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Welcome to the Next Level

The internet runs on trust, allegedly.1 Trust in identities, credentials, systems, and behaviors. That trust is fragile, and it’s abused every single day.

I’m not sure how old I was when I first realized people could be manipulated. They say it’s a built-in mechanism all children learn. Whether that’s absolute truth or not, at a young age I found it fascinating: I could simply tell someone something, and they’d believe me.

While that might sound sociopathic, I promise it wasn’t a habit. It was more of a defense mechanism. People were complex growing up. I struggled to understand why a friend might say something kind one day, only to act in direct contrast days later. Take this one kid I knew when we were both about 10. We were inseparable for a whole summer, building forts, playing POGS, reading comic books. One afternoon, he looked me right in the eye and said, “You’re my best friend!” It felt great to hear that. But just a few days later, hanging out in the neighborhood, I overheard him laughing with the other kids, mimicking me, turning me into some joke that had everyone cracking up. It stung, but more than that, it confused me. Why say those kind words if you didn’t mean them? That moment stuck with me, not as anger, but as this quiet puzzle I wanted to solve. It sparked this journey, this pull toward understanding the whys behind the words.

An eternal question: Why do we lie? Why do we manipulate to get our way? On the surface, it’s easy to blame monetary gain or gaining an edge on an adversary. But manipulation runs deeper. It’s how we interact with ourselves in private. Everything is a shade of the truth. And honestly, I’m hooked on figuring it out, not to exploit it, but to help folks see through it. There’s something almost beautiful in how our brains are wired for connection, but when that gets twisted, it hurts. I want to shine a light on it so we can all build better guards without losing that trust we crave.

So what does that mean, and why am I writing about it on a website? Simple, this site exists to drag those abuses into the light. From polished social engineering campaigns targeting Fortune 500s to sloppy LinkedIn scams aimed at retirees, I’ll break down the tactics, explore how they work, and sometimes laugh at just how badly they’re executed. It’s my way of paying it forward, turning that fascination into something useful, something that keeps people safe.

I work in cybersecurity, but my focus is the human side of hacking, what many call “the con.” How people get tricked. How trust gets weaponized. How scammers adapt faster than most security teams. The tools evolve, but the psychology? That stays the same. And that’s what keeps me hungry, in the best way, thinking about how we can outsmart it.

What You’ll Find Here

This isn’t about chasing SEO or playing influencer. I like to break things and crack puzzles. Stick around, and you might learn to spot the tricks before they hit you.

Footnotes

  1. Thanks, Sarah!


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