When humans lie, something happens to our nose. It doesn't grow longer like in Pinocchio, but the act of speaking untruths causes our body to produce chemicals that cause tissues in the nose to swell, making it tingle.
When we lie, we tend to scratch our nose. We avoid eye contact. Knowing and spotting these telltale signs is a big part of Belinda Tan's job.
She studied finance in Australia and had worked as an accountant for six years when her mentor suggested that her inquisitive personality was better suited to investigating financial crimes.
She said that I had a sense of justice that drove my interest to get to the bottom of things.
After stints in top firms like Deloitte and Ernst Young, Tan is now head of forensic advisory at the leading accounting firm Grant Thornton Singapore.
She is part of the Financial Forensic Accounting Oversight Committee at the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants ISCA, where she hopes to train a new generation of specialists.
Tan continues to be surprised by some of her cases after 26 years in the field, particularly how sophisticated the crime is and how much money is stolen.