Social engineering is a manipulation technique where people end up taking actions they don’t want to. It is used to exploit as in, for example, the case in Rotherham where, between 1997 and 2013 predators socially engineered and sexually exploited over 1400 children using anything from ice cream to car rides, alcohol and marijuana. Social engineering can also be used to gain important information.
The short answer is simply that our brain likes to simplify large, complex amount of information. These cognitive biases are a normal part of human thinking and these are exploited by those seeking to manipulate through social engineering. These people know a lot about human behaviour and manipulate by exploiting emotions like greed, generosity, fear and curiosity.
Obviously the ability to take shortcuts in thinking is really useful most of the time, but when someone is trying to exploit us the impact cognitive bias makes on our decision-making can leave us in a weaker position. There are other biases which are all useful to learn about in order to avoid being the next victim of a scam.
Heuristic effect is what most people call a gut reaction. It is that fast, often instantaneous, reaction to something that helps you make a decision. If you feel good about something you assume that something is good. And vice versa.
For example: If you love swimming and spent all your childhood summers having wonderful times in the water then water becomes a positive, calming influence. On the other hand, if you saw someone drown, or nearly drowned yourself, your experience would give you a different reaction to the water.
If you are involved in making a choice between option A and option B, adding option C (the decoy) often makes it easier to compare the options.
For Example: If you are ordering coffee and have the choice of small or medium, then later a large size is added. The likelihood is that the decoy effect will have us look at the other choices, weigh them up and go for a slightly bigger cup than our earlier choice would have been. Many of us will go for the medium coffee when we would have gone for small.
People will pick and choose what information they want: If it is positive they can never get enough, but they will avoid even helpful information if it happens to be negative. It is a bit like saying that if you can’t see something it isn’t there. People often choose to bury their head in the sand like an ostrich to avoid dealing with unpleasantness.
For example: Ignoring letters from your credit card when you know you have overspent. You know that what is in that letter will not make you happy so you avoid the negativity by not looking.
Optimism is a wonderful thing, it helps us move forward in our lives, however it is not good to let optimism stop us from being realistic. We tend to expect things to turn out really well, in fact, a lot better than they often do in reality. This is because our pre-programmed tendency is to look at the future optimistically. However, it can mean we fail to prepare for the negative, leaving us potentially vulnerable and exposed to potential danger.
For example: If you are over-optimistic you may not bother going to see a doctor for a potential problem, or to put any money aside for emergencies.
We tend to remember more recent events, especially if they are impactful and we also tend to think that any current trend is going to continue indefinitely. So we choose not to rely on data, or accept that there are unpredictable events that may happen, we just assume that life will continue on exactly as it is now.
For example: Not acting on a tornado warning because there has never been a tornado in the area before.
Romania is not known to be a tornado country. The people filming the tornado are complete unaware of the dangers it can cause.
It is good to develop a sense of scepticism but without being so paranoid that you spend your whole time feeling anxious about getting scammed. Awareness, being cautious, checking surroundings and information will help to keep you safe from potential scammers.
“There’s a sucker born every minute” – P.T. Barnum
An unkind, but common, phrase that can equally be applied to scams. There is literally a constant stream of new scams and by becoming familiar with the most commonly used techniques you will be better placed to avoid becoming the next victim.
It is common human behaviour to want to return a favour if someone does something nice for us. This can become a default mechanism, but sometimes you really don’t want to do so. This natural response can get you into a lot of trouble so take a moment to step back and ask yourself if this is really something you want to do.
Helping others is a good thing but make sure that by doing it you don’t expose yourself to harm. Most people want to help others and sadly this is exploited by criminals. There are so many ways a criminal can try to take advantage so make sure that if you agree to help you are not isolating yourself and leaving yourself vulnerable
Don’t let thieves drive you to distraction from Foreign Office on Vimeo.
This is when a person is basically manipulated into doing something he wouldn’t normally do by a scammer presenting a fake scenario. For example, it could be that the criminal impersonates a bank employee, a co-worker or an official such as a social worker or tax officer. Their aim is to use the authority of the invented persona to force a person into a particular situation or action. It is, in effect, a very convincing and elaborate lie.
These kind of scams can be very complex and inventive. How do you know this is happening and how can you avoid being a victim?
- Stay back: If you think something is off centre, keep the person a distance from you. This can mean the difference between getting your pocket picked or being attacked
- Look behind you – Keep an eye on all areas to make sure no one is sneaking up on you.
- Ask questions – Don’t take what they are saying at face value. Ask a lot of questions and look for discrepancies. If this is a distraction robbery it is likely he will leave as he will not be able to answer the questions.
