Social Engineering, what does it mean?
Wiki description.
I needed to upload some information to a website of a friend, but i could not reach my friend. But it was pretty important to do this before 16:00 today. I knew what web hosting company he used due to the commercial link on the general admin login.Maybe i could fiddle the login of a help desk employee or let them reset the login information. I had to make a cunning plan to make this work.
First of all i needed as much information to impersonate my friend and act like him.
Things i looked up to impersonate him:
Street address
zip code
Name and last name
I made a simple G-mail account with firstname.lastname@gmail.com.
This was all i had, i looked up the phone number of this company and i needed to sound cool and relax over the phone. Was this really going to work, would they be that stupid?
Well i called them, i got menu and after a couple of minutes they brought me to someone at the helpdesk.
Conversation went like this:
Helpdesk: Hi Sir, good day how can i help you?
Me: Hi, well i had a question how can i reset my login information since it seems i lost them.
Helpdesk: Well sir, you have a customer number?
Me: No, sorry it will be on one of my bills probably. But i recently moved so i need to look that up but that can take a while and i kinda really need the information.
Helpdesk: Hold on sir.
Me: Sure.
Heard 3 minutes of music while i was on hold.
Helpdesk: You still there?
Me: Yes
Helpdesk: Oke which website sir?
Me: www.****.org
Helpdesk: OK what is your name,tel. number, address and zip code sir
Me: i told him all that, plus the mobile phone number of my friend ( remember i called anonymous with my mobile phone )
Helpdesk: Sir, does E-mail *****@****.nl still exists?
Lucky break for me, since i would never guess that mail address he just told me
Me: No sorry, i don not use that mail anymore, mind changing that as well to firstname.lastname@gmail.com?
Helpdesk: Of course, no problem. Login information will be sent in 5 minutes. Good day sir.
Me: Thanks a lot! Have a nice day.
I was happy and made that deadline and uploaded the stuff.
I impersonated my friend, you can do this with anything. If you have enough information and stay relax, since if you sound nervous they probably ask u more questions you probably can' t answer.