Academic conference and resume?

Question:If you have an abstract accepted for an academic conference but you did not go ahead and present the paper, can you still include the conference in your resume? If you include the conference in your resume, will you be caught and punished?

Answers:
No, it's not considered to be worth mentioning unless you actually present the paper or poster. Poster/paper presentations at conferences are often listed in professional databases - and if you didn't actually show up, you won't be listed. So that would be claiming a publication you didn't have, and one that's easy to check - if they catch you, it will be considered lying on your resume, and they won't hire you.