What is Pretexting? Attacks, Examples & Techniques

With evolving technology, cybercrimes are getting more and more sophisticated in the cyber world, especially when it comes to using techniques related to technology development. In fact, there is a method called pretexting, which is a form of social engineering whereby fake information is provided to someone to lead them into divulging sensitive information. Unlike traditional hacking methods that exploit technical vulnerabilities, pretexting exploits human psychology, trust, and a position of authority.

Increasingly, with operations getting digitized, organizations have become so vulnerable to various forms of cyber-attacks and one of the most sinister of them is pretexting. In most cases, the perpetrators get hold of information regarding their victims from social media and other online media. By impersonating trusted figures—such as colleagues, IT support, or vendors—attackers can engage individuals and convince them to divulge critical data, such as passwords or financial information.

One notable example of this is the 2015 attack on Ubiquiti Networks. In this case, the pretexts infiltrated by impersonating its top executives and requesting fraudulent payments to their bank accounts amounting to an astonishing $46.7 million.

This article will give a deep insight into pretexting by explaining what it is, making a differentiation with phishing, organizational impacts, methodologies, types of scams, detection strategies, and real-life examples, among others. It will also be of practical advice on how organizations can secure themselves against pretexting attacks.

Overview of Pretexting

Pretexting involves a social engineering technique in which an attacker devises an elaborate false scenario, or pretext, purported to get engagement from a target and to convince them to divulge confidential information. It relies on trust, authority, and social norms to exploit situations where it disguises itself as an authentic entity, such as a bank representative, IT support staff, or government official.

Pretexting vs Phishing

While both pretexting and phishing are types of social engineering intended to swindle users into handing over some sensitive information, they differ in terms of approach.

A phishing scam is mainly fraudulent e-mails or messages that lead users to click on offensive links or download malicious attachments. It takes a form like a trusted site, such as banking sites or online services, and leads the victim to fake websites where personal information, like login credentials or financial information, is extracted. As with any other malicious activity, phishing has many other forms too, such as spear phishing, where specific persons or organizations are targeted. There is also vishing, voice phishing, where a call catches you off guard, calling for information.

In contrast, pretexting involves an effort to create a believable story in the extraction of information directly from the victim. Usually, attackers do proper preparation on the target, where information on personal or professional details allows them to design believable stories. For example, an attacker could pretend to be a corporate executive or IT support personnel and obtain information from the victim by engaging him in conversation to persuade him or her to reveal sensitive information under the disguise of a valid request. Unlike phishing, which relies on heavy digital tactics, pretexting often has to do with direct communication and can therefore be more personal and potentially much more influential.

Impact of Pretexting at the Organizational Level

Organizations can suffer significantly on different counts once pretexting is executed successfully. Since sensitive information may get compromised in employee records or customer data, it can lead to a data breach. It can also cause loss through theft or other costs due to remediation efforts carried out.

Additionally, organizations may suffer from reputational damage. When customers do not feel a business will care for the information that is gathered, such a firm may also face a loss in revenue and market share. Legality-wise, pretexting attacks are dangerous. If this sensitive information, more so PII, is exposed, organizations could incur hundreds or thousands of dollars in fines and regulatory reviews as required by the GDPR or CCPA.

Finally, the impacts of pretexting extend further beyond the financial implications and affect the reputation and stability of the organization in the long term. This simply means that the organizations have to provide security measures against these risks as well as protect all sensitive information.

How Pretexting Works?

