulary enjoyed the dry and often humorous tone of this book. It is so typical of Abagnale. If I had one complaint about the book it would be that there were not enough preventive measures discussed. I wanted more.

Did this book change the way I live my life? Absolutely. I have changed many of my practices to help prevent fraud in my daily dealings. A book that can motivate someone to do that, has to have value. When it comes down to preventing fraud, knowledge is key. I therefore recommend this book to all. May we become smarter, more aware, and minimize the impact of fraud in our lives.

Abagnale is enjoying recent publicity with the release of "Catch Me If You Can," and I caught an interview with him on TV. I wanted to read "The Art of The Steal" in part because of Abagnale's incredible life (or more accurately lives)and also because of my own research interests in criminal behavior, especially antisocial Internet behavior. The book is a great glimpse into the mind of an intelligent con man. There's always a loophole, an angle...Abagnale opens your eyes to them either for entertainment or for business/information security improvement.

At times it sounds like he is gloating about his cons, but that is a small price to pay to get his explanations about how some of these cons work. His outline of one cash register scheme was so incredible to me, I had to act it out with play money to my wife.

This is a short read, but a blast to someone who enjoys learning about how the other side works.

Frank Abagnale gained notoriety in his youth as a master forger and imposter. He passed over two million dollars of phony checks and he pretended to be a doctor, a lawyer and an airline pilot during his successful crime spree. Abagnale described his misdeeds in his first book, "Catch Me If You Can." After years on the run, Abagnale was finally caught and he served prison time. Finally, he decided to give up his criminal ways and he is now making more money than he ever did as a criminal. For twenty-five years, Abagnale has been a "fraud prevention specialist." He helps businesses to recognize and prevent common types of fraud.

In his new book, "The Art of the Steal," Abagnale explains that fraud is big business and everyone is affected by it. The billions lost by businesses as a result of fraud are partially recovered by raising consumer prices. Fraud is more common today than ever before, with the growth of the Internet and other forms of modern technology. Today, it is easier than ever to print checks that look like the real thing and to create false identity papers. In addition to counterfeit money, counterfeit goods (including medicines and baby formulas) flood the market. Ponzi and pyramid schemes and other investment scams are still going strong.

Why is "The Art of the Steal" an important book for consumers and businessmen? Unfortunately, most people are complacent about security issues, and we don't take even the most obvious steps to protect ourselves from frauds and scams. Abagnale encourages us to be more careful about giving away important personal information over the Internet or the telephone. He warns us to shred personal papers before throwing them in the trash, and to be aware that if an offer appears too good to be true, that it probably is a scam. He also explains how businesses can avoid becoming the victims of embezzlers. Statistics show that embezzlers steal over $100 billion dollars a year from their employers.

The only negative I have about "The Art of the Steal" is that it is written in a dry and pedestrian manner, with a number of grammatical mistakes that the editor did not catch. However, the quality of the writing aside, "The Art of the Steal" is a worthwhile book. Considering the necessity of protecting ourselves from the myriad types of fraud and scams that are out there today, it is important for all of us to be more knowledgeable and circumspect about security issues.

This is a very easy-to-read and useful compendium of information about common forms of fraud
and how to protect yourself from them. I've read numerous books of this type, and this is
the one I would recommend most highly today for being up-to-date and comprehensive. Abagnale
often gives unsourced anecdotes, but there are several that I recognize from newspaper or
other accounts I've read. My only real complaints with the book were that Abagnale says he uses
his children's birthdays for his PIN numbers (p. 149) which is bad advice given the ease
of obtaining birth certificates, his account of being the victim of credit card theft
over the Internet (pp. 151-153) doesn't seem entirely accurate unless he really did submit
his credit card number, and his statement about viruses arising from mere copying of legitimate
software (p. 176) is incorrect. He also missed an opportunity to warn about fake escrow
sites (p. 162). Apart from this, however, I think the book contains very valuable warnings
and advice.

Every person who has two pennies to rub together should read this book. This book should be required reading for ALL law enforcement, consumer finance, and business management personnel, to name just a few.

I went through this book at just under the speed of sound. Abagnale took a whole bunch of valuable and complex information and covered it with a string of fascinating and funny stories so that you swallow the whole thing straight down and don't realize how much you learned while being entertained.

One tip that hasn't made its way into the book yet: Gel pen ink is the only ink forgers and counterfeiters have not yet learned how to wash off. Buy a cheap gel pen and use it to sign all your checks and credit-card slips.

