Social Engineering: Don’t Become A Victim

Social engineering is not anything new, it has been around for decades. From phone scams to email scams, it continues to progress over time using different methods centered around the motivation to manipulate individuals.

You may remember Frank Abagnale, he was the subject of the film “Catch Me If You Can” and author of “Scam Me If You Can”. Since being arrested for writing forged checks and committing numerous social engineering schemes, he has been working with the FBI for over 40 years and assisting the federal government with forgery and fraud investigations. Abagnale is very familiar with fraud schemes and is one of the pioneers of social engineering scams. According to Abagnale, the success rate of scams on the general public and on the enterprise are just about equal.

It is important to be suspicious of unsolicited phone call, visits, or email messages from anyone asking about you, your employees or any other confidential or personal information. The best con artists know how to use a comforting and confident tone of voice, said Abagnale. This is how scam artists seduce their victims into revealing personal and confidential information. Remember, you did not call them, they called you!

Cybercriminals don’t ever stop scamming, not even during a pandemic. We frequently see increases in social engineering tactics around major events or catastrophes. Scammers take advantage of current events and situations when people are the most vulnerable. Abagnale suggests we keep our eyes open about the multitude of social engineering scams related to government aid programs, which are very lucrative for fraudsters. Don’t forget scammers rely on human behavior and the willingness to be helpful or the fear of punishment.

Keep This From Happening To YOU!

To help protect your business and employees from Social Engineering, it is important to be able to identify the 6 most common types of social engineering attacks to help minimize the risk of becoming a victim:

• Phishing
• Vishing and Smishing
• Pretexting
• Baiting
• Tailgating and Piggybacking
• Quid Pro Quo

“Cyber crooks are evolving”, said Abagnale so don’t simply assume that the scams we see today will be the same in the future. Continuous education is critical.

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