3 CIA Tools to Beat a Liar, Crack a Con, and Spot a Sham 1 Andrew Bustamante - EverydaySpy.

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 Everybody lies, Everybody lies. It’s part of our survival instinct. Lies are a
tool we use to protect the things we care about and hide
and every lie is the things we value. We lie for good reasons and not so
told on purpose. good reasons; selfish reasons and selfless reasons. And
every lie a person tells is told on purpose.

A lie is defined as, ‘the intent to deceive.’ Without the intent, there is no lie. There
are no ‘accidental’ lies, no matter how much we want to believe it about ourselves,
our children, or our friends. If you want to beat a liar, crack a con, or spot a sham
fast you just have to know where lies are weak.

CIA intelligence officers are trained both to tell lies and If you want to
identify when lies are being told to them. And while
lifestyle magazines, pop culture and TV game shows beat a lie fast, you
point to physical tells as the best way to tell if a person just have to know
is being honest, the fact is that physical tells do not work
against trained, experienced liars. where a lie is weak.
Consider the popular ‘tell’ that people sweat when they lie. While science has
proven that the act of lying causes a change in body temperature, the effect of
that change is not consistent across gender, age, or personality type. Sometimes a
person’s body temperature will increase, sometimes it will decrease. If they lie com-
monly, then the body accepts lying as a normal physical state and doesn’t change
temperature at all.

When you further consider the background, environment and lifestyle of the liar,
physical tells totally crumble as a reliable tool. For example, no amount of lying is
going to make a beggar blush, a salesman stutter, or a lawyer break eye contact.

CIA operatives Telling the truth is easy. Even when the truth is uncomfort-
able, it has none of the physiological effects that make ly-
are trained both ing difficult (cortisol spikes, increased heart rate, etc.). The
to tell lies and ease of truth telling means that honest information is easily
recalled, communicated with consistency, and is logically
know when lies sound throughout.
are being told.

3 CIA Tools to Beat a Liar, Crack a Con, and Spot a Sham 2 Andrew Bustamante - EverydaySpy.com
Lying is totally different. It requires focus to recall No amount of lying is
and weave a logical story. It demands physical
discipline to counter adrenaline spikes that make going to make a beggar
your heart pound in your head, your hands want to blush, a salesman
shake, and your legs start to bounce. Like all surviv-
al instincts, lying is a fight or flight response - natu- stutter, or a lawyer
ral, but also resource intensive. break eye contact.
Telling the truth Unlike FBI agents, police investigators or poker stars, only
CIA operatives master the art of detecting lies across cul-
is easy... lying is tures. One week you may be talking to an insurgent in
totally different. Iraq, the next week negotiating with a deep-pocket inves-
tor in Sweden. Operations can take you from Turkey to
South Africa and back in a matter of days. In such diverse and dynamic environ-
ments, quick and accurate lie detection boils down to one simple equation: Lying
requires intent, and intent requires effort.

When you identify the effort needed to lie,

you identify the liar.
Here are 3 tools I learned at CIA to catch a liar in the act:

Tool #1: False Statement

The tools for capturing a liar are part of a counterintelligence discipline known as
‘elicitation.’ In elicitation, you direct a conversation in such a way that your oppo-
nent shares key information unknowingly. One powerful elicitation tool is called
‘False Statement.’

To use false statement, you simply have to restate a The tools for capturing
piece of information your opponent shared - but say
it incorrectly when you repeat it. For example, if they a liar are part of an
said their girlfriend was ‘Jill’, you can call her ‘Jane.’ intelligence discipline
If they said they were visiting the ‘library,’ you repeat
that they were visiting the ‘laundry mat.’ known as ‘elicitation.’
When an honest person hears incorrect information repeated back to them, they
naturally want to correct it. But liars become focused on anticipating the next ques-

3 CIA Tools to Beat a Liar, Crack a Con, and Spot a Sham 3 Andrew Bustamante - EverydaySpy.com
tion rather than recalling the previous information. So they tend to either agree
with your false statement or ignore the error when you say it out loud.

Liars struggle to This technique is especially powerful in lie detection be-

cause liars struggle to accurately recall lies over time. When
accurately recall faced with a false statement, a liar is tempted to simply
lies over time. agree with your false statement and save themselves the
effort of having to recall a previous lie. Additionally, be-
cause you appear to be restating what they previously told you, liars are lured into
believing that you trust them and do not suspect their deception.

As an example, consider a car salesman trying to sell you a lemon he has on the
lot. When he first tells you about the car he says it only had one previous owner.
You let him keep going with the pitch and then throw out a false statement, “You
said it only had 2 previous owners – that’s really good!” When the salesman re-
sponds, “That’s right!” you know you are dealing with a liar.

Tool #2: Feigned Ignorance

This second tool is one you’ve seen (and likely used) in A tactic where you
your everyday life. Feigned ignorance is a tactic where
you act as if you know less about a topic than you really act as if you know
do. Teenagers like to think feigned ignorance will help less than you really
them avoid getting into trouble. But they do not realize it
is a tool best used for offense, not defense. do...
Because of the cognitive demands of lying, liars are forced to shift mental resourc-
es quickly in order to maintain their lies. The discipline they use to keep their hands
from shaking one moment becomes the focus they use to think through their next lie
a moment later. If you can imagine a carnival whack-a-mole game, then you can
picture the inner mind of a skilled liar.

