Let Their Words Do the Talking

In the example of the event coordinator's answer, another red flag is that the coordinator does not "own" the answer:

(Slight pause) Well, (Slight pause) they told me that everything has been taken care of.

If the coordinator owned the answer - "Yes it's been taken care of" - he knows he can be blamed for lying if you find the projector is not working. But with the answer that the coordinator did give, he can claim that he was truthful, and deflect blame to the nebulous, nefarious "they".

Hi John,
I found you / your writing by accident, but like what I see thus far. You are right on target and exactly what I have tried to teach our more active Govabuse family rights advocates. In my line of work, deceptive statements are the norm. Often, the lack of truthfulness is not a result of vicious will, but made through personal embarrassment. Many family rights organizations work strictly through e mail, a modern technology downfall. The act of denying personal contact (telephonically) is used to protect liars on both sides. The criminal, as well as family rights frauds who scam unsuspecting families as well. The success of "Govabuse" assisting as many families as we have, is due to 'personal contact'. It is impossible to help anyone if the facts are not disclosed. During the initial contact, I literally expect people to hide facts and have taught our advocates to expect the same. Paying attention to the red-flags (you have accurately described), helps to know when advocates need to encourage the caller to come clean because we cannot help if we don't know the true facts of the case. My line; "There is evidence to every crime and evidence to every fraudulent allegation - only the truth can expose both".
Looking forward to more posts!
Nan Rolfe
www.govabuse.com

Very helpful article. Thanks Dr Schafer