Pretexting Scenarios
When attackers get creative, are you ready?
Complex social engineering scenarios combining multiple attack vectors with developed personas and backstories.
Overview
Real attackers don't send one phishing email and give up. Sophisticated adversaries develop personas, build relationships over time, and combine multiple vectors—email, phone, SMS, and physical presence. Pretexting Scenarios test your organization's resistance to coordinated social engineering campaigns that mirror advanced persistent threats and business email compromise attacks.
What We Test
Our pretexting scenarios engagements cover these key areas:
Resistance to multi-touch, relationship-building attacks
Cross-channel attack recognition (email followed by phone, etc.)
Verification procedures when requests come through established relationships
Organizational awareness of coordinated attack indicators
Response to escalating requests from trusted personas
Detection of long-con social engineering
Our Approach
Pretexting scenarios require patience and creativity. We develop complete personas with backstories, build relationships over days or weeks, and execute coordinated attacks across multiple channels—replicating how sophisticated attackers operate.
Scenario Design
Develop the attack narrative: Who is our persona? What's their legitimate reason to contact your organization? What's the ultimate objective? This planning shapes every interaction.
Persona Development
Create believable personas with LinkedIn profiles, email domains, phone numbers, and backstories. For executive impersonation, we study communication patterns and writing styles.
Relationship Building
Establish initial contact with legitimate-seeming requests. Build rapport through multiple interactions. This mirrors real attackers who invest time to establish trust before attacking.
Attack Execution
Once trust is established, execute the attack—requesting wire transfers, credentials, sensitive documents, or system access. The request seems reasonable from an established contact.
Multi-Channel Coordination
Combine vectors: an email request verified by a phone call from the same persona, or a physical visitor referencing previous email conversations.
Documentation
Document the full attack chain—every interaction, every piece of information gathered, every successful and unsuccessful approach.
Common Findings
These are issues we frequently discover during pretexting scenarios engagements:
Trust through familiarity
After 2-3 legitimate-seeming interactions, employees stop verifying. Established contacts receive less scrutiny than new ones.
Cross-channel validation failures
A phone call 'verifying' an email request succeeds even when the call comes from the attacker. Employees don't independently verify through known-good channels.
Authority exploitation
Personas claiming executive authority or board connections receive immediate compliance, even for unusual requests.
Vendor impersonation success
Pretexts based on existing vendor relationships succeed at high rates. Employees expect vendor communications and don't verify identities.
Escalation compliance
When initial requests are denied, escalation to claimed supervisors or executives often reverses the denial.
Common Questions
How long do pretexting scenarios take?
Anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on complexity. Simple scenarios might involve 2-3 interactions over a week. Sophisticated business email compromise simulations might involve weeks of relationship building.
Do you create fake LinkedIn profiles?
For complex scenarios, yes. Profiles are removed after the engagement. This tests whether employees verify contacts through multiple sources. Many employees accept LinkedIn connections from apparent industry peers without verification.
What's the difference from regular phishing?
Scale and sophistication. Phishing tests broad susceptibility with standardized messages. Pretexting tests resistance to targeted, researched attacks that invest significant effort in a specific objective—like a real APT would.
Can you simulate a specific attack we're worried about?
Yes. We can design scenarios based on real-world attacks: vendor email compromise, CEO fraud, W-2 phishing, or specific threats relevant to your industry. Tell us what keeps you up at night.
Other Social Engineering Options
Phishing Campaigns
Realistic email phishing simulations that test employee recognition of malicious messages, credential harvesting, and malware delivery attempts.
Vishing (Voice Phishing)
Phone-based social engineering to test susceptibility to pretexting, credential disclosure, and unauthorized information sharing.
SMS Phishing
Text message-based attacks testing employee response to malicious links and credential requests via mobile devices.
Physical Social Engineering
On-site attempts to gain unauthorized access through tailgating, impersonation, and manipulation of employees.
Ready to Strengthen Your Defenses?
Schedule a free consultation with our security experts to discuss your organization's needs.
Or call us directly at (445) 273-2873