I discovered social engineering a year ago. I was in college trying to make some money to go out and party. I think that every guy in high school have thought of Googling the words: "how to make money online".
First I tried making money through shortened links. I need something like 1000 views for a dollar
It was horrible. I found a bot for getting fake traffic, I got caught by Adfly and they banned my account after I made something like $3
Then I started to read about Adsense and I used to make fake accounts on tumblr to get traffic to my website that had Adsense on it. I made something like $3 in a month.
After 3 months or so of struggle in college, between studying for my engineering degree, and spending hours a day trying to make money online, I read something about social engineering. It was a method of sending dry ice in a box and calling the receiver to claim that it was stolen.
I took the opportunity that my roommate had bough new skullcandy headphone, I snapped a picture of the serial number and I talked to support on the phone and convinced them to send me a replacement. The headphones arrived and I sold them.
I kept reading more and more about SE, and now I don't even need to work part-time any more, or call my parents asking for money.
My advice to all the newbies here is to stay social. Lean from each other. Don't be leechers. Don't go on websites like the one we are on right now and get ideas from people without talking to them or thanking them. Don't leave without contributing, even if you don't have anything to say: just say Thank you.
and most importantly: NEVER GIVE UP!
I am here to learn more about SE and to help other members as well