Social Engineering as an Intermediate Variable between Methods of Persuasion and Electronic Deception from the Point of View of Victims of Cybercrime

Abstract

The study aimed to reveal the role of social engineering as a mediating variable between methods of persuasion and electronic deception from the point of view of victims of cybercrime. The sample consisted of (164) male and female students who were victims of cybercrime in one of the university colleges in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who were selected by a simple random sample method. The study used the social engineering scale (AbdelTawab, 2021), electronic deception scale (Mangoud & Ali, 2022) And the scale of persuasion methods (Kaptein et al., 2012). The data showed that the average social engineering exceeded the hypothetical average by 41.9%, outperforming the average phishing (16.6%), while the persuasion was less than expected by 26.5%, suggesting that criminals rely heavily on systematic psychological influence rather than traditional persuasive arguments, analyses have demonstrated a strong correlation between persuasion methods and cyber deception. (t = 0.890), reinforcing the hypothesis that persuasion is a precursor to deception. When the impact of social engineering was isolated, the correlation decreased to (t = 0.280), which confirms its role as a key intermediary variable in this relationship, and the results also showed the ability of high social engineering in predicting persuasion methods. (R² = 0.898) and phishing (R² = 0.931), with the human dimension emerging as the most influential (Beta = 0.637 in persuasion, and Beta = 0.628 In deception), compared to the technical dimension. Regression models and strong statistical significance confirm that the combination of emotional impact and fraudulent techniques forms a fertile environment for victim occurrence, and finally, three-dimensional representation illustrates how the increase of both dimensions (Human & Technical) In social engineering, it leads to a significant escalation in the level of deception, which supports the conclusion that this psychological strategy is the most effective tool in modern cybercrime operations. Social engineering is the hinge that transforms persuasion methods into effective cyber deception for victims of cybercrime.