By Sherry McCourt, CFE

Can you tell if someone is telling a lie by the movement of their eyes?

Absolutely!

In this blog I will tell you the basics of reading a person’s eye movement and judging whether or not that person is being truthful.

Disclaimer: I am sharing a very small insight into the technique of reading body language. The eyes are one part of the body and therefore a judgment of deceit made solely based on eye movement can be disastrous. (Watch for future blogs where I will discuss body language and how to learn a person’s base behavior in depth)

Visual Accessing Cues have been used for many years by police agencies, private security professionals, employers and believe it or not even our own parents (although our parents innately learn to read their children’s body language) professionals spend a lot of time learning and perfecting this technique.

Just the facts:

The following facts are based on a right-handed person and I am describing their eye movement from your point of view. (The meaning of the eye movement in a left-handed individual are opposite or reversed)

•Up and to the Left (termed Visually Constructed Images)
Suggest that the person is “creating” an image or a thought in their mind which they have never seen before.

• Up and to the Right (termed Visually Remembered Images)
Suggest that the person is “remembering” an image or a thought in their mind.

• To the Left (termed Auditory Constructed)
Suggest that the person is “creating” a sound or noise in their mind which they have never heard before.

• To the Right (termed Auditory Remembered)
Suggest that the person is “remembering” a sound or noise in their mind.

• Down and to the Left (termed Feeling / Kinesthetic)
Suggest that the person is recalling a smell, a feeling or taste.

• Down and To the Right (termed Internal Dialog)
Suggest that the person is talking to themselves.

• Looking straight ahead
Suggest that the person is visually accessing a memory or trying to hide something they are remembering.

At first glance you would think that the two eye movements you have to watch for are “Up and to the left” and “To the left” as both of these are said to be used when the person is “constructing or creating” a thought or sound. However it is important to remember that some people who practice a lie will not need to construct a lie (sound or image). And some people with poor memories or their memories are buried deep in their sub-consciousness may “construct” images or sounds to fill in the blanks of what they do remember.

Can you tell if someone is telling a lie by the movement of their eyes?

Absolutely! But not without assessing the rest of the behavioral clues…

In the next update I will discuss how facial movement including our mouth and nose help us determine who is telling us the truth and who is telling us lies.

In the meantime, test the above information on your friends and family. Ask them questions and watch their eye movements – which direction to they look when you ask them about past memories or future events? Have fun!

Be Safe!

Sherry McCourt, CFE
www.sherrymccourt.com

(from a study conducted by ACFE – Association of Certified Fraud Examiners)

Gender
Typically males are more than twice as likely to commit fraud as their female colleagues. These losses due to fraud by men are more than twice as great as frauds perpetrated by women. One hypothesis: with males holding more management and executive level positions- males have a greater opportunity to commit costly fraud.

Do you think that this fact would change if woman held higher level positions – is the fact that higher amounts of loss due to fraudulent activity is because of gender or opportunity?

Age
The average fraudsters are over the age of 40. Generally speaking, older professionals often occupy positions with authority and have more access to company resources. In fact, fraudsters in their 50’s and beyond averaged a median loss of $500,000 – this is twice as many as any age bracket below them.

I once again wonder if the fraudsters documented age is due to opportunity. Would these same activities occur if the average age of a CEO is 30?

Team work?
Most fraud schemes the perpetrator acts alone.
If the scheme involved a collusion of two or more parties, the fraud was much more costly, to the tune of 4x higher compared to when a perpetrator acts alone.

Perhaps the collusion enables employees to better circumvent controls that might stop a single perpetrator?

Education and Position
Generally the higher the education level, the more costly the fraud. Most of the fraudsters work in the accounting department when they execute their scheme and have the access to assets and the ability to conceal the fraud.

Executives and upper management come in second.

Behavior Flags
The most common flags are
• living beyond one’s means,
• struggle with financial difficulties
• “wheeler-dealer attitude,”
• control issues (unwillingness to share duties), or
• personal problems, such as a divorce
Other red flags might include irritability or defensiveness, addiction problems, past legal problems, refusal to take vacation and complaining about inadequate pay.

The presence of these characteristics does not in and of itself signify that a fraud is occurring or will occur in the future. That is where I come in, as an anti-fraud professional I am trained to understand and identify the potential warning signs of fraudulent conduct. My designation as a Certified Fraud Examiner provides me with the expertise needed to detect, prevent, and combat fraud at every level.

You can learn more about CFEs at www.ACFE.com.

Stay Safe,

Sherry McCourt, CFE
www.sherrymccourt.com