‘Lies are everywhere. We hear continually about lying in public and private life. Very few people would claim never to have told a lie, and even fewer would say they have never been duped by a liar.’ (Barnes, 1994:1)

‘Human beings hate to be deceived. It makes us feel violated, used and stupid … The intellectual and moral traditions of Western culture have been shaped and driven by an explicit and consistent fear of deception … but … without such lies humanity cannot survive.’ (Rue, 1994:4–5)

‘Not every deception involves emotion, but those who do may cause special problems for the liar. When emotions occur, physiological changes happen automatically without choice or deliberation.’ (Ekman and O'Sullivan, 1989:299)

Introduction

A moment's reflection tells us that deception implies that someone intentionally does or says something in order to induce a false belief in someone else (Ekman, 1985; Miller and Stiff, 1993:16–31; Vrij, 2000:6). Miller and Stiff have argued persuasively that a useful approach to studying deceptive communication is to conceptualise it as a general persuasive strategy, that is, as a means to an end and not an end in itself. Others, however, advocate using a discourse-centred definition rather than the intent criterion (Bavelas et al., 1990). Deception, as old as human existence, is a social phenomenon that permeates human life, irrespective of context, or one's age, gender, education or occupation. The Internet provides endless opportunity for deception.