Social Engineering Challenge 1: Buy Me Something

My task for this week was to get a fellow player to buy me something. I kind of got nervous because the task seemed very challenging to me. Then I thought of targeting my teammates since I knew both of them in previous classes so it wouldn’t be as obvious.

I saw a team mate of mine step out of class, so I sent her a text message to see if maybe she was taking a phone call or buying a snack. That plan failed because she didn’t bring her phone and didn’t read my text message in time. Then I approached my other team mate, Captain Black X31. During class I told him I was really hungry so I can help execute my plan. When class was over I kindly asked him if he wouldn’t mind buying me a snack in the vending machine. I pretended I left my cash and debit card at home and offered to buy him a snack the following week. That plan failed too because the vending machine wasn’t accepting his Visa card. I thought to myself, well at least I tried. I kind of felt guilty asking him to buy me a snack anyway. Then we walked to the train together and before we left campus he saw the student store open and offered to get me something there. It was a great opportunity so I took it and completed my mission. Free bag of Sun Chips!

I believe my strategies were pretty effective considering I don’t really like bothering people for favors especially if money is involved. Luckily my target was nice enough to care about my hunger and even offered to buy me food after the vending machine failed.

A moral stake for me was aiming for my team mates, but now I would have to be careful if they aim for me back. 

I would never do this, especially after helping me out but if I kept the receipt behind him I would have been able to know the last four digits of his Visa card and the correct spelling of his first and last name. I was also able to verify his card type was a Visa, not very useful information but one step closer to identifying and stealing personal information. 

I actually felt pretty bad for targeting my team mates but this is a social engineering game and we’re all in it so now that I think about it, it’s actually fun.