Social engineering tactic where a team will communicate, whether directly or indirectly, a lie or half-truth in order to get someone to believe a falsehood.

Social engineering tactic where a team will communicate, whether directly or indirectly, a lie or half-truth in order to get someone to believe a falsehood.

• A. Lure
• B. Phishing
• C. Pretexting
• D. Social engineering

Answer: (C)

Pretexting is a social engineering technique where the attacker fabricates a believable scenario, often impersonating someone trusted, to manipulate the target into accepting a lie or half-truth as real. The lie is not just random; it’s woven into a plausible pretext that makes the target feel they’re acting on legitimate information or authority. Because the goal is to get the person to believe and act on a falsehood within that believable story, this method directly matches the described tactic. The broader idea of social engineering covers many tricks, but pretexting specifically focuses on creating that convincing scenario to elicit information or access. While phishing relies on deceptive messages, and the broader term doesn’t pinpoint the constructed scenario, pretexting centers on the crafted false narrative used to manipulate trust.

Pretexting is a social engineering technique where the attacker fabricates a believable scenario, often impersonating someone trusted, to manipulate the target into accepting a lie or half-truth as real. The lie is not just random; it’s woven into a plausible pretext that makes the target feel they’re acting on legitimate information or authority. Because the goal is to get the person to believe and act on a falsehood within that believable story, this method directly matches the described tactic. The broader idea of social engineering covers many tricks, but pretexting specifically focuses on creating that convincing scenario to elicit information or access. While phishing relies on deceptive messages, and the broader term doesn’t pinpoint the constructed scenario, pretexting centers on the crafted false narrative used to manipulate trust.