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I think that generally, yes, people lie/embellish/exaggerate, especially about things like their salary and especially on the Internet.

I cannot speak to any situation in the SF bay area, but I have caught people telling this lie, and had people confess to telling this lie.

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I fail to see what someone would gain from doing so. A few lies? Sure... But so many?

I can only speculate, of course, but I've met a developer who runs around inflating salary reports in hopes that he will set the expectation that employers at tech networking events will think they should pay him that much. It's strange to observe.

But mostly I'd just say that people like to have something impressive and interesting to say, and making up numbers is a quick way to do that.

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