Social engineering attack examples, templates and scenarios
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The common pattern of social engineering attacks involves four phases: (1) collect information about the target; (2) develop relationship with the target; (3) exploit the available information and execute the attack; and (4) exit with no traces.
“The common pattern involves four phases: (1) collect information about the target; (2) develop relationship with the target; (3) exploit the available information and execute the attack; and (4) exit with no traces [12].”
From Social Engineering Attacks: A Survey (2019) · cites this paper as [12]
Section 2, “Defining Social Engineering Attacks” (page unavailable), describes a commonly known four-phase model involving research, rapport, exploitation of trust, and use of information. But it does not give “exit with no traces” as the fourth phase; the paper’s own six-phase framework ends with debriefing, in which the attacker reassures the target and checks whether the goal was met. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Sorted by citations
Social Engineering Attacks: A Survey
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“In the out phase, the attacker quits without leaving any proof [13].”
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- Authors
- Mouton, F., Leenen, L., & Venter, H. S.
- Affiliations
- Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (ZA)
- University of Pretoria (ZA)
- Corresponding author
- Mouton, Francois
- Venue
- Computers & Security
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-06
- Volume
- 59
- Pages
- 186-209
- ISSN
- 0167-4048 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2304927286
- Cited by
- 194
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 36.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- Computers & Security (publishedVersion)
- UpSpace Institutional Repository (University of Pretoria) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information and Cyber Security
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Spam and Phishing Detection
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › User Authentication and Security Systems
- Keywords
- social engineering attacks, attack scenarios, human factors in information security, manipulation techniques, two-way communication, one-way communication, indirect communication
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