Pretexting demands that an attacker execute a sequence of deliberate actions to earn the trust of their victim. Obtaining personal information, crafting a believable tale, and soliciting a target directly through face-to-face contact can all help drop defenses and make their demands appear legitimate. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how pretexting literally works:

• Information Gathering: Attackers research their victims, gathering personal information like names, jobs, and contact addresses. They exploit social media platforms like LinkedIn and public databases to create a comprehensive profile of the victim. It is with such information that they will be able to craft a believable story to share with the target.
• Crafting a Pretext: The attackers then create a believable scenario that fits within their target’s environment. They usually impersonate a known and trusted associate or authority. Building a fake identity and assuming an acceptable voice and body language make it much more difficult for the target to challenge their authenticity.
• Engaging the Target: Attackers do this by engaging the target directly most of the time through phone calls or emails. Once the attacker gets a hold of the target, they use rapport to raise the conversation, connecting it to some common interest of the parties and lowering the victim’s defenses.
• Requesting Sensitive Information: Once the rapport is built, attackers seek sensitive information by dressing it in a disguise of the information needed to maintain the story. In many instances, attackers succeed in establishing an element of time constraint on the victim such that he or she thoughtlessly acts out the request without reflective engagement.
• Exploiting the Information: After attackers obtain the information, they can exploit it to commit malicious activities such as theft of identity and financial fraud. Such stolen information can hence be used in further attacks, which has shown that pretexting poses great dangers to people and institutions alike.

Types of Pretexting Scams

Pretexting scams come in many forms but all share one aspect: they seek trust and manipulate sensitive information. Many of these types depend on social norms or the inherent level of trust that already exists because of authority figures or familiar contacts.

Below are two of the most common types of pretexting scams that organizations, as well as individuals, need to be vigilant against:

1. Impersonation: Impersonation is an attack whereby a trusted identity is assumed by attackers within an organization. This is done by attackers who take up identities such as IT personnel or even company executives. They, in a convenient manner, use familiar identities to make people fall to giving them personal information. For example, an attacker might call an employee claiming to be from the IT department and request sensitive login credentials under some pretext of a routine security check.
2. Business Email Compromise (BEC): Cyber attackers using BEC trick their way into access by sending an email to an employee or executive, stating that they need a wire transfer or some sensitive information. Most of the time, these messages create an impression of urgency, and so they seem like something has to happen now. A common example is an attacker, who, claiming to be the CEO, sends an email to the finance department asking them to transfer money for a “confidential project”. In this case, the victim acts blindly without validating the authenticity of the request.
3. Technical Support Scams: Here, the scammer masquerades as a technical support person and refers to himself as an agent of large organizations. Most often, the scammer calls you or pops up a message saying that your computer has big problems that need to be fixed, or it has an infection that must be removed by him. Then, the scammer demands personal information or convinces the victim to download something bad into his computer so that the attacker gets full access to all sensitive data stored in the computer.
4. Survey Scams: Here, the scammer will conduct a fake survey claiming it is a market survey. They will bait their victims with promises of prizes and ask them for names, addresses, and sometimes financial information. By taking advantage of the vulnerability of the victim towards these seemingly harmless activities, attackers can steal sensitive information used for identity theft or any other illegal activity.

Pretexting Techniques

A great deal of different techniques used by pretexting attacks apply the principles of psychology and social engineering, making them seem legitimate and viable, such as coming from a great place. Some of the most common pretexting techniques used in pretexting attacks include the following:

• Building Rapport: Attackers often begin a discussion by developing a friendly and conversational tone to build rapport with a target. Other times they simply make small talk or use shared interests as a reason to relate to someone or ask open-ended questions that make them appear marginally familiar. The rapport developed then lowers the target’s guard and makes him more susceptible to complying with sensitive information demands.
• Urgency and Fear: Some pre-texting attackers apply urgency and the fear of losing to get compliance. Attackers might frame a request as urgent for immediate actions to avert a security breach, among other things, or service interruption. Creating panic forces the victim to respond in hasty and careless manners, increasing the likelihood of complying.
• Authority: Some pretexting attacks rely on establishing or exploiting authority. These attacks employ the tactic of pretending to be from a trusted organization or authority figure. The attackers exploit the very natural trust in authority that the victims have by taking advantage of the IT staff, company executives, or trusted vendors’ role. They would thus easily manipulate victims into divulging sensitive information since, as has been said above, people tend to be honored to accommodate requests from perceived authority figures.

How to Identify and Detect Pretexting Attacks?

