Not even two minutes after body language expert and author Mark Bowden began his keynote presentation at the ACFE Fraud Conference Canada, he knew that the audience members had already formulated their individual opinions of him. “You have already decided whether you like me or not,” he said. “You have already judged me. You’ve got a little voice in your head who is talking about me right now.”

How do you get a room full of attorneys, accountants and auditors to definitively agree on something? As Henry Tso illustrated at the 2019 ACFE Fraud Conference Canada in Montreal, you ask them if they have ever been a victim of a fraud attempt. Tso, a former RCMP superintendent and officer in charge, asked more than 340 attendees to raise their hands if they had received a call from someone pretending to work for the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) attempting to gain personal information. “I received a call two days ago from the CRA,” he said. “How many people received that call?” A flurry of hands went up without hesitation.

What lie do you think a fraudster is on by the time you, the fraud examiner, is introduced to him or her? The first? The second? The hundredth? The truth is, no pun intended, by the time you are sitting across the table from them, they have most likely been lying to their friends, family and coworkers for a good amount of time. Unfortunately, for those who have been committing crimes, practice does not make perfect and a fraud examiner has a wealth of tools available to spot signs of deception.