We're all liars, according to Pamela Meyer, author of "LieSpotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception." Of course she cases this proposition in the statement that not all lies are harmful and most of us are willing participants in conversations that contain lies. But of course this notion categorizes even the white liars into one group no matter how harmless the lie:

"I'm feeling fine today, thank you."

"You don't look like you just had a baby."

And the ever-popular, "Your email must have been caught in my spam folder."

Meyer is talking about lies that we are unwilling to accept as participants in conversations – those that do harm to people around us, our companies and ultimately degrade integrity.

In a recent blog, SmartBlog on Leadership "Navigating a new age of deception," Meyer discusses the corporate costs of employing all these liars and how new social media outlets are proliferating the lying epidemic by epic proportions. As loss prevention professionals, why do you care? Would it make sense that these new media communication tools are making lying even more commonplace and accepted because our retail associates text, facebook and tweet-away lies all day long? Are these lie-enabling tools making your jobs harder?

Meyer argues with progressively diminished personal contact – absent face-to-face interaction—these technologies have ushered in a new era of deception, "one in which greater distance begets greater dishonesty, which begets greater damage to the fabric of society," said Meyer. The irony is that all these technologies are supposed to make our lives more transparent, giving access to peoples' inner thoughts, feelings and intimate times with family and friends. But in reality the opposite is true, they are "enabling masked realities, alternate identities and fabricated histories," writes Meyer.

As for the corporate damage, Meyer sites an Association of Certified Fraud Examiners' statistic; in 2010 occupational fraud caused a median loss of $160,000 and lasted 18 months before detection. Meyer also states that deception costs American businesses an estimated $994 billion per year.

As for social media, Meyer doesn't address how these social media networks can help investigators catch fraud by using these new tools to the LP professionals' advantage, which the industry has heard addressed at more than a few trade shows over 2010 and 2011.

Combating Deception: It's BASIC

Meyer has several suggestions that have proven success over the years such as regulating employees' social media use and setting a strong, positive ethical tone at the top through awareness and training. But her other suggested method includes employing her BASIC "LieSpotting" technique. Meyer says an untrained human is as good at spotting lies as a chimpanzee. But she suggests that in "just a few hours practice someone can recognize falsehoods with up to 95% accuracy" with her "LieSpotting" technique. Are all the CFI's reading this asking for a refund yet? Hold that thought.

The summary of her BASIC method comes straight from her article:

"When I train executives, human resources personnel, and security officers, I instruct them in a 'liespotting' method I call BASIC, for Baseline, Ask, Study, Intuit, Confirm. Baseline requires that you observe others' baseline behavior under normal conditions as a reference point (does John always jiggle his knee during conversations?). Then, ask open-ended questions to encourage more information-sharing ("What made you do that?" instead of "What time did you leave work?"). Study clusters of suspicious behavioral signs (qualifying statements, feet pointed towards the door, grooming gestures, weak denials, shifts in blink rate). Intuit statement, logic and emotional gaps in the story (how does John's narrative mesh with reality?). Lastly, confirm and test your conclusions (e.g. by asking the same question in different ways)."

Are you CFI's convinced yet? Meyer boils down lie detection as being observant, keeping an open mind, and demonstrating a commitment to finding the truth. I buy into all those things but I only scored a 72% when testing my "Lie-Q" on her web site, liespotting.com. I rated as a "Good" lie detector so am I ready for prime-time interrogating sans the CFI or even a W-Z advanced course?

Are We Truth-Seekers?

What do you think about Meyer's BASIC method – good enough for the board room but to get a confession you need more advanced training? I think everyone would be hopeful that Meyer's assessment is correct that "truth-seeking ultimately leads to trust building" and in a non-LP form is the path to confidence in our fellow humans and can lead to a more honesty society. As for our retail careers, aren't we all seeking to rise above those gotcha games to become the "truth-seekers" for our retail organizations as Meyer suggests we should be? Is it as simple and BASIC as Meyer suggests?

Meyer raises very important questions such as: if character is who you are in the dark, in such a transparent, noisy world how do we continue make character, integrity and decency the values that matter most? Meyer suggests that if we're a bit more explicit about our moral code by becoming more attuned to the lies people tell us and we signal truth seeking behaviors we can help make this society a bit more honest.

What do you think? We want to hear from you – comment below.

AMBER VIRGILLO is a contributing editor for LossPrevention. She can be reached at 770-335-4891 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .