Synthetic intelligence is predicted to be both humanity’s largest boon or its dire end.

Now into the fray comes Frank Abagnale Jr., safety guide and topic of “Catch Me If You Can,” his autobiography that impressed the movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, about his teenage years as a fraudster. 

“AI goes to be a legal’s dream come true,” Abagnale tells ThinkAdvisor in a current interview. “Know-how breeds crime. It at all times has, and it at all times will.”

AI can seize somebody’s voice with out the particular person realizing it, and this ruse helps criminals achieve entry to monetary data. One route that fraudsters take is forging checks.

Even in an age of on-line funds, individuals are nonetheless writing billions of paper checks. Criminals are stealing checks out of U.S. Postal Service mail containers, washing checks with chemical compounds to change the payee’s title and examine quantity, bribing personal truck drivers for entry to company mail and different nefarious acts.

As a teen, Abagnale cast $2.5 million in checks, for which he served 12 years in jail. For the previous 50 years, he has labored as an unpaid guide to the FBI, offering his experience in forgery, embezzlement and secured documentation, and he stays well-liked on the lecture circuit.

Abagnale & Associates’ purchasers embrace Financial institution of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Past writing “Catch Me If You Can,” Abagnale authored “The Artwork of the Steal,” about examine forging and counterfeiting. His most up-to-date e-book is 2019’s “Rip-off Me If You Can: Easy Methods to Outsmart At this time’s Rip-off Artists.”

Within the telephone interview, Abagnale advises monetary advisors with high-net-worth purchasers on how they’ll keep away from being victimized: For example, use high-security checks corresponding to these from SAFEChecks or write them with a Uni-Ball 207 pen, whose ink can’t be washed or altered.

Listed below are excerpts from our dialog:

THINKADVISOR: Why is examine forgery significantly on the rise?

FRANK ABAGNALE: It’s turn into a lot simpler to do due to expertise.  There are such a lot of methods to pay money for checks and alter them. Criminals are at all times in search of the simplest manner. They aren’t in search of challenges — they’re in search of alternatives.

There’ll at all times be criminals who aren’t sensible sufficient to know the way to get on a pc and make calls for with ransomware or commit different cyber-related crimes.

It’s considerably shocking that so many individuals are nonetheless writing checks as a substitute of paying on-line. Ideas?

Checks are nonetheless very related in our society, particularly on the business facet.

I get so many emails from individuals who have had their financial savings worn out due to cast checks.

Doesn’t new expertise assist stop this sort of crime?

All of the automation and AI that we’re developing with simply makes it simpler for criminals.

AI goes to be a legal’s dream come true. Know-how breeds crime. It at all times has, and it at all times will. 

There’ll at all times be individuals utilizing expertise in a unfavorable, self-serving manner.

Why will AI be so enabling to criminals?

There’s nothing it could’t do. And issues could be accomplished so simply. Criminals will make the most of these instruments, as they at all times have.

What’s an instance of legal use of AI?

If you happen to get a telephone name, and somebody says, “Mrs. Clark?” and also you say, “This isn’t Mrs. Clark. You have got the fallacious quantity,” that’s all they want.

Now they’ve your precise voice. To allow them to faux to be you. 

They’ll create something — passports, driver’s licenses. With AI, they’ll merely replicate regardless of the doc is.

Will examine forgery improve due to AI?

Oh, sure. Twenty-five years in the past, a reporter requested me, “When will we see the paperless society?” I stated: “Once you see the paperless rest room.” 

And 25 years later, individuals are nonetheless writing billions of checks.

What are some strategies that crooks use to steal checks and personal data?

There’s examine washing with chemical compounds. If you happen to write a examine to me and somebody steals it out of a [USPS] mailbox, they’ll take away my title and the quantity of the examine and put in a brand new title and new quantity after which deposit that examine into their account.

What’s one other manner?

Let’s say I take a try of the mailbox that you simply made out to ExxonMobil for $600. I write my very own account quantity for deposit on the again and take it to the ATM. 

That examine will robotically go into my account as a result of no human being will see it.

A giant financial institution, like Chase, Financial institution of America or Citibank, might not take a look at checks below $50,000. A small or medium-size financial institution might look solely at checks over $5,000.

So it’s very straightforward to get by the financial institution.

What can individuals do to keep away from being victims of examine forgery? 

It’s as much as the buyer whether or not they catch it of their financial institution assertion.

The legislation says you’ve 30 days from receipt of your assertion to inform the financial institution of any discrepancy. 

Sadly, lots of people don’t reconcile their financial institution statements. You possibly can’t imagine how many individuals and firms, particularly smaller companies, don’t reconcile; they don’t even open their statements.