If your business offers corporate credit cards or expense accounts to employees, there’s a good chance there is unethical spending going on.
33% of corporate credit card holders admit to blatantly defrauding the companies they work for, and twice that amount confess to making “risky purchases.” But a thread on AskReddit reveals some of the worst uses of company credit cards EVER. Here are ten fraudulent ways you might not want to use your company credit card (unless you’re trying to get fired).
Making an addition to a rental house
User alltechrx tells the story of two coworkers entangled in an affair so torrid, they ran up 20k on a company card making additions to a house they didn’t even own:
A co-worker was dating someone that also worked for our company. He used his company card to buy an addition to the girls friends house. Something like a 20k addition. The accountants caught it, and started digging around to figure out why we had bought so much wood, drywall, and other building materials. Finally someone got the idea to start driving around and looking at the employees homes, and found the huge addition on the girlfriends home.
They were both fired for theft.
The BEST part is that it wasn’t even her house, it was a rental. Once she lost her job she couldn’t afford the rent anymore, and got evicted.
I’m sure the landlord was laughing his ass off at the whole thing, got a nice free addition.
Buying a number of suits in excess of days you’ve worked for the company
User pm_meyourlegs recounted a narrative from another AskReddit thread:
There was an ask reddit for what did someone do to get fired on the first day. Dude went out on the corporate card and bought like 6 suits on his corporate card on his lunch break.
Spending company money on sex
User Cartoonhusband (Homer, is that you?) recounts one tale of tail:
Guy was overseas on a business trip in Eastern Europe and in an establishment he shouldn’t have been in, decided to buy a round of drinks figuring no one would know from the name of the place what it was. Unfortunately later he was enjoying the pleasures of a lady that worked in the establishment, and having run out of cash, forgotten he had used his work card to buy the drinks when agreeing to specific services being offered by the employee, and was then surprised to be questioned by the FD a month later on why a restaurant he had bought drinks in was also charging him a 50 euro supplement for Anal!
And user Star90s tells of a similar occurrence:
I worked at a strip club back in the 90’s and a customer ran up a $3500 tab on his corporate Amex and left without closing it out. A few days later we got a visit from the police as he reported the card stolen. Thing is he was a regular and we had plenty of video footage of him getting lap dances while wearing his corporate issued polo shirt. He not only got fired but was charged with filing a false police report which led to his wife divorcing him for being such a stripper loving idio
Using a corporate card to buy big, stupid things you don’t need
From user eyefearnobeer, a former corporate card auditor:
I use to audit corporate card purchases for a fortune 50 company. I caught a guy trying to buy a $30k boat from Bass Pro and a $15k walk-in humidor.
Replacing your broken watch
User pushchop reports:
I used to review credit card purchases. Employees would have to submit receipts and explain what each line item was for. One guy bought a $500 watch and wrote down on his spreadsheet “watch to replace my broken one.” Apparently he felt his personal wristwatch was work-related and worthy of replacing with Swiss watch with automatic movement.
Buying candy
Even the smallest purchases can catch up with you, like user drunkqueen learned the hard way:
buying a Toblerone and got caught.
Saying certain non-workplace expenses are for work
User jthe357 tells this story of company card misuse:
Worked at a retail company that gave all of its store managers corporate cards. The cards had high limits on them so the store managers could use that instead of maintaining petty cash on hand or having to use personal cards while traveling for training.
While visiting one of the stores I asked where there keurig machine was. I wanted a coffee and the closest Starbucks was a few blocks away. I had seen the manager submit her expense report with a purchase for a keurig machine, k-cups, a small bathroom fixture and a few other things. The assistant manager says “we don’t have a keurig machine.”
After looking into it further, turns out the manager had been using the card to buy several personal items over the last few years. Ended up repaying a little over $20k in purchases.
Pulling a Michael Scott move
User MyFirstOtherAccount reports a story that sounds suspiciously like it was taken from an episode of The Office:
Buy lunch at Hooters for his employee because he wanted to be friends with him. He had only recently gotten the card back because it was taken away after his last purchase of an $80 magic kit.
Spending $500 on chicken and waffles as an intern
Chicken and waffles are good, but are they worth losing your job over? User IntlHastings says:
I spent close to $500 on an order of Roscoe’s chicken and waffles during an internship
Sounds like it might have been worth it, that is a tasty chicken and waffle spot.
Do you have any stories of company card misuse? Let us know in the comments below and follow Paypath on Twitter and Facebook for more finance tips and company card horror stories.
string(7137) "If your business offers corporate credit cards or expense accounts to employees, there's a good chance there is unethical spending going on.