It is hard to identify pretexting attacks, but several red flags are raised by such attacks that, in many cases, can alert individuals and organizations in advance regarding potential threats. The main indicators have been as follows:

• Unusual Requests for Sensitive Information: The sign of a pretexting attack is the unsolicited request, without notice, for sensitive information, most especially over the phone or by email. When you get such a call asking for sensitive personal or confidential data, remember that it is very unlikely you would share this information unless you are sure of who the caller is.
• Urgency Without Clear Reason: It is the attack when the attackers often create a sense of urgency to pressure victims into acting quickly. If you receive a request that insists on immediate action without having an apparent or legitimate reason, red flags should be raised. Legitimate organizations do not demand quick response; hence, it is crucial to take some time to evaluate the situation.
• Inconsistencies in the Caller’s Story: Pay attention to any inconsistencies in the information provided by the caller. If their story seems off or contradictory, it could indicate that they are not who they claim to be. Look for discrepancies in their identity, the purpose of the call, or details about the organization they represent.
• Unusual Requests for Information: Avoid requests for information that a legitimate organization would not normally ask for, such as passwords, Social Security numbers, or bank account information. Established organizations have in place a standard protocol for handling sensitive information and are not normally going to ask for such information in unsolicited communication. Be very careful with those types of requests. Look it up first through official channels before you respond to it.

How to Secure Your Organization Against a Pretexting Attack?

An organization faces a constant threat in the form of a pretexting attack, which may cause severe breaches of data and financial losses unless taken seriously. Additionally, cautionary actions should be adopted to protect sensitive information and create awareness among employees about the risks involved with social engineering. The following are some of the key strategies that should be made to improve security against pretexting attacks:

1. Training and Awareness: Organizations should prioritize regular training and awareness programs to educate employees about social engineering tactics, including pretexting. By informing staff about the various pretexting techniques attackers use, such as impersonation and urgency, employees can better recognize suspicious behavior. Training should emphasize the importance of verifying identities before sharing sensitive information, fostering a culture of caution and diligence.
2. Verification Protocols: Legitimate verification protocols should be followed so that the person requesting sensitive data is indeed the one who claims to be. Standardized procedures for individual verification should be created by organizations, such as callback processes where individuals verifying a request talk to the requesting entity through established forms of communication. As a result, this adds security to the system and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data while likely preventing falls for pretexting attacks.
3. Incident Response Plan: One of the only solutions to taking control of incidents in a pretexting attack quickly is developing and maintaining an incident response plan. This plan would include outlining procedures for reporting a suspicious incident, assessing damage caused by such an attack, and measures for damage control. A response plan ensures that employees know how to act swiftly in case of a suspected breach so as to minimize fallout from such attacks.
4. Data Protection Policies: Data protection policies need to be implemented so as to decrease the likelihood of sensitive data getting leaked. These must specifically mention, what forms of data, one allows access to and to whom under what conditions. Access to data may be limited so that an organization might open only those up to those who would need them for their work. Thus, opportunities for leaking such information without proper permission are reduced to a minimum.

Real-Life Pretexting Examples

Real-life cases of pretexting show how attackers exploit trust and manipulate the victim toward the fulfillment of malicious goals. Here are some notable pretexting examples include:

