I recently contacted a small FBO at a local New England airport, thinking that I might do some flight instruction in my time off from finding a vegetarian cure for cancer, searching for the real truth behind 9/11 and serving as an Archbishop in my own Catholic church. I had a very nice chat with the lady running things but then I said, "Let me show you my certificates, just so you know that I am not making anything up." She laughed at that and said that she had recently had someone show up with mega-qualifications in the oral presentation, way better than mine but no actual certificates in strict point of fact! Just another Walt, I guess.
We once knew a fellow who was flying a Citation with lots and lots of hours on type. Then the contractee came up with a new requirement, everyone to show the actual hours logged instead of just self-certifying. It is the darndest thing but by the time he was able to get back home to pick up his logbooks someone had broken into his house and stolen them! Nothing else taken, just his logbooks...
There was the guy I flew with who told me about all the times he would go in and out of Kigali, Rwanda with Sabena in the 707. Wow! He forgot to tell me that was when he was still working as a flight attendant, though, before he got his pilot's licence...
Just as on the X Files, "The truth is out there," and it usually will come around to bite you in a place that will not make you blind!