Dorothy's Top 5 Marks of Deception



By Dorothy Riggs, CFE
During my years in customer service and as a fraud investigator I’ve conducted quite a few interviews.  From those interactions I’ve gathered some significant takeaways that alone prove neither guilt nor innocence.  However, they’ve proven to be helpful hints of guidance in the right direction regarding an individual’s involvement in questionable activity.
I must offer the following disclaimer; again, these are my personal observations.  Although, they’ve been tried and tested, they are not foolproof.  When dealing with human nature there can be exceptions, but as a norm I’ve identified the following marks of deception when interviewing individuals who were determined to have some level of guilt.
  1. Friendly - Beware when a subject is overly friendly.  Those who have committed misdeeds often try to endear themselves to you in hopes of convincing you that they are simply too nice or good to be culpable.
  2. Religion - Guilty people have a tendency to interject religion or dead relatives into the situation in an attempt to convince you of their innocence.  Among their favorite statements are:
  • I swear before God; I didn’t do it.
  • God is my witness; I wasn’t involved.
  • I’ll place my hand on a stack of Bibles and say I wasn’t there.
  • On my mother’s grave; I don’t know anything about it.
  1. Avoidance - Those who have something to hide will avoid confrontation regarding their wrongdoing.  They will come up with every excuse in the world not to talk to you or address the issue. Often times they try to avoid dealing with imminent questions by going MIA (missing in action).
  2. Unclear - A guilty person will answer a question with a question.  They avoid providing clear direct answers whenever possible.  For example when asked, “Did you forge the signature on this document?” Instead of a direct yes or no, a guilty subject might respond, “Now how would I have done that?”
  3. Diversion - Sometimes those at fault are extremely talkative.  They try to dominate or direct the conversation in order to find out exactly how much information you already know. When possible they will divert the conversation away from themselves by suggesting that another individual probably did it because they had a specific opportunity or motive.



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