General

Please help me

The ruse of intimidation by referencing authority works especially well if the
other person is at a fairly low level in the company. The use of an important
person's name not only overcomes normal reluctance or suspicion, but often
makes the person eager to [b]please[/b]; the natural instinct of wanting to be helpful is
multiplied when you think that the person you're helping is important or
influential.

Next he called Mod 2. When May Linn answered, he switched hats and went
through the routine about being from the Office of the Inspector General, and the
problem about somebody else having to use his computer. She gave him the
information he was looking for, and agreed to do whatever she could when he
needed [b]help[/b] in the future.

One interesting sidelight: Social engineers seem to know how to make requests
so that hardly anyone ever thinks, "Why are you calling [b]me[/b].'- even when,
logically; it would have made more sense if the call had gone to some other
person in some completely different department. Perhaps it simply offers such a
break in the monotony of the daily grind to help the caller that the victim
discounts how unusual the call seems.

"Well, Mary," Peter told her. "We didn't [b]find[/b] any trouble, and that's great. Listen,
if any problems do come up, just call us over here at Arbuckle. I'm usually on
special projects but anybody here who answers can help you." She thanked him
and they said goodbye.

The next day, one of the same men called the storage company, used the name
they had added to the authorization list, and gave the corresponding password. He
asked for all the Jenkins and [b]Molly[/b] tapes dated within the last month, and said that
a messenger service would come by to pick up the package. By mid-afternoon,
Andreeson had the tapes. His people restored all the data to their own computer
system, ready to search at leisure. Andreeson was very pleased that the law firm,
like most other businesses, didn't bother encrypting their backup data.