Opportunities to practice social engineering in the field aren't hard to come by as all here doubtless know, but opportunities to practice using it when the target is hostile are less frequent. Ethically, I wouldn't intentionally anger or upset someone to practice. However, a bizarre opportunity to practice with a hostile person landed in my lap recently and I thought I'd share.

It started when I noticed a couple of new followers on my Instagram page, and that the new accounts began "spam liking" my posts. If not familiar, that is where someone goes through your existing content and likes post after post after post. I am a woman and attractive-ish so it wasn't a foreign occurrence but usually it's one account at a time and they're men. In this case there was a pet social media account, what appeared to be a lifestyle brand account, and a woman's account.

After that, they began commenting on my posts asking how my dog was Obviously that is a very weird thing for a total stranger to do... much less three total strangers. So my curiosity was piqued but I didn't have time to investigate just then so I carried on and kind of forgot about it. Then came the story replies. At first they were the same question about my dog: "How's [dog name]?" and then "How's [dog name]?!?!". I poked around and found that the accounts were all owned by the same person. The woman. Still never met this person, never interacted with her, never spoken to her. We also had zero mutual friends. Why the interest then? I was intrigued but I am not about to answer some random person's increasingly frantic inquiries about my dog so I ignored her. She didn't like that.

Then came the nastiness:

on a post about online behavior phenomena in men on Instagram she *(from the dog account) commented "Oh Is it, dummy ugly bitch" and "you sound dumb. As shit."

On a satrical story she wrote: "you're fucking gross"

on a story about a recent tragedy in my life and the need for a very small cash loan from a couple friends, she wrote (and this is SO WILD as to sound invented but jesus christ it isn't): "Oh wow lol why are you so poor? This is gross (barf emoji) you don't have money for food? You a nasty bitch."

Followed by "No one cares if you eat or die"

And from the lifestyle brand account she tried to video call me about 11 times for some reason.

So people wanting to hurt my feelings need to meet at least one of these criteria: 1. I like or love them 2. I respect them or in some cases 3, I need something from them or there is a power differential that matters to me somehow. If none of those apply, why care (thank you autism for the indifference there).

So she failed to do that but she CERTAINLY got my attention. Why would someone do this? Especially someone who is a total stranger, who lives far away, and who I had literally never spoken too. That aberrant behavior and delivered with that much vitriol was just too interesting to ignore. Perfect opportunity to practice some varsity level SE. Thanks lady lol

So, obviously she was getting something out of this harassment campaign, and probably it represented at least one unmet need that she was trying to fulfill in an ass-backward maladaptive way. I think hostility in return was something she wanted or expected, so instead I just didn't acknowledge the nature of the insults and started asking her questions politely. The first was "I know there's a near zero chance of you answering this candidly, but I am really curious to know what you are getting out of this behavior? You are 37, have spiritual and positive mental attitude references and quotations in your social media, and I have no idea who you are."

Then she claimed to know my dog and mentioned an acquaintance of mine. An acquaintance I barely know and who, when I checked, did not have ANY KIND of social media relationship with. The plot thickens. She asked if I wanted to see a video of my dog.

This happened on Thanksgiving.

I said "I'd be delighted to, if you have the time. I know it is a holiday though so if not I understand. Have a good thanksgiving. I hope you get to be around friends and eat good food. I am serious about that, it sounds like both you and I could use a pleasant easy day."

she replied with a photo of her backyard and said

"this is my back yard sweetie, every day is vacation, try not to kill yourself in [state I live in]"

Followed by "I don't have to work so every day is a holiday. Sucks to suck Man."

My god I had been bored but she sure solved that problem. How does someone get like this? Also there was the mystery of my dog, the acquaintance and however the fuck she found me and decided I was enemy no. 1. I love puzzles. Off to do OSINT.

I found a dizzying amount of information on her in no time because she is very careless about what she leaves lying around the internet. I'd describe but that's really an OSINT topic, so I won't list it here other than to say what I found meant that I could mail her a copy of her own birth certificate if I had wanted to, YIKES.

So She didn't like that I hadn't replied to her oblique insinuation about harming myself and left her on read. Good, I wanted to see what she'd say if I appeared to be ignoring her. It worked!

About the acquaintance, let's call him bob, she said: "So what's up with Bob having [my dog]? Did you guys fuck him as a couple?" referring to both me and my partner. Shes like the advent calendar of social engineering practices.

