Four Tips to Protect Your Identity, Money

Frank Abagnale — an international expert on fraud and the man whose youthful crime spree inspired the book and movie, "Catch Me If You Can" — joined me Thursday to talk about scams and how to avoid becoming a victim.

Abagnale says Americans give away way too much information about ourselves — and then complain about people stealing our identities.

Here are highlights from an interview with Abagnale last week:

Why you won't find him on social media

"​I’m not on Facebook, I’m not on LinkedIn, I’m not on Twitter. People get on Facebook and I tell them, “If you tell someone on Facebook where you were born and your date of birth, you might as well just say ‘come steal my identity.’” Because most of the identity thieves we’ve interviewed basically say, “I go to Facebook, I get everything" — mother’s maiden name, where they work, where they went on vacation, where they’re going on vacation.

"Today, because there is so much information out there through Facebook and social media, there’s nothing I can’t find out about you. … So I tell people, you never want to state on your Facebook page where you were born and your date of birth or give away too much information. Even LinkedIn. If I look you up and it says to me that you graduated from Indiana University, you’re currently holding this job, every piece of information leads to another piece of information. … Every little piece of information can lead to something else."

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