Why do they think they'll get away with it?
I have known two compulsive liars in my time, the first guy was at secondary school, and he would tell all kinds of lies, which I mostly believed (gullible I know). He said:

* He'd pulled David Couthard's girlfriend when he went to the British grand prix
* He'd inherited tons of money from a long lost Uncle, but a month later, through some family argument he'd been disinherited, so was no richer.
* He was named in a high profile divorce with some couple who none of us knew - I actually believed this...
* He'd boxed an an amateur level
* He knew Steven Spielberg, and had sent him some script ideas for a new Indiana Jones film.
* He'd had testicular cancer but was fine now.

There were loads of these stories, but I believed most of them, and it was only when some friends started laughing about the stories last year that I realised they were mostly bollocks.

This experience did, however, prepare me for the most prolific liar I've ever met. It was at uni, and this guy called Dave would lie about everything. I can't remember all the lies but here are a selection:

* He'd been selected to play cricket for the county (he was quite a good cricketer, so this was possible) and they'd given him an MG as payment...the only problem with this is that we knew people who played at this level and knew this was crap. When some of the guys visited him at home later that year he 'briefed' them before coming into his parents house. Apparently he told them "you can't mention the MG as it has caused a real rift with my Mum, and it upsets her to even talk about it. I had to get rid of it, but it's best if it goes unmentioned".

* He broke his nose in an "accident" (he wouldn't say what kind). To repair the damage they had screwed in a metal plate. He claimed he could feel the screw heads, and that fridge magnets could stick to his nose - we tried to stick one to him and he went nuts, claiming it would rip his nose open. He almost shat ourselves laughing at that one.

* He made up stories that the girl he was seeing was suicidal. I knew her mates, and they were all far more concerned about Dave, as they all knew he was a complete fantasist.

There were a couple of people that really hated his lying, and it reached a peak when he came in one day saying he'd just been to Sainsbury's...one of the lads leaped up saying "No you didn't Dave! I bet you fucking went to Tesco!". It really was so bad that no one believed a single thing he told them.
( trebor_minty, Fri 30 Nov 2007, 12:23, Reply)