Social Engineering is the act of manipulating individuals to perform actions or reveal information. Social engineering tactics are widely recognized as a significant risk to information security. The increasing digital environment has increased the prevalence of social engineering attacks, bringing huge threats to both people and organizations. This paper explores current deception techniques used during social engineering attacks to understand emerging trends and discuss effective countermeasures. It is always a good idea to have knowledge of counter measures and risks from these increasing cyber threats. We have also explored the types of deception attacks and role of social engineering in Advanced Persistent Threats. Today major concern for cybersecurity and other web related attacks is due to social engineering attacks that is also the driving force of increasing cybercrimes worldwide. By uncovering emerging trends and analyzing the psychological underpinnings of these attacks this paper highlights the known deception techniques, emerging trends and counter measures of social engineering attacks.