So I said "Pardon? I haven't a clue what you're talking about. I have only met bob at the bar a few times and the dog was never there. We have never had him dog sit for us either. I am mystified by what you've just said."

She vaguely insinuated that bob was some kind of dangerous criminal. I know him well enough to know that isn't true and court records etc. back that up. Hm. But I sensed some kind of relationship and gendered injury to her feelings or pride and she OBVIOUSLY had a deep need for attention no matter the kind, and a craving to feel heard by someone. So I said:

"As puzzling and combative as you've been, I still tend to trust women more than men so I am interested to hear what you have to say."

I didn't really expect her to tell the truth but I wanted to get her to tell me how she found me and why she wanted to harm me so badly, and I wanted to see how much information she would volunteer without me asking for it directly.

She asked if I wanted to know about bob being a criminal and if I wanted to see a bunch of court documents she claimed to have, or if I wanted to know about my dog and this video she supposedly had. Then she sent me a shitload of legal filings and allegations about bob being violent and kidnapping her dog and oodles of other things. I guess she didn't care or didn't think about the fact that she doxxed herself by doing so. She also doxxed Bob so I had a chance to check to see if what she was alleging held any water. It did not.

I replied: "I was actually asking about the dog video. I'm sorry I should have clarified. But what you sent above was enlightening." I intentionally didn't make a positive or negative value judgment on the information she sent but I guess she missed that nuance and I let her assume enlightening meant "credible and helpful in getting me to agree that bob is evil".

She followed with a lengthy story embellishing the docs she provided and claimed that she found me by noticing that Bob followed me and my partner on the "threads" app. That turned out not to be true. Her reason for attacking me was that she "was worried that he might have hurt [my dog]" Ah yes. Classic worried behavior. Right.

So that was super interesting but THEN to my astonishment. She apologized to me. I didn't ask her for one or insinuate I required one, but there it was. She said that "She doesn't really mean me any harm, and doesn't want to bother me or have any bad will against me and she apologizes for saying anything hurtful."

Followed by a story about bob claiming to babysit our dog and go awol, after which she would catch an STD from him, so she thought it must have come from me and my partner. Then she ASKED ME FOR A FAVOR. She requested that "If I cared enough" (LORD HAVE MERCY) and I see bob and he appears to be moving away, I tell her so that she can have him arrested, and that she thinks he is trying to leave my state because it looked like I don't live in the city where I met bob anymore (I don't) and somehow that means he is moving. At this point I might as well have a bowl of popcorn. More interesting than any movie.

I replied that she sounded scared and it might be a good idea to hire a private investigator or something because I don't go out to bars anymore and would therefore probably not see bob ever again. I also said that I have no recollection of ever having left my dog with him, but allowed for the possibility that I had just forgotten (I didn't). I said if she can find the video she claimed to have, I would really like to see it if she has the time to track it down. Then I said that despite how peculiar the whole interaction had been, I appreciated that she answered my questions and that she was trying to look out for my dog, no matter what shape that concern took.

I assumed that would be that but now it appears that she considers me a confidant and de-facto therapist and just keeps supplying me with information about her. Poking around on here resulted in me finding her reddit accounts and seeing that despite how odd I personally found her arrival and behavior in my life, it is very in character for her, and her personal history and behavior are very much what I'd expect from someone who did all the stuff I described above.

She has since apologized again and continued with the storytelling.

I have no intention to use any of the potentially very dangerous info I have on her despite her behavior. She seems really unwell and may be a total bitch but I believe in helping mentally unwell people not sending them to infosec hell. I did send an anonymous message to some relatives involved in her life that she was doing some unhinged things online that might endanger her or someone else and maybe someone should check on her.

I know that was long but I doubt if I will ever have that fascinating of a use case of OSINT and social engineering ever again in my life. I thought it was really interesting that meeting her hostility with equanimity and curiosity caused her to do a complete 180 without any overt persuasion or threats or offered incentives other than listening and inquiring. As such I thought that other people interested in social engineering might also think this is an interesting little case study.

Whew. I am gonna go drink a beer.

Cheers!

i like to tell stories where the ending is ambiguous, so the listener has to imagine how it ends themselves

what kind of stories would be most suited for this?

So my GF (36F) and I (29M) been in a relationship for 3 years. She has a little daughter (9F) and we re living together. Last summer i confessed to her that i lied for some time and had (ONLY FRIENDSHIP) like contact to my ex. We literally didn't even met in person just played wow along for more time than I earlier claimed. And after an update contact went silent. Also we had a pretty big fight that time and i looked in her phone because she said to me in that fight, that other men would theat her better. I found she was flirting with a dude she knew from before. But not much nothing sexual or sth. Just a bit validation for her self esteem. I cant blame her for that, since we always said a little flirty is okay as long as its nothing sexual. So our relationship was pretty unstable from this moment on. I understand that i got my mistakes and continued to do better. She always sais she need time and I gotta be paitent with her, so she can come to me and open up again. So i did and its really getting better from time to time FAR from perfect or the way it used to be, but better. I'm a loving man i know i made some mistakes but lying was always the worst to her.

So last week she and the little one went on a mom daughter trip a few days. I chilled at home and some evening i noticed a whatsapp sound. She forgot to log off on her laptop wich i used to watch netflix in bed. I didn't meant to spy but one message popping up was "maybe i can make your clothes dissappear" ... So i got nervous (loosing issues) and went through her whatsapp. Turns out shes OFFENSEIVELY flirting with a co worker. Most stuff comes from him but she likes it and fuels him sort of. By for exmpl. Writing him that she masturbated and then switches with the next message back to work. I know she likes to tickle and flirt a little but this is WAY to much to call it a little flirt. I dont know if she sent him pictures of herself since she deleted most of the chat, but it seems not since he wrote "id love to see you in underwear".

I searched the chat with her best friend for his name. (ONLY! I just looked up his chat and the one with her bf and searched bec i know they talk bout everything) Turns out they re chatting/flirting for bout 4 months now. And she wrote her bf that she doesnt see the need to tell me since "i lied earlier". She also told her that shes not planning to "cheat" on me she just need some validation and thats enough for her to know that this guy wants to have sex with her, "rest is his fantasy".... because she cant accept any compliments or closure from me right now. She always need time and paitience.

So anyway, I played a little dumb and said i am also unsure and stuff and if there is anyone who is flirting with her rn or something like that. AND SHE LIED STRAIGHT TO MY FACE! 3 times.

I can't take this. I dont want absolution. I know i made mistakes. We even did therapy and the therapist said YOU NEED TO TRUST HER TO GIVER HER STABILITY! I did ... I worked so hard for this to work out. I still want it. I want her. I love her with everything i got.

I just want to talk to her and smash it in her face that i know what she did. But i dont know how to do it. She is a master at arguing and protecting herself from any guilt. I know as soon as i mention i saw it popup, im the bad guy for spying.

My question: has anyone an idea on how to tell her i found out without her blaming me for spying? Or an excuse/alternative story on how i know? I just want to make thins clear without getting called out as the bad guy (and shes really good at this).

Tl;dr: Gf lying to me on flirting with a co worker how do i tell her i know without getting called a control freak?

I feel most of my problems will disappear with a snap if I somehow become a ghost. Not literally but someone nobody talks about. I have some ideas about what might be the things that may be required to become like that. Like I have to become very non interesting boring person. But for reason I haven't been able to achieve it even remotely. Now any input in that direction will be highly appreciated. It doesn't necessarily have to be a discussion but even any links or documents will be very very appreciated. It's about doing the social engineering on myself. And curing all my problems which are 99% social. Please help because I need your engineering to help me.

This is a repetition of an old post with same content except this stanza. I am re-posting it in the same server, because I believe this server must have changed within this time, like many people left/became inactive amd many new social engineers joined and might have become super active. So hoping to get new ideas, opinios, new types of info and support. For the comments on the old post, I implemented almost all of them as much I could and still striving for perfection. But I believe there is still something missing. Don't worry of repeating anything that was already commented in the 1st post. Let your ideas flow and I believe I will be benifited from your input.

Alright, I'm going to try to write this as heartfully as I can

A decade ago I found myself. I became somewhat of a genius and ever since, the accomplishments have not stopped. As good as this was though, I have seen the world and it's people fall apart. What began as stupidity has now evolved into hate and honestly EVERYDAY, it is all that I see from every...single...person I see. I live in the city and am always out and about in it, so yeah, I could use a holiday.

In my world people have become so stupid it's a bit of a joke to consider that in flesh. What's worse is that they somehow made it biblical now, since over the years people have been able to classify this particular strain of hateful stupidity as "Sinners" -_

So anyway, I am fine. Totally fine. Just annoyed and the small petty hate that tugs on me for attention.

