Entering Your Void

Failed Social Engineering

This page is dedicated to failed social engineering attacks. Social Engineering is not as easy as it looks. It takes someone who is articulate, knows the lingo, and can gain someone's trust to pull off a successful attack. There is a big difference between a social engineer and a bullshit artist. A bullshit artist may think they are a social engineer, but they just throw shit out there and expect people to swallow it. This technique may work for a short period of time but everyone eventually sees right through the bullshit. There is someone in particular that tries this technique quite often, and it doesn't take long to see through his bullshit. Here is a list of why Social Engineering Attacks can fail.

This page is a work in progress. We are not done yet. As we refine and rename some of these concepts we will update this page. This page is meant to be both entertaining and informative. Well, more entertaining than anything else, but fun none the less.

Minus Tens Attack

This is a failed social engineering attack where someone who is extremely ugly tries to use their sex appeal to get someone to reveal information. The only way this might work is if the person perpetrating this attack is a woman and the man if obviously desperate. Of course, the odds of getting information from the subject would be extremely slim. After all, they are only going to want sex. This is a spoof on the Tens attack where an attractive person tries to get someone to reveal information through flirting and influence.

Failed By Anticipation (aka DoBS - Denial of Bull Shit)

This is when the subject of a social engineering attack is actually anticipating the attack. A subject may anticipate the attack because they have been warned or because someone was just shooting their mouth off about the situation. It seems people that go around shooting their mouths off about what good social engineers they are seem to have an extremely high failure rate.

Overestimating Your Skills

If communication really isn't your thing, you should not try to pull off sophisticated social engineering attacks. On a side note, many social engineers claim to be masters of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) as well. They make claims about NLP without knowing anything about human psychology. They read a couple of papers and now they are experts. Basically, don't try to wear the big-boy shoes. You never know when there is a huge foot waiting to crush you.

Not Knowing the Lingo

The devil is in the details. This saying could not be more true in the area of social engineering. Often you will be called upon to speak or interpret the lingo of the victim in order to be successful at a relatively sophisticated social engineering attack. Knowing the language of the victim will also help keep suspicion away from an attack as well. The goal is not to get caught, remember?

Being a Complete Asshat

Being a complete Asshat usually involves all of the above. If you go around shooting your mouth off about how much you can bullshit people, talk about different techniques you use, and then try to use them on the very same people you talked with that makes you an Asshat. Not only does it make you an Asshat, it makes you a complete moron as well. When you read a book and then put out a presentation based on that book that is basically stealing. Also, if someone can draw a direct comparison between your presentations and someone releasing a new book it makes it pretty embarrassing for you. If you are this person or someone like him than my best advice is just to come clean and quit being a sack of shit. You can now quit claiming to be something you are not.
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