What is social engineering?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
Social engineering attacks people's judgement rather than their software, pulling information or actions out of them. The standard moves — urgency, false authority, fear, cultivated friendship — all aim to remove the time you would otherwise spend checking. Verifying through a different channel from the one that contacted you defends against all of them.
Key points
- Targets human judgement rather than software
- Urgency, false authority and fear are the standard levers
- Verify through a channel other than the one that contacted you
- Stop the moment secret information is requested
Definition
A general term for techniques that exploit human psychology and situational judgement, rather than software flaws, to obtain secret information or induce actions against the victim's interest.
No system survives its owner handing over the keys, so attackers work on the person rather than the software. In crypto this pays well, because transfers cannot be reversed and there is often no obvious authority to appeal to afterwards.
The repertoire is small. Frighten — your account will be frozen. Borrow authority — support, the operator, the police. Impose a deadline — ten minutes left. Or build rapport over weeks of ordinary conversation before the investment topic appears. Every version is designed to take away your checking time.
The defence is not to judge within the channel that contacted you. Whatever arrived by email or chat, verify it using the bookmarked official site or a number from your own paperwork — never the link or number in the message. A genuine contact has no reason to object to that.
Then hold one absolute line: you never share a seed phrase, a private key or a two-factor code, in any context. No legitimate service asks for them. The moment someone does, ending the conversation is the correct response regardless of who they claim to be.
Watch out for
- · Never use the link or phone number in the message — verify via contact details you recorded yourself
- · Never share a seed phrase, private key or two-factor code with anyone, whoever they claim to be
- · When someone imposes a deadline, step away and decide later rather than on the spot