Reverse Social Engineering to Counter Social Engineering in Mobile Money Theft: A Tanzanian Context

Abstract Social engineering entails deception where one manipulates individuals into divulging confidential or any personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes. In mobile money theft, the attackers plan a “lure” to tempt a victim directly, via mobile phones; mostly to gain money by proposing a phony undertaking. The victim is often asked to pay some money to facilitate a lucrative undertaking, which in reality is phony. Once the victim has paid the money, the attackers become inaccessible. Reverse social engineering entails deception of the predator by the pray in order to capture or discourage the predator. Through a case study, this paper investigates and presents an incident where a victim of mobile social engineering attempts to reverse the process in order to arraign the attackers.