Remember the movie Catch Me If You Can? We were lucky to hear the man who was inspiration for the story at this year’s BAM Alliance National Conference. After spending time in French, Swedish, and American prisons, Frank Abagnale was ultimately offered a job with the FBI where he still works today…over 40 years later. He’s turned down pardons from 3 Presidents because he knows no single piece of paper can possibly wash aways the sins of his past.

Frank offered his perspective on keeping your personal identity safe from fraud, including these items below:

• Shred all mail with a micro cut shredder (Even department store catalogs may contain enough information to be dangerous)
• Don’t use ATM/Debit cards; Only true credit cards from Visa, Mastercard, Amex, etc.
• Never pay by check at any retail merchant
• Use credit monitoring services, and only those that do so in real time from all 3 credit bureaus
• Be careful with pictures on social media. Readily available facial recognition software can help fraudsters find your facebook (and other) accounts in just minutes. Make sure several faces appear in any one picture, or avoid sharing pictures of your face altogether.