I typically read and review books on digital security. I bought "The Art of the Steal" (TAOTS) after being captivated by "Catch Me If You Can." TAOTS is an incredible book, but not because it is a masterpiece of English literature. Rather, TAOTS is an amazing and personalized tour of a seedy underworld where ingenuity serves evil purposes. In this dark economy, criminals prey on the ignorance, greed, or benevolence of their victims. It's worth taking the time to read TAOTS, because it can help prevent you becoming a victim.

I simply couldn't imagine some of the scams Abagnale explains. The audacity of the criminal mind cannot be underestimated. The author's discussions of check fraud, embezzlement, and creative ways to cheat retailers astounded me. His explanation of counterfeiting currency was especially prescient, as this week the US Treasury announced multicolor $20 bills. I wonder if Abagnale was consulted?

Although I really enjoyed the book, I gave it four stars. Abagnale should have included citations for his fraud stories. Otherwise, how can one be sure the tales are fact and not fiction? I would have also like a "lessons learned" or "best practices" summary at the end of each chapter. Nevertheless, I echo Tom Hank's recommend that everyone who has money should read TAOTS.

Frank Abagnale got a lot of attention with his first book Catch Me if You Can. However I very much doubt that this book would have made him as popular as the first one did.

This is by all means a good and informative book. However, I based my expectation based on the authors earlier work. I will not get into the details of the content of the book, because I think that the title makes it clear what the book is all about.

Compared to the authors firs book, which was captivating, entertaining and really difficult to put down, this one falls a bit flat. Yes, there is some interesting information, but I got the feeling that he was rushing from one topic into another as he was writing the book. In other words it feels a bit dry and many times I felt that he was just listing some facts and examples without getting enough into details.

Another thing that did not meet my expectations is the fact that his whole attitude made a 180 degree turn. What makes Franks first book fun is the fact that he is a lovable scam artist. This time he looks down on scams and calls other scam artists criminals. Again, had I not had an expectation based on the first book by the same author my opinion would be completely different.

All in all if you like to read about scams you should get some new information from this book, but I doubt that it will captivate you.

"Art of the Steal" is an informative book from master confidence man Frank Abagnale. It begins as a sequel to Abagnale's "Catch Me If You Can" (filling in the years between the end of the first book and Abagnale's reinvention as a fraud-prevention guru), and quickly becomes a sort of reference book and strategy guide, enumerating numerous prevalent financial scams, and describing sensible techniques for preventing fraud. Abagnale speaks at length about check, credit-card and ATM fraud, counterfeit designer apparel and consumer goods, Internet-based fraud, and security features of modern U.S. currency. The book is well-organized, with plenty of anecdotes throughout (the most entertaining is a phone scam in which somebody uses a 1-900 area code to achieve dubious results). Overall, "Art of the Steal" is not quite as much fun as "Catch Me If You Can", but it's an admirable effort nonetheless. This is a more business-minded book, where you'll find lots of good information, if it's the sort of information you're looking for.

Amazing! This book by Frank Abagnale will open your eyes very quickly to the world in which we live.

At first I was hesitant to support an ex-con by purchasing his insights; however, I discovered that his information has always been public knowledge, but only to criminals. Therefore, by making known the elaborate scams taking place today, he provides long overdue education to the good, law abiding individual, and he never charges fees to law enforcement authorities for his input.

He covers everything from checking accounts, credit cards, currency, telephone, internet, shopping, to most importantly: the stealing of one's identity. He details the importance of staying abreast of one's credit, and to the importance of being proactive vs. being reactive.

Most importantly, the book is engulfed with many real life examples. I'd highly recommend this reading to anyone, not just business. This is the crime of the future, which is already here, that will unfortunatley affect many of us.

Beyond being a latter-day America folk hero, Frank Abagnale has a critical and detailed eye. As they say, the devil is in the details. Understanding the details that allow fraud and theft to succeed can help prevent the individual and small business from being taken by practiced scam artists. Whether the scam is for $20 or $20,000, the tactics are the same - confidence. The criminals want to build trust and confidence within victims to the point where people are begging the crooks to take their money. As Abagnale says: "Be impressed with the check, not the person." Over and over this book illustrates how examining the details of paperwork, checks, money, and documentation instead of trusting a smile or handsome face will save you from loss. One of the most telling points of this book is that even in this age of cybercrime, paper-fraud quietly and rapidly increases. Get this book and be entertained as well as shocked.