Social Engineering

The non-technical side of an attack — manipulating a person rather than a system. Common patterns: fake support staff requesting credentials, fake 'admins' in Telegram or Discord, urgency-based pressure ('act in five minutes or lose access'), authority impersonation, and the long-running relationship-building used in pig butchering. Social engineering is the entry vector for the majority of successful crypto thefts, far more than software exploits.