New app automates expense-account cheating
October 15, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Security
Look out for this new application that can create realistic-looking receipts employees can print out and submit for reimbursement.
It’s called Expense-A-Steak, and it’s supplied by a New York City steakhouse to its patrons. The customer, who has just blown, say, $325.55, on a lunchtime filet mignon and a few martinis with some “business associates,” can enter the amount due on the bill.
Presto! The program makes up a set of routine-looking receipts that spread the cost out, and hopefully run under the radar of the accounts payable department.
The receipts, delivered as a PDF that you can print out, include phony tabs for taxi rides, sandwich shops and stationery supplies. The receipts even have typical receipt flaws like dog-eared corners and that running-out-of-ink fuzziness.
The restaurant sees it as a marketing ploy at a time when the recession is hitting higher-priced eateries. The goal is to get a little PR buzz, not abet real fraud. It’s a big joke. But they also admit that they’ve had scores of Web hits from Web domains such as Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and so on. As a restaurant spokesman has said “We know people have gotten a kick out of it and the restaurant has been busy.”
A great joke – but you might want to give a heads-up to the accounting department.
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Tags: accounting, Expense-A-Steak, expenses, fraud
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