Boo hoo. You try to manipulate someone and invade their privacy and then act offended when they lie. Pseufo-moral behavior like that earns zero respect.

HR and management have the upper hand in the hiring process. If you play these kinds of games when negotiating salary, you deserve to be lied to - whether or not you take it well doesn't matter.

Lol. You have no right to that information. I'd counter with something like "How much does your wife make?"

Just because you say that you believe in paying people more, the person on the other side of the transaction has no way of knowing this. Unless you want to believe that all hiring managers are completely moral and ethical, and would never attempt to underpay someone, then you have to accept that the transaction is adversarial despite you not wanting it to be so.

It's a fair point. Never lie. Say I need $x to move.

There is literally no way for the employer to find out... What are they going to do? Call up my old workplace and ask exactly how much I am making? It is against the law for employers to reveal salary numbers. I could sue them, lol.

Employers play games way worse than this.

It is not against the law for employers to reveal salary information. Some people's salaries (government employees for example) are public information by definition. Non profits have to file paperwork which discloses salaries. We talk about actors and athletes salaries all the time. There is also third party employment verification services that salary information is disclosed to by employers. Your employer can use such third party verification services to see if you are lying about your salary or not.

No, I swear, your baby is adorable!