Social engineering is a psychological strategy used to manipulate individuals into revealing information about themselves or committing acts that can later be exploited. In information security, social engineering is used as part of elaborate cons or hacks to gather needed information. There are a series of techniques that a threatening individual, known as a threat actor, can use to exploit a victim's vulnerabilities. When effective, these techniques induce victims to reveal details about themselves, including passwords, credit card numbers, social security number or other similar personal information.

Mr. Robot, known for its accuracy and level of detail, included several of these techniques, generally used by fsociety. Action is typically preceded by research; threat actors require information about their mark before they can exploit them. Not all uses of social engineering and the hacks that accompany them are successful.

Mr. Robot is a great show. It's pretty accurate (as mentioned in the quote) when it comes to hacking - if it's not even the most accurate show out there. But it's not only about hacking. It also has many other great stuff in it. I would say actual "hacking scenes" (which means for me that Elliot, the protagonist, is breaching a network or doing something similar using a computer) are only 5% of the show.

Here is a great scene (of many great scenes in this show) how weaknesses in an individual can be exploited via social engineering if you just know enough about them: