The top cyber threats facing the manufacturing industry are ransomware, supply chain attacks, insider threats, phishing and social engineering attacks. In 2023, the manufacturing sector accounted
A pretexting attack is a type of social engineering attack where the threat actor persuades their target into revealing sensitive information or sending them money by making up a story, hence the word “pretext.” Pretexting attacks can come in many different forms including a phone call, text message, email or even in person. Before carrying out a pretexting attack, the threat actor will gather as much information as they can about their target so they can easily convince them that they’re someone they know.
Read on to learn more about pretexting and what you can do to keep yourself safe from this type of cyber attack.
Pretexting vs Phishing: What’s the Difference?
Pretexting and phishing are both types of social engineering attacks, making them quite similar to each other. They both involve a threat actor gathering information about their potential target and trying to convince them to reveal sensitive information or send them money through psychological manipulation.
However, pretexting and phishing do have one key difference. Pretexting relies on building a false narrative so the cybercriminal seems credible. For example, someone initiating a pretexting attack could pretend to be someone important, such as a member of the IT team, in an attempt to gain physical access to a building. Conversely, a phishing attack relies on a sense of urgency and fear. For example, phishing email scams will commonly include messages like “take action now” with the threat of dire consequences, such as saying “you will be locked permanently out of your bank account.” This sense of urgency impels victims to quickly take action without second-guessing themselves.
It’s important to note that phishing scams commonly leverage pretexting and vice versa. For example, phishing emails and text messages will often claim to be someone you know, like a coworker or friend.
How Pretexting Attacks Work
Pretexting, like many social engineering attacks, starts off with a cybercriminal conducting research. They’ll look into their potential victim’s place of employment, social media profiles and more, to gain an understanding of who they are. Once they have the information they need to carry out their attack, they plan who they’re going to impersonate and the story they’re going to use to convince their potential victim.

The Most Common Pretexting Attacks
Here are some common types of pretexting attacks.
Grandparent scams
Grandparent scams have gotten more sophisticated as technology advances. In this type of scam, a bad actor impersonates the victim’s grandchild or other close relative and attempts to convince them that they’re in a crisis. For example, they may claim they’re in jail and need bail money. The threat actor can spoof the caller ID and make the incoming call appear as though it’s coming from someone they know. If the victim falls for the scam, the threat actor will give them instructions for sending the money.
Grandparent scams have become more sophisticated because of the advanced capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Using AI, a threat actor can clone the voice of a loved one to make their scam seem more realistic.
Romance scams
Romance scams are when threat actors pretend to be an online love interest in order to win over their victim’s trust. This type of pretexting scam can take weeks, months or even years. Throughout the course of the scam, the threat actor will slowly start asking for things such as loans for an emergency or expensive gifts.
In 2022, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received more than 19,000 complaints about romance scams, with reported losses of almost $740 million.
CEO fraud
CEO fraud is when a cybercriminal impersonates their target’s CEO in an attempt to have them send money, often in the form of a gift card, or share sensitive information. To carry out this attack, the threat actor leverages phishing techniques to make the matter sound urgent.
In some cases of CEO fraud, the bad actor will message or email the victim multiple times before making their request. This helps them build credibility and gain the victim’s trust.
Techniques Used in Pretexting Attacks
Here are a few of the techniques used by cybercriminals when carrying out pretexting attacks.
Impersonation
Impersonation is exactly what its name suggests: impersonating someone the victim knows. By impersonating someone like a friend or coworker, a threat actor is able to gain a victim’s trust. That trust is key to convincing the victim to follow instructions and succeed in the attack.
Phishing
Phishing aims to persuade a victim into disclosing sensitive information through urgent emails that appear to come from legitimate sources. Phishing is the most common pretexting technique because people tend to easily fall for it. Phishing emails often include malicious links and attachments, so when the victim clicks on them their device is infected with malware. Malware is a type of malicious software that can give threat actors access to sensitive data on their victim’s device.
Piggybacking
Piggybacking is a pretexting technique in which a threat actor tries to access a system, network or physical location by having another person unknowingly help them. For example, to gain access to a physical building, the threat actor may follow closely behind someone as they open the door and slip in just as the door is about to close.
Another example of piggybacking is when someone leaves their device unattended without taking precautions like locking it or logging out. Leaving a device unattended and unlocked makes it easy for a threat actor to compromise the device, as well as any data on it. For example, if you leave your computer unlocked at a cafe and step away, another customer could easily access sensitive data like your bank account while you are gone.
How to Protect Yourself From Pretexting Attacks
Here are a few of the ways you can protect yourself from pretexting attacks.
Strengthen your accounts
If you were to fall for a pretexting attack by clicking on a phishing email, one of the most important things you already want to have in place is strong security on your accounts. This means having strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts and having Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled.
A password manager makes it easy to strengthen your accounts since it aids you in generating, managing and securely storing your passwords. A password manager also makes it easier for you to add Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to your accounts since it’ll autofill your 2FA codes for you without having to use a separate application or device to find your 2FA code and manually type it in.
Be cautious about information you share online
To carry out pretexting attacks, cybercriminals dig into your personal and work life. The information they find informs the technique they leverage to convince you to disclose sensitive information. To protect yourself from this type of attack, you should be careful about what you post online and look into cleaning up your digital footprint. Cleaning up your digital footprint will make it difficult for bad actors to find details about your life, which makes it harder for them to target you with personalized cyber attacks.
Learn how to spot phishing scams
Learning how to spot phishing scams can be tricky since they’ve become more advanced over the years, but it’s not impossible. Here are some signs to look out for that’ll let you know if an email, text message or phone call is a phishing scam.
- Sudden requests for personal information
- Grammatical errors and misspellings in emails or text messages
- Urgent language
- Unsolicited links and attachments being sent to you
Don’t click unsolicited links or attachments
Clicking on links and attachments that you didn’t request may lead to your computer becoming infected with malware, which places all of your data at risk of being compromised or stolen. Before clicking on any links you didn’t request, check to see if the link is safe. To check the safety of a link, hover your mouse over it to see the actual website address or copy and paste the link into a URL checker like Google Transparency Report.
As for unsolicited attachments, it’s best to not click on any attachments you weren’t expecting. If they claim to be from someone you know, check with them using another method of communication before opening it.
Install anti-malware and antivirus software
Anti-malware software is similar to antivirus, but anti-malware can update its rules faster – meaning it’s better at protecting against newer versions of malware and viruses. For optimal security, it’s best to have both anti-malware and antivirus software installed on your computer so you’re protected against both older and newer threats that lurk on the internet.
Keep Safe From Pretexting Attacks
Pretexting attacks can lead to more than just your data being stolen, including financial losses, making it crucial to learn how to keep yourself safe from this type of attack. The first step in keeping yourself safe is securing your accounts, which you can easily do with the help of a password manager. Get started with a free 30-day trial of Keeper Password Manager today to stay ahead of pretexting attacks.