Man Steals $28 Million Dollars in Diamonds Unscathed: A Lesson in Social Engineering

On March 2nd, 2007, a man walked into a bank in Antwerp, Belgium, smiled and waved at the cashier, and minutes later walked out with $28 million dollars worth of precious diamonds without the use of ropes, laser cutters, or suction pads typical seen in heist movies. The only tool that the man used was social engineering; and gave a textbook example of how to orchestrate it.

Antwerp, Belgium is home to the worlds largest diamond trading district and had seen its fair share of heists before, but "Carlos Hector Flomenbaum" of Argentina (actually an alias) decided there was an easier way. Over the course of a year he established himself as an influential and intelligent diamond trader in a bizarre catch-me-if-you-can-esque web of lies.

Carlos started by establishing himself with the bank employees; visiting nearly every day and small talking the staff. He would often be in there to simply talk and joke, while subsequently gaining access to his deposit box within the bank. After his foundation was set with the staff, Mr. Flomenbaum launched an Inference Attack which aims to piece together a large piece of information through the gathering of many small pieces. Through these actions he divulged the locations of vaults he intended to target, his next step was to devise a plan to break into them.

And what did Carlos think would be the easiest way to break into the safety deposit boxes? Explosives? Holding up the bank? Picking the lock? How about just getting an employee to make copies of the keys for you? Because that is exactly what Carlos did. Carlos, having become a trusted customer of the bank was able to receive an electronic key card from an employee that allowed him access to the vault where he could have unfettered access to the safety deposit boxes, unaccompanied, and used keys received by employees to simply open the boxes, fill his bag, and leave with a smile and a stutter step.

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