ghost employee
Fake payroll name
A ghost employee is someone on a payroll who doesn't actually work for the organization—either a fictitious person invented to siphon funds, or a real person who stopped working but keeps receiving checks.
The term appears in contexts of fraud, embezzlement, and corruption: An audit revealed three ghost employees collecting salaries.
Related schemes include no-show jobs, where someone is nominally employed but never appears.
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
- no showPerson who fails to appear
- payrollStaff wages collectively
- fraudIntentional criminal trickery
- fictitiousNot real, invented
embezzlement · scam · shell · shell company · off the books · identity theft · bogus · fake · kickback · corruption · padding · nonexistent · paper trail · scheme · inside job · audit · whistleblower · timesheet