How to identify and avoid social engineering

In the shadowy world of cybercrime, harvesting people's cellphone numbers through social engineering is generally more about what the number can unlock than about the number itself.

- Jacqueline Herbst

Social engineering is the act of manipulating or deceiving people into revealing confidential information, giving access or performing certain actions that bring swindlers one step closer to committing fraud, identitying theft or launching a cyber attack. It's not a technical hack, but a psychological one. Phishing is but one technique in a social engineering mastermind's toolbox. The Cyber Crimes Act 19 of 2020 explicitly criminalises actions such as Sim swap fraud, identity theft, phishing and WhatsApp scams.