• The “AIDS” Trojan (1989): Also known as the grandfather of ransomware, the AIDS trojan was one of the earliest examples of pretexting in cybercrime. Computer users attending an international AIDS conference were provided floppy disks labeled “AIDS Information, ” containing a trojan virus. This one would hide all directories after being installed into the victim’s computer, therefore making files invisible to the user. It encrypted all information on the hard drive and made the files accessible. The ransom, an amount of $189, was forced to be paid to restore access. The ransom had to be mailed via regular mail to a mailing address in Panama. This is one of the very first ransomware specimens that demonstrates not only the concept of pretexting but also exactly how attackers utilize topical issues to deceive victims into falling prey to scams.
• Job Seeker Phishing and Extortion (2023): These scammers who took advantage of the trends of mass layoffs in tech industries made innocuous job seekers their prey, forging themselves as recruiters on LinkedIn and other platforms. By duplicating real job postings and creating a career portal, they deceived their victimized dupes out of sensitive personal data. A large number of those were recruited to false employment paperwork and the uploading of sensitive documents like identification and financial information duped many people. This pretexting scam preyed on people looking for new jobs, showing just how opportunistic attackers are when using the latest events to carry out their scams.
• Deepfake CFO Impersonation (2024): In 2024, one leading company was reportedly attacked by a sophisticated deepfake attack by the attacker masquerading as the CFO and other senior leaders of the firm. Such attackers created very realistic deep fakes-synthetic media that closely resembled the appearance and voices of those high executives. The fake executives asked an employee over a video call to transfer a huge sum of money, approximately USD $25 million, into what they portrayed as a critical business transaction. The employee trusted that they were dealing with the true company leadership and therefore transferred the money according to their instructions. This attack illustrates just how dangerous deep fakes are becoming and demonstrates the threat that corporate fraud presents, where even the most experienced professionals may be swindled by hyper-realistic simulations of trusted individuals.

Conclusion

Currently, the biggest threat in the world of cybersecurity is pretexting- manipulation and deception to root itself within individuals and organizations. Only by understanding the mechanics of pretexting will businesses be prepared to defend against it.

Creating an awareness culture should be a necessity and periodic training sessions must be conducted for employees on the tactics of cybercrimes. They should be made to learn verification of identity before divulging such classified information. Verification check processes at the organization level, like callback protocol and multi-factor authentication, should be strictly implemented to ensure that only verified requests are being made for sensitive information.

Proper verification checks and awareness building can minimize the effects of a pretexting attack. The most probable results of these scams include financial loss, reputational damage, and other legal issues. Therefore, organizational safeguards are essential to prevent sensitive information from leaking into public circles, hence maintaining the integrity of an organization or its reputation before stakeholders.

FAQs

1. What is Pretexting?

Pretexting is a form of social engineering wherein an attacker creates a fabricated scenario to scam the target into exposing secret information. It works on deceit and trust because an attacker typically pretends to be an authority or someone who has a valid reason for information.

2. What does pretexting mean in business?

In corporate, pretexting is defined as fraudulent activities whereby an individual takes on the character or persona of an authority figure or a trusted source in order to obtain secret information from clients or employees. This can range from mimicking a company’s IT staff, financial officer, or vendor who requests sensitive data in the name of performing checks or processes. It could result in serious security breaches, loss of data, and eventually, monetary implications for the organization, thereby underlining the importance of strong security measures and employee awareness.

3. What is an example of pretexting?

An example of pretexting is when an attacker poses as a company’s IT support staff and contacts employees, claiming they need to verify their login credentials for security reasons. By establishing a sense of urgency and authority, the attacker convinces employees to provide their passwords or sensitive data. This example highlights how attackers can exploit the trust inherent in workplace relationships, leading individuals to comply with requests they might otherwise question.

4. How can pretexting be prevented?

Employee training, strict verification procedures, incident response plans, and sturdy data protection policies all can lead to the prevention of pretexting. Give employees recurring training about tactics used in pretexting and caution them from disclosing sensitive information by alerting them to suspicious solicitations. In addition, organizations should develop incident response plans that may respond immediately to suspected breaches and enforce strict data protection policies with limited access to such sensitive information.

5. What is the difference between phishing and pretexting?

The most important difference between phishing and pretexting is the way of deception. Phishing typically follows the path of fraudulent emails or messages that make victims visit fraudulent websites that steal information from them, which can be login credentials or their financial accounts. The pretexting case depends on creating a fictional storyline or scenario to obtain information directly from the victim through phone calls or in person.

6. What is pretexting in social engineering?

In social engineering, pretexting is creating a situation in which a person is misled into surrendering sensitive data or gaining access to secure systems. The attackers employ pretexting to build an identity or cause for requesting something. They play upon social norms as well as the human psyche in obtaining compliance. This way, attackers dress up as authorities or sources of authority in order to easily lower the defenses of their victims and go on to retrieve sensitive data or gain unauthorized access.