r/SocialEngineering

I met some friends after a while and they were saying that you need to improve on the topics that you discuss and how to say it

They Said that I sound like a boring old person even though I am 19 years old

I don't know how to sound cool and person that people want to hangout with.

I think my main problem is that when I don't know what to say , i just revert to boring topics like studies, also i don't do a lot of things that people talk about like relationships.

I’ve been reading more about social engineering, manipulation psychology, and grooming tactics, and I think there needs to be more open discussion about how these tactics specifically target women.

A lot of people imagine “social engineering” as just phishing emails or hacking, but in reality it often involves emotional manipulation, cultural trust, religion, family issues, health insecurities, loneliness, and sexual coercion.

Some patterns I’ve noticed from case studies and investigations:

Rapid emotional attachment (“you’re different from everyone else”)

Using shared culture/religion to build trust quickly

Positioning themselves as emotionally safe or spiritually trustworthy

Asking increasingly personal questions about health or body image

Gradually sexualizing conversations

Encouraging secrecy from friends/family

Creating emotional dependency

Using guilt, shame, or fear when boundaries are set

Requesting photos, money, or private information later on

What’s disturbing is how gradual it can be. It often starts as empathy, support, validation, or “understanding.” The manipulative behavior escalates slowly enough that the victim may not recognize the shift immediately.

I also learned that investigators often look for:

grooming stages,

repeated scripts,

coercive control patterns,

fake identity inconsistencies,

emotional escalation timelines,

and boundary testing behaviors.

A lot of victims end up blaming themselves afterward, especially when manipulation involved:

romance,

religion,

sexuality,

trauma,

or family pressure.

But these tactics are designed to bypass skepticism by exploiting normal human psychology like trust, empathy, belonging, and emotional need.

I think more awareness is needed around:

coercive control,

romance scams,

sextortion,

emotional grooming,

and psychological manipulation disguised as care or love.

Has anyone here studied this topic professionally or experienced seeing these tactics in real life? What warning signs do you think people miss most often?

The Layer 8 Conference is having a full scale social engineering/covert entry capture the flag competition. This is not just OSINT and vishing. This is all aspects of what you do on the job.

Whether you're the best of the best or wanting to try it out, this competition is for you. You can hear more about it from the competition's creators on this podcast episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3CEsO9CTe9XR5bGZBOlnMg?si=QsdEh7viQr2BUJKJAXF91w

And for more info about the conference: https://layer8conference.com

Both the conference and podcast are resources available on this sub's own wiki, so we are legit.

There's even pre-conference training, if you want to learn about SE too!

so me and my gf wanted to start making money and we started by selling pics and vids with her image and scamming guys who wanted fully nude stuff and last time i posted on here ppl thought i was selling her actual content but no im not we are scamming with her image and close the sales with her voice as proof of person so higher succusses rate of scam we generated 100$ everyday we did it through dating apps all funneling to snapchat and payment through cashapp

But recently we got banned on hinge so i need a workaround for it i heard burner phones or virtual machine work but have yet to succussed in either of those yet but to combat the monopoly hinge had on us we set up accounts throughout the dating apps so it equals out to the same amount of people but if there is a way around pllsssss help

tinder is up and working with us getting 4k likes everyday but i have yet to respond to the messages because im scared of getting the account banned so ive resorted to just matching and hoping they see the snap from her account but ik if i message we can def get more sales but idk how without spamming lol maybe ai but due to my fright i have started to spam message thru yubo and its been working great honestly because they are more Linette on spams i think [less strict] lol

but thats how ive seen money so far i need advice on how to spam on tinder and work around hinge pls :}

ik this post here might seem weird but if theyres anywhere i can get advice or talk to people with the same goal pls point me to that direction

What could you think if you start thinking about the persuasion models invented, applied, and passed on through generations? You would think of the USA during World War I; you would think of Russia after some years through radio and print. Simply, the whole chronology of persuasion models feels like the extreme evolution of advertising techniques. That could include , , or slightly later. Programs like and were also part of propaganda systems.

But in this era of post-digitized space, propaganda is not linear or normally structured anymore. , , or tried to think through this new space, yes, but what are the key differences — not in terms of forms, but in terms of the key inventive junctures and historical trajectories of time that shaped today’s so-called horizontal spatial model? What do you think?

I would rather claim that it was the PR and advertising agencies, for whose sake the whole evolutionary process of formal experimentation was carried out and conceptualized. Beginning from the first advertising agencies or PR professionals working for patrons or collective profit groups.

Could you even counter this point?

I’m 20 years old and I’ve never kissed a girl. When I was a kid, around elementary/middle school age (11–12), I was probably the most popular kid in my class and even in my school. Everyone liked me — I was “the social guy” who got along with everyone. But at the beginning of my teenage years, I slowly lost that “spark,” especially after breaking up with my first “girlfriend” when I was around 13. We never even kissed or held hands, but after that something changed in me.

Since then, I’ve become extremely self-aware to the point where every social action I take feels controlled. I can’t interact with people naturally anymore without constantly filtering myself and wondering what people think of me. On top of that, I gained a lot of weight during my teenage years, which made my social anxiety and embarrassment even worse.

From that moment on, I basically stopped having any kind of relationship with girls in real life. I only had 2 or 3 online relationships, but nothing serious. Being bullied for my weight for so many years eventually pushed me to change, and I ended up losing a huge amount of weight. Now I know I’m in good physical shape, but during all those years I completely isolated myself socially.

Every day, I regret the fact that I’ve never had a real girlfriend while everyone around me seems to enjoy life with their partners. It honestly makes me extremely sad, and I wish I could experience relationships, even casual ones, just to finally feel normal. What’s the point of building a “dream physique” if I can’t even talk to a girl without feeling embarrassed or anxious?

On top of all that, this social anxiety also led me to develop an addiction to adult content since I was around 13–14 years old.

How do people learn social engineering skills? I work in IT security now and want to add to my skill set. Any tips? Are there courses about SE? Or any conferences I can attend?

Hey, I’m 17 years old, and since I was 13 I’ve been trying to make friends. I watch YouTube videos and try to learn how to ask questions and talk to people, but I forget most of what I see. I have about three real friends; the rest are just acquaintances. I don’t have severe social anxiety, but I struggle to build relationships—you could say I’m socially lazy. Even though my dream is to have friends like everyone around me, I just don’t know how. It feels like it’s all about luck. I also don’t really understand myself—what I like or dislike. I want a solution: where should I start, and how can I learn to love myself?