Liars are acustomed Liars are accustomed to living on the razor’s edge of
being discovered. And because of that, they rely on
to living on the quick thinking and rapid decision making to con their
razor’s edge of way to success. Feigned ignorance is the perfect tool to
trip them up and take the advantage away from a liar.
being discovered.

3 CIA Tools to Beat a Liar, Crack a Con, and Spot a Sham 4 Andrew Bustamante - EverydaySpy.com
To use feigned ignorance effectively, ask questions Liars like when you
about a subject you know well while keeping your
knowledge hidden. Liars like it when you ask ques- ask questions; it gives
tions because it gives them time to collect and orga- them time to organize
nize their thoughts (aka: lies). Questions that do not
immediately relate to them or the lie they are telling their next lie.
are especially effective because they make a liar feel safe in their ruse. The liar will
be disarmed by your questions, assume that you are genuinely ignorant, and sub-
consciously shift their focus away from building a logical, well-reasoned lie.

Let’s go back to our slimy car salesman trying to push a lemon off the lot. As the
diligent consumer you are, you have already researched the make and model you
want and understand it’s features, fair price, pros and cons. But when face-to-face
with the salesman, you feign ignorance and ask questions about the car as if you
don’t know the answers.

With each lie When asked a question, honest people turn to honest answers
because they are easy to recall and repeat. But a dishonest
they tell you, person - like our slimy salesman - will be lured into making up
you snare the answers in an effort to close the deal or convince you of their
lies. Unlike Hollywood movies or prime-time TV, you don’t need
liar further in to show off your superior knowledge to catch a liar. Instead,
your trap. just let them keep talking! With each lie they tell you, you snare
the liar further in your trap.

Tool #3: Feeling Questions

Technically considered a form of direct questioning, this Nowhere is effort
last technique is not based in elicitation. Feeling questions
are exactly what they sound like – questions about feel- more obvious than
ings. Remember that the key to catching a liar is not to when lying about
build a trap around the information itself, but rather to tar-
get the effort that goes into lying. Nowhere is effort more feelings.
obvious than when lying about feelings.

When someone asks you how you feel about somethihg, your left (logical) and
right (emotional) brain work together in unison and present a clear answer in your
mind. But when you lie, your left (logical) brain is detached from your right (emo-

3 CIA Tools to Beat a Liar, Crack a Con, and Spot a Sham 5 Andrew Bustamante - EverydaySpy.com
The liar’s brain tional) brain. When questions about emotions/feelings
are presented to a liar, the brain’s struggle to respond
struggles, and they results in long pauses, visible confusion, and even illogi-
respond with long cal answers.

pauses, visible If you’ve leveraged false statements and feigned igno-

confusion, and even rance in the lead up to a feeling question, you will have
total certainty that the liar is exposed. Let’s see how feel-
illogical answers. ing questions affect our used car salesman…

Right now, he is confident you are about to drive the lemon off his lot. He fell for
your false statements and believes you trust him. He bit hard on your feigned ig-
norance, thinking he has you convinced that he is an expert and you are getting
a great deal on the car. To give yourself some final peace of mind, you ask him a
feeling question: “How did you feel when this car first arrived on the lot?”

A short pause follows where the salesman’s mind screams

out to him, “it’s a hunk of junk!” But he knows he can’t
Anything less
say that out loud. The pause continues as his brain cycles than an immediate
to come up with a realistic response. Finally, the liar’s left
brain wrestles the right brain down enough to blurt out,
answer is a sign
“Well, I felt like this car was gonna make somebody very of dishonesty.
happy!” … Busted.

With feeling questions, anything less than an immediate answer is a sign of dis-
honesty. Honest feelings only take an instant to communicate: What did you feel
the moment you saw your first child? How does it feel to pay taxes every year?
What did you feel when you found out Santa wasn’t real?

See how fast you were able to answer those questions? If you get an answer that
takes longer than that, you are dealing with a lie.

3 CIA Tools to Beat a Liar, Crack a Con, and Spot a Sham 6 Andrew Bustamante - EverydaySpy.com
 The Cold Hard Truth
Simply saying By definition, a lie must include the ‘intent to deceive.’
Simply saying something that isn’t true doesn’t mean it’s a
something that lie – it could be an error, a misunderstanding, or genuine
isn’t true doesn’t ignorance. A lie requires that the liar intentionally fabri-
cate information that does not represent their understand-
mean it’s a lie. ing of fact.

Lies do not have an intrinsic value; there are no ‘big lies’ or ‘small lies.’ When you
try to categorize lies, what you are really doing is associating your own values
with the deception. The same lie told to two different people will cause two differ-
ent emotional responses. One person might think the lie is a major deception while
the other dismisses it as a ‘little white lie.’

Catching a liar is about recognizing the effort needed Catching a liar is

to create and maintain an intentional deception. It is not
about catching the deception itself. Honest people giving about catching the
wrong information is not the same as dishonest people effort needed for
intentionally giving false information. When you find the
effort, you find the lie. deception.
And when you find the lie, you find the liar.

Godspeed, #EverydaySpy

A B O U T TH E A U T H O R Andrew Bustamante, Founder of EverydaySpy.com, is

a former covert CIA Intelligence officer, decorated US Air Force Combat Veteran,
and respected Fortune 500 senior advisor. Learn more from Andrew on his Pod-
cast (The Everyday Espionage Podcast) and by following @EverydaySpy on your
favorite social media platform.

3 CIA Tools to Beat a Liar, Crack a Con, and Spot a Sham 7 Andrew Bustamante - EverydaySpy.com