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CompTIA Security+ · CompTIA
Select one answer.
Written by other learners. Comments can disagree with the marked answer — check the official documentation when in doubt.
Nah, I take it back. If just phishing was the choice instead of smishing, I'd probably take pretexting. With smishing being a specific choice, probably go for that one. They ask these a lot.
This one's one of those "which answer do they want more because both are right" questions. Sec+ seems to prefer the attack technique over the medium of the attack. I'm going with pretexting in this case. The question specifies that they're claiming to be the CEO. It's definitely also smishing, but I don't think that's the answer they're seeking.
Smishing is the correct answer because the attack is conducted via SMS text messages, and the goal is to manipulate the employee into taking action (purchasing gift cards) based on fraudulent communication. Smishing precisely captures the medium and technique used in this type of social engineering attack.