This week on the perfect scam.

They'll make tens of thousands of dollars in a week and it's free money and to them it's easy.

So and they know if an area is getting hot they'll leave pretty quickly.

Welcome back to AARP's The Perfect Scam.

I'm your host Michelle Kaczynski. This week you know it's an awful

thing to have any crime happen to you like your car broken into, that sinking feeling,

the inconvenience and feeling violated.

Even worse to have your purse or wallet stolen,

as if someone took away a little piece of your life.

But as we're about to see, for hundreds and hundreds of people targeted. That was just the tip of the

iceberg in what turned out to be a vast sophisticated ring involving costumes and

impersonators spanning the entire US.

One of the best parts though is talking to the relentless detective who would not rest

until this case was cracked even while she was nine months pregnant.

But first, let's say hello to another dogged crime fighter, fraud expert Frank Abagnale.

And Frank, we want to hear about what you've been working on too.

What's new in your world?

Well, thanks for having me, Michelle.

Unfortunately, the same old thing as scams and fraud.

You know, I always tell people I'm always busy because if the economy is booming then people don't pay a lot of attention like they normally would and fraud occurs.

If we're in a recession and things are bad then people do things they wouldn't normally do and they get a little desperate.

And unfortunately there's always fraud.

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