It can be really hard to flat out refuse on ethical grounds to do something your boss tells you to do. I’ve only done it once, and I knew it meant my time at that job was coming to an end. I was gone a few months later and in a better position.
I don’t think this is hard at all, especially in the tech industry when you can easily find a different (likely better) job. I’ve flat out refused things on ethics grounds multiple times in my career (startup life is like that), and while it resulted in me leaving the company twice, once I got promoted, and most of the time I experienced no repercussions personally at all and the person being unethical was dealt with.
Ethics is a personal choice and if you have strong ethics, refusing to commit fraud is effectively a no-brainer. There’s no difficulty to this decision. Your “boss” at work isn’t actually in charge of your actions, you get to choose how you want to live your life on your own terms. Most managers are incompetent and sleazeballs abound in business. There is effectively no leverage these assholes have over you except continued employment working for asshole liars.
A job is a job. Ethics are about who you are as an individual. It’s a policy for your life and defines your character. I’d scrub toilets before I would defraud a customer.
It’s a trivially easy choice for anyone with good ethics, full stop. Your contrived straw man has no relevance to the person in the OP, and they have none of those qualms. You’re doing a lot of mental contortions to defend committing fraud.
