I think it probably could be common practice in a lot of cases. But that would depend on who's giving the facts and how reliable/trustworthy they are too.
Perhaps they're testing you to see how much you actually know or maybe they're just skeptical and would take more convincing. There are a lot of people like that.
When a student asked me what time it is, I would either say "Time to turn around and look at the clock." or "Time to buy a watch." One of them looked at the clock and said she didn't know how to read it. 16 years old.