Signals: spotting synthetic trust at scale
Patterns that survive polish
Vibe Crime is built to feel normal. Signals are rarely a single typo or a broken link. They are patterns that appear when a workflow is optimized to cross your trust boundary.
Message and conversation signals
- Consistency without history: the tone is polished and stable, but the relationship is new or thin.
- Low-friction urgency: pressure to act quickly, with a path that avoids normal checks.
- Channel hopping: the conversation moves from email to chat to SMS to voice to reduce audit trails.
- Unnatural availability: replies arrive instantly at all hours, with no human drift.
Identity and environment signals
- Lookalike infrastructure: domains and caller IDs that mimic a trusted brand with minor edits.
- Process targeting: requests aimed at approvals, password resets, onboarding, or payment changes.
- Persona clustering: multiple new accounts that interact to create social proof.
How to use signals safely
Signals are inputs, not verdicts. Use them to trigger a verification loop, not to accuse. The goal is to slow down the attacker and route the request into a path you can authenticate.