Choosing simple pretexts
In pretexts, the simpler the better. Pretexts are built on storylines, made-up facts, and some intrinsic details. There is a point a pretext can get such that there are simply too many details for the social engineer to remember such that the pretext ends up failing. One of the reasons why social engineers are caught is when they are unable to recall things they mentioned early on or when their words do not add up to something they said early on. As captured by a psychologist that studied human deception, Dr. Ekman wrote an article detailing how lies fail in the process of human deception. According to him, lies fail when a liar is not able to anticipate questions that may be asked. Even if the liar is clever, there ...
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