The importance of taking references

OK, this is a short extract of a CV I got. Now we are talking about serious stuff, i.e. dating CV, not work CV:
Age: 40
Height: 1,80 (5ft 11)
Profession: MSc Finance (later updated to Corporate Finance)

Reality (later confirmed by some googling)? Well...:
Age: 49
Height: 1,75 (5ft 9) tops
Profession: funnily enough Corporate Finance proved to be true

Maybe everything else was true to the littlest detail, I never stayed long enough to find out. But why for heavens sake lie about the first two obvious facts?

The reality took about ten seconds into the meeting to find out. Just to clarify that the facts were given by the person in question, so there is no doubt that the correct answers were available.

The point is not 40 or 49, 5ft 11 or 5ft 9. The point is the signal the perhaps seemingly trivial lie sends on personality, integrity, self image and self confidence. Pathetic really.

I'm not going on another blind date for a very long time. And if I for some unknown reason decide to change my mind in this, I've learned the lesson to take the references before the interview. A difference from work where I would normally call the reference as the final check.

So. To add to my previous list on basic dating behaviour: No lying or else vanish.