Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

3.3. Mastering Elicitation

This chapter has a lot of information for you to absorb, and if you are not a people person, employing the techniques covered might seem like a daunting task. Like most aspects of social engineering, elicitation has a set of principles that when applied will enhance your skill level. To help you master these principles, remember these pointers:

Too many questions can shut down the target. Peppering the target with a barrage of questions will do nothing but turn off the target. Remember, conversation is a give and take. You want to ask, but you have to give to make the target feel at ease.

Too few questions will make the target feel uncomfortable. Have you ever been in a conversation that is filled with "awkward silences"? It isn't good is it? Don't assume that your target is a skilled and willing conversationalist. You must work at making a conversation an enjoyable experience.

Ask only one question at a time. Chapter 5 covers buffer overflows on the human mind, but at this time your goal is not to overflow the target. It is to merely gather information and build a profile. To do this you can't seem too eager or non-interested.

As you have probably gathered, ...