The BBC write:

The conman, it seems, is an endangered species.

Gone is the sharp-suited, debonair, sliver-tongued fraudster who’d charm his way to a personal fortune.

In his place: countless thousands hunched over computers, stealing bank details and exploiting technological weakness – without witnesses, and often for hire.

“There’s none of what we used to call conmen these days,” says Frank Abagnale. “There’s no need for that any more.”

Mr Abagnale really ought to know.

For most people, he is the quintessential king of the con, thanks to his portrayal by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2003 Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can.

Mr Abagnale was caught at the age of 21, and spent five years in jail before the FBI had him let out – on condition that he started to help them instead. Indeed, for most of the past 31 years he has taught a white-collar crime course at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

But people doing what he did – the lone conman approach – aren’t the big problem any more.

The US loses about $660bn (£354bn) to fraud each year – equivalent to about 6% of gross national product – with $20bn alone going in cheque fraud, Mr Abagnale’s old speciality.

…etc, etc; and although they make some important points about ongoing fraud potential, I am stunned that they can come up with their title thesis that the conman is extinct, after this story or any of the others you can get by feeding the words con-man, conned, or tricked into various news search engines.

I wonder if it rates as ID-Card propaganda?