We can’t blame it on gullibility or naivety, it’s just that sometimes people don’t expect others to make up stories that are so twisted and well delivered that no one can wrap their head around it. Does this mean we should be constantly paranoid, triple check everything and ask for our dentist’s licence next time we go in for a cavity? It appears that as long as your lie is brazen enough, people will believe you without questioning anything you’re saying or doing. It is only after we learn the “naked truth” that we’re baffled at our naivety and can’t believe we’ve been fooled in such a way. Without further ado, I give you 6 obvious lies that we believed for too long.

6. A man implied he was black and he won an election

We’re talking about Dave Wilson who got it all figured out when he ran for mayor. He mailed pamphlets that showed stolen pictures of black people, urging the voters to elect their friend and neighbor. The same pamphlet also said he was endorsed by Ron Wilson, leading some to think of the black state representative, when instead it was Dave’s cousin with the same name who endorsed him. Too busy to look up other info about this candidate, voters didn’t hesitate to help him win the election.

5. Government official pretended to be a CIA operative

You might ask yourself why did John C Beale told his bosses that he had to go on classified missions. If you didn’t guess it by now, it was because he wanted more days off. When the sixty five year old figured out he could lie about something unverifiable, he went ahead and did it with no remorse. He kept his act for two and a half years, during which he required $57,000 first class expenses as well as a handicapped parking spot for what he claimed were the lingering effects of malaria from the Vietnam War. When he was finally discovered he went behind bars for thirty two months.

4. 34 year old posed as a high school student

We all like to take a candle out of the cake on our birthdays, but Charity Johnson did more than that. For an entire year she pretended she was a fifteen year old student. Her act begun by telling Tamica Lincoln, a colleague from McDonald’s, that she was fifteen and was being abused by her father. Lincoln offered to take her in, bought her everything she needed and put her in a school. She became popular with the other students, got a twenty three year old boyfriend and, shockingly, no one was upset when they found out she was thirty four years old. Her colleagues miss her and Lincoln forgave her.

3. A man pretended to be an army general

Wondering if you can go anywhere and pretend to be anything you like, this story will answer you in the affirmative. Maqsood Shah posed as an army general in Pakistan. During his three years as a general he didn’t order any troops, but got favors from police and carried out various agreements. It’s still a mystery how he managed to pull off this scam. All police had to find at Shah’s house was an AK-47 , two uniforms and a Blackberry.

2. Former Cop, Professor, FBI Instructor, and “Jurist Doctorate”

Mark Rizzo is the king of scamming. He spent years pretending to be a former cop, a professor, an FBI instructor and, the act that brought him down, “Jurist Doctorate”. The latter title draw the attention of a detective at a conference where Rizzo was supposed to speak. The detective knew the correct term was “juris doctor”, so he looked into Rizzo and was baffled by what he found. Funnily enough, the people he scammed stood by him, claiming he was a good professor to his students and a genuine lawyer.

1. A man lied about winning multiple marathons

Kip Litton was a dentist who won marathons by doing something similar with hiding in the bushes and jumping out near the finish line before the runners. Since he couldn’t trick the chip by simply hiding in a bush, he studied the running track and planned shortcuts. In order to throw potential suspicious looks off the track, he used to change clothes to avoid being caught. In addition to this, Litton also created marathon sites filled with fake testimonies.When his lies finally caught up with him, it was found that he had fabricated several races and had donated $20 to a charity he was supposed to support.

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