Every now and then, we read all these articles on social engineering and conclude we’re too smart to be fooled. And then, a new scenario pops up that puts a shock through our cells, making us believe otherwise.

Social Engineering doesn’t just work with emails, no, that’s obsolete except for some really sophisticated methods. You see, when you talk to someone over chat, your sentences and thinking process are well articulated. If you try having the same conversation face-to-face or over a call, things almost always turn out in different way, be it positive or negative. And Scammers understand this. On top of that, they rely on one thing that differentiates humans from machines: Emotions.

I’ll take you through a scenario that I heard of, a few days back on social media, and you’ll know how important awareness is in every single step that you take.

For this example, a guy named Arun (fictional) gets his phone stolen at a bus station, and desperately starts asking for help from people to help him make a phone call. After around an hour of helplessly wandering around, he stumbled across a girl who looked at him and sympathized. She offered help by letting him make a phone call with her phone. He called his elder brother, and asked him to report the incident to the police. His elder brother asked him if he remembered the license plate number of the thief’s bike, to which Arun replied, “Yes, it was 2080”. His brother consoled him, and asked him to come home.

Arun returned the mobile phone to the girl and thanked her, to which, the girl wished him a safe journey back home.

Happy Ending? For Arun, perhaps.

At night, when a transaction bounced for the girl, she checked her balance, and her statement showed that all her money had been transferred to another account. She was in shock, and opened up her messages app to see if she had authorized any such thing, and there it was, a request for the transaction, along with the OTP: 2080.

Now did she immediately report the incident to the police? Maybe, and we’ll never know what happened to her and millions of other people who get scammed because of their kindness every single day.

No amount of education can change the people who destroy lives for their greed, and we can only hope to educate enough people to stay aware.

Don’t let them prey off of your kindness.

If you come across a similar situation as above, even if you let them make a call, make sure you dial in the number, and make sure you have your phone on speaker. They only thing they should have the access to is the voice of whoever they’re calling, not your screen, and definitely not your phone.

Stay Vigilant!