33% of corporate credit card holders admit to blatantly defrauding the companies they work for, and twice that amount confess to making "risky purchases." But a thread on AskReddit reveals some of the worst uses of company credit cards EVER. Here are ten fraudulent ways you might not want to use your company credit card (unless you're trying to get fired).
Making an addition to a rental house
User alltechrx tells the story of two coworkers entangled in an affair so torrid, they ran up 20k on a company card making additions to a house they didn't even own:
A co-worker was dating someone that also worked for our company. He used his company card to buy an addition to the girls friends house. Something like a 20k addition. The accountants caught it, and started digging around to figure out why we had bought so much wood, drywall, and other building materials. Finally someone got the idea to start driving around and looking at the employees homes, and found the huge addition on the girlfriends home.
They were both fired for theft.
The BEST part is that it wasn't even her house, it was a rental. Once she lost her job she couldn't afford the rent anymore, and got evicted.
I'm sure the landlord was laughing his ass off at the whole thing, got a nice free addition.
Buying a number of suits in excess of days you've worked for the company
User pm_meyourlegs recounted a narrative from another AskReddit thread:
There was an ask reddit for what did someone do to get fired on the first day. Dude went out on the corporate card and bought like 6 suits on his corporate card on his lunch break.
Spending company money on sex
User Cartoonhusband (Homer, is that you?) recounts one tale of tail:
Guy was overseas on a business trip in Eastern Europe and in an establishment he shouldn't have been in, decided to buy a round of drinks figuring no one would know from the name of the place what it was. Unfortunately later he was enjoying the pleasures of a lady that worked in the establishment, and having run out of cash, forgotten he had used his work card to buy the drinks when agreeing to specific services being offered by the employee, and was then surprised to be questioned by the FD a month later on why a restaurant he had bought drinks in was also charging him a 50 euro supplement for Anal!
And user Star90s tells of a similar occurrence:
I worked at a strip club back in the 90's and a customer ran up a $3500 tab on his corporate Amex and left without closing it out. A few days later we got a visit from the police as he reported the card stolen. Thing is he was a regular and we had plenty of video footage of him getting lap dances while wearing his corporate issued polo shirt. He not only got fired but was charged with filing a false police report which led to his wife divorcing him for being such a stripper loving idio
Using a corporate card to buy big, stupid things you don't need
From user eyefearnobeer, a former corporate card auditor:
I use to audit corporate card purchases for a fortune 50 company. I caught a guy trying to buy a $30k boat from Bass Pro and a $15k walk-in humidor.
Replacing your broken watch
User pushchop reports:
I used to review credit card purchases. Employees would have to submit receipts and explain what each line item was for. One guy bought a $500 watch and wrote down on his spreadsheet "watch to replace my broken one." Apparently he felt his personal wristwatch was work-related and worthy of replacing with Swiss watch with automatic movement.
Buying candy
Even the smallest purchases can catch up with you, like user drunkqueen learned the hard way:
buying a Toblerone and got caught.
Saying certain non-workplace expenses are for work
User jthe357 tells this story of company card misuse:
Worked at a retail company that gave all of its store managers corporate cards. The cards had high limits on them so the store managers could use that instead of maintaining petty cash on hand or having to use personal cards while traveling for training.
While visiting one of the stores I asked where there keurig machine was. I wanted a coffee and the closest Starbucks was a few blocks away. I had seen the manager submit her expense report with a purchase for a keurig machine, k-cups, a small bathroom fixture and a few other things. The assistant manager says "we don't have a keurig machine."
After looking into it further, turns out the manager had been using the card to buy several personal items over the last few years. Ended up repaying a little over $20k in purchases.
Pulling a Michael Scott move
User MyFirstOtherAccount reports a story that sounds suspiciously like it was taken from an episode of The Office:
Buy lunch at Hooters for his employee because he wanted to be friends with him. He had only recently gotten the card back because it was taken away after his last purchase of an $80 magic kit.
Spending $500 on chicken and waffles as an intern
Chicken and waffles are good, but are they worth losing your job over? User IntlHastings says:
I spent close to $500 on an order of Roscoe's chicken and waffles during an internship
Sounds like it might have been worth it, that is a tasty chicken and waffle spot.
Do you have any stories of company card misuse? Let us know in the comments below and follow Paypath on Twitter and Facebook for more finance tips and company card horror stories.
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