This is a method of presenting facts in a way that it makes them seem good while, in reality, they are bad. Suppose that a person is told that 25% of the people that trade stocks become millionaires. The hidden fact is that 75% of stock traders fail or do not make it and this is a huge number. However, the presentation of the fact that a certain percentage of traders become millionaires is more uplifting. Framing is commonly used in real-life scenarios. One of the areas where it is used is in politics. Campaigns and campaign messages are filled with half-truths and half-lies. The accomplishments of a sitting leader can easily be overstated or understated by altering the presentation of facts. In the recently concluded US presidential elections, President Trump heavily employed reality alteration to discredit the former president, Barrack Obama. Instead of talking about the jobs created, he focused on the presumably high number of unemployed people while in fact, that number was higher before the election of Obama. He discredited Obama care by also using reality alteration. By so doing, he was able to convince people that change was needed and America needed to be made great again. Politics is a mind game and facts are presented in a way that is favorable to the person stating them.

Framing is also used in marketing. When some products are not selling, sellers decide to tag them at high prices. High prices indicate high quality. This means that the products will get attention but not many people will buy them. After a while, the seller will write 80% off and return the product to the original price. The impact will be that people will now see the value of buying the product at the reduced price based on the exorbitantly high price.

Frame bridging is the linking of two similar but unconnected frames. Social engineers can bridge a target's frame, that is, make invisible connections to a target's reality in a way that favors the social engineer. For example, a guard at the entrance of a premise is aware of the frame of securing the premise. He or she will, therefore, be thorough with anyone trying to access the premise. However, the guard will treat other people such as salespersons offering him or her products differently. The guard will also treat any organizational staff working in the building differently. The guard can, therefore, be targeted with a frame connecting to the aspect of controlled access.

Social engineers use frame bridging by aligning the reality and expectations of their target. A social engineer needs only to fit the frame of the target. If the target is the guard of a premise, a social engineer can dress and act as a new employee of the organization renting that premise. By matching clothing and communication with the frame of the target, the social engineer can easily pass unnoticed or without ringing alarms that he or she is a stranger.

Social engineers use framing to influence their targets. They have three options, to create new frames, align with their target's frame, or draw targets into their frames. To use framing right, they stick to four rules which are as follows:

• The first rule involves saying things that evoke a frame. Human brains typically picture things when they think about them. Great novel writers have an astounding ability of painting images in the minds of their readers. Social engineers also strive to have this ability. They tend to be descriptive and robust in their conversations. By doing so, they paint a picture in the target's brain and this takes away attention from them to the mental picture being drawn. By doing so, the target is occupied with the picture being drawn and overlooks the details about the social engineer. It is effective when getting into premises or avoiding talks concerning topics one is not conversant with.

• The second rule is to use definitive words to evoke frames. This is where a social engineer does not directly mention something but implies it. The target is given an additional task to find out what the social engineer is talking about whilst being bombarded with even more information. While the target is focused on the mind puzzle, the social engineer can plant some ideas in his or her brain. The social engineer might also use that opportunity to do something without the target noticing since the target is already preoccupied with trying to figure out the whole mental picture.
• The third rule of framing is to negate a frame. It might sound counterproductive but this is actually effective. By telling a person to avoid something, the brain automatically wants to find it so as to avoid it. Similarly, frame negation can be used by social engineers to get people to do things that they have prior information not to do. If a social engineer under the pretext of a repairman walks into an organization and drops a thumb drive with malware, there is a slim chance that employees will insert it into their machines if they have been informed not to. The social engineer can, however, negate this frame so as to get targets to do the opposite. He may talk with a couple of people and tell them that he heard a senior staff member asking around for a thumb drive lost with some sensitive files. The employee who finds the malicious thumb drive will instinctively insert it into his or her computer to determine whether it is the flash being asked around for. The social engineer will have negated the frame in the organizational security policy that employees should not randomly pick up thumb drives and insert them into their computers.
• The fourth rule on framing is that one should lead a target to think about things that reinforce a frame. The more a target thinks about something, the more it is reinforced in his or her brain. News media are the masters when it comes to manipulating people by the means of framing. Media can omit some details about a story to lead people to form a conclusion that would be quite different if all the details were given. Russia was accused of meddling with the US 2016 presidential elections by buying Facebook ads that supported President Trump and discredited his opponent. By frequently buying these ads, they made sure that the message to elect Trump was reinforced on the minds if most of the voters.

Social engineers use the same tactic where they repeat ideas that they want their targets to keep in their brains. They only leak part of the information that is favorable to their attack. After all, the truth is subjective of the person telling it. By merely omitting some details, a social engineer is able to convince a target with the favorable half-truth.