It seems to me that the people that go out with confidence do tend to have the tales that others may or may not believe. That would be because it isn't within their experience so it is hard to place yourself there. That is a fairly normal reaction.
I think there are ways to tell more what may be fact vs fiction. Obviously, people can build up credibility here. A person with a truly unbelievable story and 3 total posts doesn't carry the weight of someone with 4000 posts. As someone else mentioned, do they post an avatar or pictures in their profile (although I wouldn't put complete faith in this one as a sole checkpoint, sometimes privacy can still be a concern). Even better can be when they are out with someone else from the forum. Makes it more of a stretch to call that a fabrication.
But if you are around here for a while and the poster is also, it becomes pretty clear who is straight up with you. So it is mostly the new posters that it becomes hard to believe if it is really true.
