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FreeCybersecurityBeginner

Social Engineering: How to Recognise Manipulation

25 min · Beginner · English

Aurimas Cerniakovas Lessons: 9
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Watch the first lesson before you decide.

What Is Social Engineering and Why Is It Dangerous?

Try the simulations

Play without an account — nothing is recorded. Enroll to save your results and earn the certificate.

Phishing Email: “Salary Review”

A document from a colleague

~1 min · simulation

Monday morning, and you are still on your first coffee. In your inbox: a notification that a colleague from Accounting has shared a salary review file with you. Curious, aren't you?

Read the email carefully. If you hover your mouse over the link, you can see where it really leads. Decide what to do: report it, delete it or mark it as legitimate. At the end, mark what you found suspicious.

Everything you are about to see is simulated. Never enter a real password — the exercise does not need one and does not record what you type.

Before you start: what is recorded

  • This is a training exercise. Every message you are about to see is simulated. Nothing here is a real email, no real system is affected, and getting it wrong is the point — that is how the training works.
  • No password is ever captured. If a simulated sign-in page asks you for one, what you type stays in your browser and is discarded. Only the number of characters is recorded, so that the exercise knows whether a field was filled in.
  • Your employer sees the results. What is recorded is what you did with each message, how far you went, and a score.
  • Results of simulated phishing emails sent to your work inbox are visible by name to administrators, HR and whoever ran the campaign. Your manager sees them only if they are authorised to run campaigns for your group. Results of these exercises inside the platform are shown only as group totals, and groups of fewer than five people are not shown at all. If your organisation has turned on anonymised results, only totals are visible — no names.
More in the privacy notice (opens in a new tab)

Game: Spot the Scam Message

Spot the scam message

6 messages · simulation

You will see the messages one at a time. Some are scams, others are genuine. Decide what each one is.

  • Swipe left – it is a scam.
  • Swipe right – the message is genuine.

Prefer not to swipe? Use the “Scam” and “Safe” buttons under the card.

To pass, answer at least 70% of the messages correctly.

Sticky Notes: What Can You Trust on a Video Call?

Your manager is on screen. What can you trust?

On a video call, your manager urgently asks you to transfer €18,000 to a new supplier. Drag each note into a column: is it something AI can fake, or something that protects you even from a perfect fake?

Drag each note into a column, or tap a note and then a column. You can move notes between columns before you submit.

0 of 8 placed

Unsorted

Your manager's familiar face on screen

Choose a group

Calling your manager back on a number you know

Choose a group

His voice, intonation and favourite expressions

Choose a group

An agreed code word or security question

Choose a group

The call comes from your manager's Teams account

Choose a group

A second person approves the payment (four-eyes principle)

Choose a group

He knows internal project names and colleagues' names

Choose a group

Stopping when you feel urgency and pressure

Choose a group

Can be faked

Looks convincing, but should not be taken as proof

Drop notes here

Protects even against a perfect fake

Actions the scammer cannot control

Drop notes here

About this course

Scammers do not hack systems – they manipulate people. Learn to see the trick before you act.

You will learn to: spot phishing emails and scam text messages (smishing), check where a link really leads, recognise deepfake voice and video calls, handle QR codes safely, and verify any unusual request through a trusted channel.

Format: 6 short videos with questions during playback, a realistic phishing simulation and two interactive games. About 25 minutes. Certificate on completion.

Syllabus

Social Engineering

1What Is Social Engineering and Why Is It Dangerous?Free
2Fraudulent Emails (Phishing)
3Phishing Email: “Salary Review”Free
4Analysing a Phishing Email
5Text Message Scams (Smishing)
6Game: Spot the Scam MessageFree
7Deepfakes – Synthetic Video and Voice Forgery
8Sticky Notes: What Can You Trust on a Video Call?Free
9QR Codes