advantage of this situation for example they sometimes portray themselves as i.t. support staff and offer to help solve a computer problem all the user has to do is download some software but that software often contains mold where that allows the crooks to take over the computer . criminals also use phishing emails for example they contact online banking customers and ask them to authenticate their bank account details otherwise the account will be blocked those who provide this information are turning their accounts over to crooks. these scammers try to scare their victims and that's the key element of this kind of social engineering create conditions that frighten computer users and then exploit that fear. or they can play on simple human curiosity for example they might drop a u.s.b.