He called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States.

He gave a vague description of a missing teenager — a description that could have matched several cases but that happened to match, loosely, Nicholas Barclay.

He was put in contact with the Barclay family.

The rest is one of the most astonishing documented deceptions in modern criminal history.

The Problem He Had To Solve

Frédéric Bourdin is French.

He speaks French natively, with English as a second language with a pronounced French accent.

He was twenty-three years old in 1997.