4. (M)asking for a Return: Social Hypocrisy and Social Engineering

Our encounters with deception in everyday life have increased manifold since the emergence of social media platforms. Instead of using masks—real or metaphorical—for the purpose of conjuring a sense of being different, or a distinctive “other”, these devices of impression management have been employed to create authentifakes: intentionally deceptive representations of someone or something that has an unnatural accordance with the expectations, wishes, and desires of target audiences in particular social contexts. On many occasions, such simulations are less than truthful but otherwise mostly benign. In some instances, however, these simulations are primarily created for the specific purpose of exploiting the audience, and in doing so, causing them harm. Thus, the use of masks and the subsequent creation of authentifakes emerges from a person’s aim to gain some form of return. Since we all use masks in this way to some extent in outgoing communication, we must consider the social hypocrisy element associated with these practices when being critical of such (m)asks in the expectations set for incoming communications. In this chapter, I analyse the social engineering practices of influencers and cybercriminals to better comprehend the worryingly thin line between relatively benign, everyday authentifakes and the criminal exploitation of the same.