Occasionally it strikes me that a great deal of the time we spend working is solely because people don't tell the truth!  I imagine that the mountain of extra, burdensome, paper-heavy work that lying causes is second only to the fact that humans have terrible memories.  I have no stats to back this up, but as we print, sort, and file a forest of thinly sliced trees each day I see how much time is wasted keeping people honest.

Here I go, trying to overcome my previously noted bad memory in order to recount these stories accurately...

A real estate agent brought in an lady's application for a fairly nice property.  He had told me beforehand that she was a good tenant with a few bumps on her credit from an identity theft incident a year or so back.  Indeed, the lady had good income, stable work history, no criminal records, and her landlord gave her a good review.  She had documentation of the ID theft, which described someone purchasing various items on credit during a time period, and supposedly renting an apartment temporarily in her name, without her knowledge.  (We have yet to find this to actually be true, yet the ID theft excuse is brought up more frequently than you would imagine).  In this documentation was an address that she did not include on her application as a past residence, claiming it was part of the fraud.  Belinda checked all the other references, including attempting to locate and contact the owner of the property at this address.  Belinda was unsuccessful in finding the owner, and knowing something was not right with the application, told the agent it was denied. 

The agent was furious, and let us know it!

Belinda decided to go through the application again, and this time dug out a copy of the check that the Realtor brought for the app fee.  What do you know...the address on the applicant's check matched the address the applicant claimed was used in the identity theft!!!  Good work!  This lady had gone to extra lengths to provide documentation to cover a flimsy story, in order to deceive both us and her real estate agent.

I called the lady's real estate agent to confirm that she was denied.  He let me know how upset he was at us- especially since he mentioned the ID theft issue to me before he submitted the app!  I calmly interrupted to say that that she lied to us, that the address on her check matched the address she claimed was rented fraudulently.  The phone went silent for a moment.  When he started speaking again it was in a much quieter tone.  "Oh...", he said slowly, "...I guess she lied to me too."