# Baiting

A social engineering tactic that lures victims with a tempting offer to trick them into compromising their security.

**Baiting[↗](/baiting)** is a social engineering[↗](/social-engineering) tactic that lures a victim with a tempting offer, a free download, a \"found\" USB drive, a too-good-to-be-true deal, to trick them into taking an action that compromises their own security, like installing malware[↗](/malware) or entering credentials.

A classic example is leaving infected USB drives in a company parking lot, relying on curiosity to get an employee to plug one into a work computer. Treating unsolicited offers and unknown devices with suspicion is the best defense against baiting.