Authority

People are likely to obey figures of authority. An attacker may use impersonation to impersonate a higher level manager, or even members of law enforcement.

Scarcity

When someone percieves that something is scarce they are more inclined to act. An attacker may send a phishing email advertising a limited time sale to get the victim to click the link.

Social Proof

People do things they see others doing. An attacker may convince the victim that others fell for the scam.

Urgency

Create a false sense of urgency to get people to act based on emotion and not rational thought. An attacker may send a phishing email that their bank account was breached and the victim needs to change their password by clicking a malicious link.

Likeness

eople are easily persuaded by other people whom they like. An attacker will usually be overly nice and cordial to build trust with the victim.

Fear

This approach attempts to strike fear into the target. An example would be using malware (scareware) to influence someone's decision to purchase or download fake antivirus programs or other software with malicious intent.