...it was told briefly in one textbook, but I never came across the story again.
Probably the author faked or wildly exaggerated the story, but it went like this:
A programmer contracted by the army to develop a resourcing solution decides to enter a made-up army base into the system. He stocks the base with made-up resources and mans it with made-up troops. The troops' income all get paid into HIS bank account.
Amazingly, he got away with it. No-one questioned the base/resources/troops. It was almost the perfect crime, except it dawned upon the programmer that he would have to keep the lie going. If he carried on, he would have to "maintain" the base until the end of his natural life. If he just deleted the base, then he'd be revealed instantly. He considered nuking or decommisioning the base, but he couldn't think of anything that would go unquestioned.
So, despite being stinking rich and still completely unsuspected, he panicked and handed himself over to the authorities.
Has anyone else heard this story? Is it even partially true? I can't easily find anything on Google or Snopes
