Contact (social)

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Social contacts are people who, in exchange for money, goods, services, or simply loyalty, will help an individual achieve personal goals.

Social contacts (or simply "contacts") may be illicit or legitimate, and their services can include favors such as securing employment for an individual, defusing a difficult situation with their personal influence, selling, storing, or transporting illegal drugs, or any number of other achievements. The difference between an individual referred to as a contact and a friend who helps you is twofold: first, a contact assists an individual generally by means of coercion, intimidation, and other illegal or socially frowned-upon means, and secondly because generally a contact is not a personal friend (although they can be), but is simply an individual open to transactions of their influence for something in return (often referred to colloquially as "pulling strings"). Anyone may be a contact, although the most effective contacts are persons of high social stature, such as politicians or company CEOs.

While no official network of contacts exists, many people do know some contacts that they can call upon for occasional favors.

It should be noted that a contact is not an advertised or official title, but merely a specific way a person might be referred to. There are no "contact businesses". A good example of a contact is a Don of the rumored Mafia, who may be willing to commit illegal actions (or order others to do so) in exchange for something in return.

Many famous and influential people have been rumored to have attained their high status by proper (and often nefarious) use of their personal contacts.