I was wondering does anyone have any advice? And also, has anyone ever experienced this? Because I don't know if I'm smarter now, but people who I consider friends I could tell you I don't identify anymore. Frankly today I considered who the hell even are they.

It involves an investigation of jury misconduct.

Thank you!

Its a good way to build reciprocation

Hello, I’ve made a pretty basic forum website for hacking/osint/social engineering topics and everything in between! if you would like to join feel free to join with this link!

https://osintforums.freeflarum.com/

Here's a really interesting thing that I just found out was a thing:

https://social-engineer.thinkific.com/courses/certification-make-them-want-to-tell-you-the-art-of-information-elicitation

It turns out Chris Hadnagy has an online course now that are much cheaper than his in-person training.

I'm thinking of doing Dale Carnegie course first then doing this online elicitation course to start since I don't think I can afford his in-person training as of yet.

Anyone done this course? If so, could you describe your experience with it and maybe give a review?

Given the differences between offline and online communications(chat, forums) does it mean you we need to do online elicitation diffferently ? How ?

My parents are thinking of allowing me to take the Dale Carnegie course and Joe Navarro’s body language course in a few months. If I gain the skills from those courses, theoretically learning social engineering pentesting from books or online courses will be much much easier right?

Someone present in my daily life likes to put me down through indirect communication. She tells me what she thinks about me by giving her opinion about "other people" when it's obvious she's talking about me.

For example, it would be like her to say, "My coworker keeps saying she plans to go to sleep early but then she continually stays up late and comes into work tired. It's so sad," hours after I tell her I've been staying up late and going to work tired.

I can let her say these things without them affecting me, but I would rather find a way to completely dismantle her and disarm her insults. I would let her know I know what she's doing, but I don't want her to think she's under my skin. What's the best response?

The democrats have had some amazing candidates in the past. People like JFK or Bill Clinton. How would these political juggernauts combat Trump if they were to run against him, on and off the debate stage?

I have a colleague (let’s call him XYZ) who seems to use subtle tactics to disrupt my focus. For example, once while I was deeply focused on my computer, he entered the office, threw his bag loudly onto his desk, and then seemed to watch if I got distracted by the noise.

In another instance, he asked me a question that required memory recall, and while I was concentrating, he aggressively pulled the zipper on his bag, almost as if he wanted to disrupt my thought process. Some other day, he asked me a question, and while I was recalling, he briefly turning his neck to look behind, and that indeed distracted me completely and put me off balance, mentally. These actions don’t feel random—they seem intended to break my focus.

Lately, I’ve been feeling low, and my mental energy isn’t at its best, so these disruptions are even more impactful. It feels like XYZ may understand some science behind attention, memory, or cognitive load and is using it to negatively affect me.

Since he’s a coworker, I can’t avoid him and need to engage in 1-on-1 interactions occasionally. My goal is to understand scientifically what’s happening and find resources on brain function in this context, so I can learn how to defend myself against these tactics.

I’ve consulted both a psychiatrist and psychologist, but they haven’t been able to help with this specific issue. Any insights, keywords, or book recommendations would be hugely appreciated!

I work in a call center set up, outbound calls.

How do I convince an irate customer to avail my product?

If you could please give me tips. My salary is low but i am desperate to have a job.

For those you who have type A personalities, I am curious on how it is you dominate conversations? How to bring someone into your psychological realm? What are some tips, tricks or topics that you like? Are you looking at objects in your surroundings for topics or giving compliments? Curious on others thoughts

Are there any good podcasts that focus on social engineering topics?

I(24M) am facing a lot of difficulty in understanding people, intentions and analyzing social cues. This makes me feel like I'm not as smart as others in grasping things. I believe reading social cues, implications and body language is necessary for my development as a person.

Please help me out with any reading materials, hacks or videos to understand things better.

I do not want a political debate.

I just want to know his MO.

Sometimes my confidence waxes and wanes, and as a result I will have great periods of time where people give me their numbers or tell me they'd like to hang out, or at least really act like they want to be friends. But idk, then sometimes the next day it feels like we don't even know each other-- sometimes we don't even say hi. And if I try to text them or talk to them in a friendly way, it usually doesn't end up that well and I wonder how I could have approached it that would have lead to a better outcome.

I can be so good at being friendly with people, but making FRIENDS is so difficult and I really just need someone who is super successful in this area to give me their bro,ken down, step-by-step method that they follow (it may come naturally to you all, but not me unfortunately.) Being friendly with everyone but having no one to make plans with over the weekend sucks so bad.. y'all please help, how do u do it?

