Salesman ordered to repay wages in fake cancer scam

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In what had started with what he thought was the perfect scam has this salesman being ordered to pay back more then $50,000 to the software company in which he ripped off.

Michael Ruffalo begged for time off work, he was given paid leave for months and months, a heartfelt gesture by a company who was thinking that he was spending time with a son who had been stricken with cancer.

This was a tale of emotional pain and hardship that started weeks later after he started the job. In a failed attempt to send flowers for boy who died, Ruffalo's deceiving ways were uncovered and that's when the company started their legal action against him.

The judge ruled Ruffalo must return $52,517 in wages, benefits and interest.

David Cocchiara, Lancope's chief financial officer, said "It's incredibly hard to understand why somebody would do something like this," - "Using your child as a method of getting money out of companies while not doing any work is not good karma."

This is not the first attempt to get away with this scam, it's just the first time that he was held to account. Six other technology firms that employed Ruffalo at various times dating back to 2002 had similar stories of him doing little or no work by claiming his son was seriously ill, Cocchiara said. "They chose not to deal with the legal hassle, but it was something we felt strongly about pursuing because it seemed so wrong," he said.