Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

4.3. Successful Pretexting

To learn how to build a successful pretext, take a look at a couple of stories of social engineers who used pretexts that worked and how they developed them. Eventually they did get caught, which is why these stories are now available.

4.3.1. Example 1: Stanley Mark Rifkin

Stanley Mark Rifkin is credited with one of the biggest bank heists in American history (see a great article about him at www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/Hackers/hackers-Mark-Rifkin-Social-Engineer-furtherInfo.htm). Rifkin was a computer geek who ran a computer consulting business out of his small apartment. One of his clients was a company that serviced the computers at Security Pacific Bank. The 55-floor Security Pacific National Bank headquarters in Los Angeles looked like a granite-and-glass fortress. Dark-suited guards roamed the lobby and hidden cameras photographed customers as they made deposits and withdrawals.

This building seemed impenetrable, so how is it that Rifkin walked away with $10.2 million and never held a gun, never touched a dollar, and never held up anyone?

The bank's wire transfer policies seemed secure. They were authorized by a numerical code that changed daily and was only given out to authorized personnel. It was posted on a wall in a secure room that only "authorized personnel" had access to.

From the archived article mentioned previously:

In October 1978, he visited Security Pacific, where bank employees easily recognized him as a computer worker. ...