I may sound hopeless in this post, but I know that I can be successful socially, as I am a lot of the time. I just really don't know what my blind spots are, but I know they're there.

Even if you just have one little tip or nuance you follow, please comment!! Thank you! :)

Over a year ago I met this girl in a church. Back then I was still a believer in Christianity (have since become a complete atheist) which we did bond over as two young women and also over our interests in vintage fashion. However, over time she began to reveal to me that she isn't some normal average church attendee at all but a serious ideological extremist.

For more context, she's 20 and I'm a bit younger. She started telling me she became a Muslim when she was 16. She started wearing a niqab and even got "married" to a Muslim man at 16 1/2 years old. At her lowest low she was seriously involved in online ISIS groups of people planning actual terrorist attacks in our country (some of them happened) on Telegram etc. and even donated money to ISIS. Eventually she stopped believing in Islam and became a Neonazi instead. She told me she read Mein Kampf (illegal to own in our country) twice, enjoyed it and was planning on doing it again. She sent me content from right wing extremist "Aryan"/white pride etc. accounts and also produced it herself. Of course she was also involved in right wing protests and some smaller meetup groups.

As someone interested in psychology, I immediately identified her as a right wing authoritarian. Like probably everyone else here, I am also someone extremely interested in open, liberal intellectual discourse - I score very low in tests of right wing authoritarianism, even back in my more religious phase. According to a lot of research, right wing authoritarianism is largely genetically determined but it does also have an environmental/social component. From what I have read it also appears to me that trying to socially integrate people with these traits can improve outcomes, prevent them from becoming violent extremists. I have to say my morbid curiosity got the best of me so I decided to consciously continue the friendship and observe how much I could deradicalize her.

Usually when we talked, it was about more normal things like our fashion interests and music, but occasionally she would sprinkle in propaganda. At first, I listened to her opinions and looked at the things she sent me but purposefully didn't react a whole lot. I brushed it off, never agreeing though and would change the topic to fashion or something else to bond with her over. After a while we became quite close, and she began to refer to me as her best friend; all of her other friends were neonazis.

I decided it was time for the game plan of deradicalization to begin. I sat down with her and told her we need to talk about something. We had a calm and friendly conversation about racism and neonazi ideologies. I made sure to be gentle and avoided accusatory language in the process. I explained in which ways I am concerned by some comments that have been made and that they are incompatible with her fundamentally Christian worldview. I showed her examples of Jewish Christian saints that were killed in the holocaust and Black Christian saints. I used language that helped her to see things from her out-group's perspective (i"magine being born as…", "you could have been born in the body of a Black woman" etc.). And kind of to my surprise, she actually sat there calmly and took what I was saying into account. I told her that I was proud of her for considering what I was saying and that I believe she has the capacity to let go of prejudiced and unreasonable opinions, that she is not defined by them. In the end, she made a leap and admitted that she feels a bit disgusted by some of the things she said and that she is beginning to see logical flaws in racism. She even thanked me for talking to her openly and with consideration instead of judging her harshly.

Soon after, she wrote a long message to her neonazi friend and completely ended the friendship. She stopped attending right wing demonstrations. She even began considering attending higher education (after having frowned upon it was a system infiltrated by leftists, and how women shouldn't go to college). Over time, she did still make the occasional racist/homophobic etc. comment but I just continued to respond and have conversations with her and she keeps improving and deradicalizing. During our friendship she has also been to court a bunch of times because the government found out about her ISIS donations. It was an embarrassing and difficult time for her and I decided to support her and keep encouraging her in not identifying with mistakes she has made in the past. She got lucky and got off on probation and is even in therapy on the government's dime now, which has also had good rehabilitative effects.

She is still a conservative Christian and votes the right wing party, but she now makes fun of the neonazis she used to associate with and has befriended African priests. Overall, I can't say I regret trying to see the good in her. I'm not sure I will ever view her the same way as I do my closer friends who lack her Authoritarian proclivities and I'm not encouraging people to necessarily go out and try and befriend extremists. But I do find it pretty wholesome and a bit of an interesting story of how much a kind word and honest discussion can do, even in the case of a pretty pathological ideological person. Perhaps this can bring some of you in America some hope in MAGA times, my regards.

TL;DR: Befriended former ISIS supporter Islamist bride who then turned into a neonazi fundamentalist "Christian". But I have managed to deradicalize her a lot after becoming friends. Results are better than I expected.