Smartly dressed, well-groomed, a confident handshake and an impeccable CV – the interviewee sitting across the desk from you seems like the perfect candidate.

But probe a little deeper and the three years his CV claims he was travelling could turn out to have been time spent sewing mailbags at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

His chair shuffling and mouth covering habits during the interview may be a sign of nerves, but they could also indicate that what he is telling you is far from the truth.

Lying at interview and CV falsehoods are serious problems for recruiters. Applicants may, for example, put details of a degree course they attended but not completed or failed on their CV in such a way that some interviewers will simply assume they had graduated. Others will be guilty of slight exaggeration about the extent of their responsibilities, or completely lie about past experiences, qualifications and training.

Sometimes these lies are concealed for years, only to be revealed in a very public way. The headline-grabbers of recent times include a headteacher who had to resign after six years in the post when it was discovered that she had lied about all her educational qualifications, and an applicant who lied about her qualifications to get a top accountancy job and then defrauded the company.

So how can you spot the CV howlers and interview fraudsters without resorting to gestapo-style interrogation and lie-detector tests?

The simplest way of checking qualifications is to ask the applicant to bring original certificates with them to interview and photocopy them for your files. There are also two organisations, Experian (www.experian.com) and Q-Check (www.qcheckdirect.com), who, for a fee, will check out degrees awarded since 1995.

Overseas travel on a CV could mask periods of unemployment or imprisonment. Close probing as to what motivated them to travel, where they went and what they did will give you plenty of opportunity to consider whether their account is genuine.

A thorough and probing interview is the best way to look for sound evidence that the experience, skills and qualifications on a CV are genuine. Even the most accomplished liars leave subtle clues that they may not be being completely honest.

Body language – postures, gestures, eye contact and proximity – forms 55% of the communication that takes place in an interview. It is dangerous to take one body language gesture in isolation and interpret it incorrectly, but often when lying takes place there are a cluster of gestures that can be significant. For example, a break in eye contact, shuffling in the chair and touching or scratching the face can indicate that the applicant may not have told the whole truth. Covering the mouth, touching the nose and touching or pulling an earlobe can also indicate lying.

Paralanguage, the hidden meaning behind the words used, can often be detected by listening very carefully to the way the applicant speaks.

Speaking hesitatingly and in a low tone of voice can indicate lack of experience. Sometimes the tone of voice is raised when an applicant is lying and in some cases the answer sounds as if it is a form of question. Any change in tone and fluency needs to be pinpointed, assessed in the context of what is being said and investigated very fully.

Listen carefully to the words the interviewee uses to answer questions as these can reveal a great deal. Changing of the word ‘I’ to ‘we’ or dropping the personal pronoun altogether could indicate the applicant is exaggerating their current responsibilities.

No matter how convincing the candidate, the clues will be there, both verbal and non-verbal. By keeping your eyes and ears open for possible porkies, you should be able to weed out the Baron Münchhausens. Of course, for certain professions, an ability to exaggerate the truth could be seen as a desirable skill. So if you are recruiting estate agents, lawyers or plumbers, you may wish to ignore all of the above.