When a fraudster calls someone at the target company and cajoles or tricks the person into providing valuable information, this technique is referred to as which?

• A. Spamming
• B. Social engineering
• C. Replicating
• D. None of the above

Answer: (B)

Social engineering is the manipulation of people to reveal confidential information or grant access by exploiting trust, authority, or urgency. When a fraudster calls a target and cajoles or tricks the person into providing valuable information, the attacker uses psychological tactics to bypass technical defenses. This is a classic example of social engineering, and the phone-based form is often called vishing. Spamming involves bulk unsolicited messages and doesn’t hinge on deceiving a specific person into sharing secrets. The term replicating isn’t the standard label for this tactic.