GODFREY, Ill. — You might not pay much attention to soft-spoken Frank Abagnale, until you hear his name.
"He's the inspiration behind Steven Spielberg's film "Catch Me If You Can", was the introduction as Abagnale grabbed the attention of the audience at Lewis and Clark Community College.
The event was a fundraiser for a new cancer center in nearby Alton.
Abagnale has been an FBI consultant and instructor for more than 40 years, but it's what happened when he was a teenager that led to the best-seller list, Hollywood, and Broadway.
The facts sound more like fiction.
Abagnale was a high school dropout, street smart enough to print fake checks, fake being a Pan Am Airlines pilot, an attorney and a physician.
Abagnale became an international fugitive who was four years into a 12-year sentence when the FBI made him an offer he couldn't refuse: help solve crimes.
"I’ve been an instructor at the FBI academy for 43 years, where I still am today," Abagnale said during his cyber security presentation at Lewis and Clark.
"I met my wife on an undercover assignment," he told 5 On Your Side. "She married me. I didn't have a dime to my name. I've been married for 40 plus years. I'm very honored that my own son as an FBI agent today."
Abagnale's best seller, "Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake" caught the attention of filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who bought the movie rights.
"That was the first time Steven Spielberg made a movie about a real person living. So I think he was very conscious of trying to stay as close to the facts as, as he could," Abagnale said.
Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed Abagnale in the movie, but Abagnale had a good reason for being excited about the casting.
"I don't go to a lot of movies," he said. "So when I heard Leonardo Dicaprio, I had no idea who he was."
Abagnale's presentation included information about security breaches, phishing attempts, home securing hacks, and other types of cyber crime.
Abagnale predicts global cyber crime will escalate.
"I really see cyber becoming much more black over the next 5-10 years where it's used more as a tool to assassinate people, used as a tool to terrorize people, not to mention our electrical grids or banking systems at all. The things that that will be subject to more of a terrorist type tool than it is now a financial tool to steal money," he said.
As a convicted felon, Abagnale is grateful he was allowed to turn his life around and proud he paid back the money he stole. A Hollywood happy ending?
"When I look at my life, I'm much more fascinated that I did those things and then came out of prison and turned my life into what I turned my life into today," Abagnale said. "That's what amazes me everyday I wake up, that I am where I am and where my life has turned out the way it has."