Core Concepts of Accounting Information Systems 12th Edition by Carolyn Strand Norman, Mark Simkin

Exercise 24

Recall that the salami technique means using a computer to skim a small amount of money from hundreds or thousands of accounts and then diverting the proceeds for personal gain. Suppose that a computer programmer uses this technique to skim a penny from each customer's account at a small bank. Over the course of 3 months, he takes $200,000 and is never caught. Assuming that this hacker took only one penny per month from each customer, how many accounts did the bank have? If the bank had 100,000 accounts and the hacker stole one penny from each account's interest (which was computed daily), how much could the hacker steal in 3 months?