Pretexting in social engineering is a technique where an attacker creates a scenario or pretext to trick the target into revealing sensitive information. The attacker pretends to be someone they are not, often someone trusted or authoritative, to manipulate the target into disclosing private details.

Hackers may ask for personal details, credentials and other financial information and may impersonate any people and manipulate the target into performing actions like transferring money or granting access to systems.