Programming scams
linus!sdo, March 11, 1986
> Is it really true that someone working for a bank or a large
> company diverted megabucks into his or her personal account by
> adjusting a program that figured out people's paychecks or
> interest payments so that it always rounded *down* to the
> nearest penny, never up, and then deposited the extra parts of
> pennies (mills) into his or her own account? I heard this story
> several years ago, but now I need to know if it's really true.
> So if you know the name of the bank or the company and the
> approximate year this person was caught,
Not only is it true, it has also happened a lot more than just
once. In fact, this is one of the simplest computer scams
going. One of the cleverest ones I ever heard about involved
someone working for a company (a fruit company, I believe) who
had the computer change (just slightly) the recorded times (and
prices) of the company's transactions on the commodities
exchanges. His profits came from the slight changes (say,1/16
of a point) in the contract prices that occur all the time
during a normal trading day.
I have seen several books which talk about these and other
schemes in detail. Unfortunately, the names and dates are often
not revealed as most companies are loath to have the general
public find out the ease with which these types of crimes can be
carried out, as well as the difficulty of discovering them once
they have occurred. One of the most revealing items is the fact
that computer criminals are almost always caught only because
discrepancies in their lifestyles are noted (e.g. buying a
40-foot yacht on a $20k salary). In fact, the longest running
crime I heard about, which involved a programmer (I believe) in
a prominent New York bank, went on for close to 10 years. The
culprit escaped detection so long because he had a $30,000-a-
month gambling habit and was losing his illegal income as fast
as he got it. He was finally caught when his bookie was
arrested as part of a police 'sting' operation, and his name was
found on the books as one of the largest customers.
As for finding more out about such things, all the information I
have came from browsing through the MIT engineering library for
a few afternoons, so I imagine that any good college library
should have at least some material on this. Good luck in
finding out some actual names and dates, however!