Pretexting

Pretexting is inventing a reason to be asking. The new supplier, the auditor, the IT engineer, the colleague from the office you never visit.

It is the least technical attack there is and it works more often than the industry likes to admit, because a good story gives somebody a reason to help. Most people want to be useful, and a plausible pretext turns that instinct into the attacker's tool. Nothing is being exploited except the entirely reasonable assumption that the person talking to you is who they say they are.