Example 1: Stanley Mark Rifkin

Stanley Mark Rifkin is credited with one of the biggest bank heists in American history

Rifkin was a computer geek who ran a computer consulting business out of his small apartment. One of his clients was a company that serviced the computers at Security Pacific Bank. The 55-floor Security Pacific National Bank headquarters in Los Angeles looked like a granite-and-glass

fortress. Dark-suited guards roamed the lobby and hidden cameras photographed customers as they made deposits and withdrawals. This building seemed impenetrable, so how is it that Rifkin walked away with $10.2 million and never held a gun, never touched a dollar, and never

held up anyone?

The bank’s wire transfer policies seemed secure. They were authorized by a numerical code that changed daily and was only given out to authorized personnel. It was posted on a wall in a secure room that only “authorized personnel” had access to.

In October 1978, he visited Security Pacific, where bank employees easily recognized him as a computer worker. He took an elevator to the D-level, where the bank’s wire transfer room was located. A pleasant and friendly young man, he managed to talk his way into the room where the bank’s secret code-of-the-day was posted on the wall. Rifkin memorized the code and left without arousing suspicion.

Soon, bank employees in the transfer room received a phone call from a man who identified himself as Mike Hansen, an employee of the bank’s international division. The man ordered a routine transfer of funds into an account at the Irving Trust Company in New York—and he provided the secret code numbers to authorize the transaction. Nothing about the transfer appeared to be out of the ordinary, and Security Pacific transferred the money to the New York bank. What bank officials did not know was that the man who called himself Mike Hansen was in fact Stanley Rifkin, and he had used the bank’s security code to rob the bank of $10.2 million.

This scenario offers much to talk about, but for now, focus on the pretext.

Think about the details of what he had to do:

• He had to be confident and comfortable in order to not raise suspicion for being in that room.
• He had to have a believable story when he called to do the transfer and have the details to back up his story.
• He had to be spontaneous enough to go with the flow with questions that might have come up.
• He had to also be smooth enough to not raise suspicion.
• This pretext had to be meticulously planned out with the utmost detail being thought through. It wasn’t until he visited a former associate that his pretext failed, and he was caught. When he was caught, people who knew him were amazed and some even said things like, “There is no way he is a thief; everyone loves Mark.”

Obviously his pretext was solid. He had a well-thought-out, and one would guess, well-rehearsed plan. He knew what he was there to do and he played the part perfectly. When he was in front of strangers he was able to play the part; his downfall came when he was with a colleague who knew him, and that colleague saw a news story then put two and two together and turned Mark in.

Amazingly enough, while out on bail, Rifkin began to target another bank using the same scheme, but a government mole had set him up; he got caught and spent eight years in federal prison. Although Mark is a “bad guy” you can learn much about pretexting from reading his story. He kept it very simple and used the things that were familiar to him to build a good storyline.

Mark’s plan was to steal the money and turn it into an untraceable commodity: diamonds. To do so he would first need to be a bank employee to steal the money, then a major diamond buyer to unload the cash, and finally sell the diamonds to have usable, untraceable cash in his pocket.

Although his pretext did not involve elaborate costumes or speech patterns he had to play the part of a bank employee, then major diamond buyer, then play the part of a diamond seller. He changed roles maybe three, four, or five times in this gig and was able to do it well enough to fool almost everyone.

Mark knew who his targets were and approached the scenario with all the principles outlined earlier. Of course, one can’t condone what he did, but his pretexting talents are admirable. If he put his talents to good use he would probably make a great public figure, salesperson, or actor.