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#SOCIAL ENGINEERING - PART 3 - PRETEXTING#
What is Pretexting?
Pretexting is defined as the act of presenting oneself as someone else in order to obtain private/confidential information. It can go from a simple lie to impersonate someone to even creating a whole new identity and using that identity to obtain said private information. Depending on the situation, pretexting can be as simple as playing out a role or acting a part, where in others it could mean that you will be living that persona for a while…
The main goal of pretexting is to create a scenario or a situation where your target is comfortable with releasing confidential infomartion.
It is in pretexting that a great amount of the information you gathered will come in handy, as the quality and credibility of your pretext is closely related to the information you gathered (for example, if your backstory or your identity has some holes, your target will probably notice something is wrong and get suspicious).
Like Part 1 of this series (Information Gathering) no piece of information is irrelevant. The more information the better.
Many social engineers create social media and email accounts to add credibility to their persona.
As you carry on SE Attacks, you’ll create/develop various pretexts. It is not something you create just one time hoping it will work on every other attack you plan.
Planning the Pretext
Like every other skill we’ve discussed on previous posts, there are certain steps that help us plan out our attacks. Pretexting is no exception. Below is a small list of certain points I think are worth mentioning:
What is Pretexting?
Pretexting is defined as the act of presenting oneself as someone else in order to obtain private/confidential information. It can go from a simple lie to impersonate someone to even creating a whole new identity and using that identity to obtain said private information. Depending on the situation, pretexting can be as simple as playing out a role or acting a part, where in others it could mean that you will be living that persona for a while…
The main goal of pretexting is to create a scenario or a situation where your target is comfortable with releasing confidential infomartion.
It is in pretexting that a great amount of the information you gathered will come in handy, as the quality and credibility of your pretext is closely related to the information you gathered (for example, if your backstory or your identity has some holes, your target will probably notice something is wrong and get suspicious).
Like Part 1 of this series (Information Gathering) no piece of information is irrelevant. The more information the better.
Many social engineers create social media and email accounts to add credibility to their persona.
As you carry on SE Attacks, you’ll create/develop various pretexts. It is not something you create just one time hoping it will work on every other attack you plan.
Planning the Pretext
Like every other skill we’ve discussed on previous posts, there are certain steps that help us plan out our attacks. Pretexting is no exception. Below is a small list of certain points I think are worth mentioning:
- As previously mentioned, by gathering more information the chance of success will be higher.
- Involve your personal interests - Like I mentioned in my last post, nothing can kill a conversation faster if you look uncomfortable and with little confidence while in a conversation. This step helps you with that. By including your own personal interests and things that you know a lot about in your pretext (basically topics that you are comfortable talking about), you have the opportunity to talk about a lot of stuff and at the same time it gives the so-needed confidence. This also helps to avoid those awkard silenece’s that nobody likes.
- Practice your accents and expressions - For example, if you’re impersonating someone that was born and raised in Scotland, you should try to speak with a scottish accent and be familiar with common scottish terms and expressions. This all helps you give credibility to your persona and to avoid suspicion.
- Keep it simple - Of course having a meticulous and detailed approach is not only important, but necessary. However, having too many details to worry about can be complicated. Keep details important, but small. Don’t go for an extremely elaborate pretext.
- Try to look spontaneous - Again, planning ahead is necessary, but try not to create a script and follow it by the letter, otherwise you’ll look like a robot while talking to other people and you’ll scare them off. Try to go for something that looks more natural.
- Acessorize - i.e, if you are impersonating a tech support guy try to bring items or tool that an actual tech support would have, like a briefcase, nametag, clipboard etc… (Honestly, I don’t know what tools and other gear a tech support guy has, but you get the idea).