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Using personal interests

Pretexts have to be ingrained in the person using them and thus it helps utilize some of the attributes that the person already has. To add credibility to a pretext, social engineers often make use of their personal interests. Personal interests are strong and are likely to make someone appear more authentic and genuine even when under a pretext. For example, a social engineer that is a tech enthusiast can easily take up a pretext of an IT technician. The interest and knowledge in tech-related topics, such as cyber-crimes, malware, attack vectors, and security policies, will all play a role in convincing a target that indeed they are interacting with an IT technician. If a person that hardly knows anything about IT ...