Involve Personal Interests to Increase Success

Using your own personal interests to increase the chances of a successful social engineering move seems very simple but it can go a long way in convincing the target that you are credible. Nothing can ruin rapport and trust faster than a person who claims to be knowledgeable about a topic and then falls short. As a social engineer, if you have never seen a server room before and have never taken a computer apart, trying to play the part of a technician can be a quick path to failure. Including topics and activities in your pretext that you are interested in gives you a lot to talk about and gives you the ability to portray intelligence as well as confidence.

Confidence can go a long way toward convincing the target you are who you say you are. Certain pretexts require more knowledge than others (for instance, stamp collector versus nuclear researcher) to be convincing, so again research becomes the recurring theme. Sometimes the pretext is simple enough that you can get the knowledge by reading a few websites or a book.

However you gain the knowledge, researching topics that personally interest you, as the social engineer, is important. After you pick up on a story, aspect, service, or interest that you have a lot of knowledge in or at least feel comfortable discussing, see whether that angle can work.

Dr. Tom G. Stevens, PhD, says, “It is important to remember that self confidence is always relative to the task and situation. We have different levels of confidence in different situations.” This statement is very important, because confidence directly links to how others view you as a social engineer. Confidence (as long as it is not overconfidence) builds trust and rapport and makes people feel at ease. Finding a path to your target that offers you the chance to talk about topics you are comfortable with, and that you can speak about with confidence, is very important.