Unplanned channel change
A supposed colleague or leader moves an unusual request to a call, voice note, or video session that was not expected.
Deepfake Phishing Awareness
How to Recognize and Report Deepfake Phishing
Deepfake phishing uses synthetic or manipulated voice, video, images, or identity cues to make an impersonated person appear more convincing during a deceptive request.
Use this guide to turn the threat into a clear employee decision, a safe practice scenario, and a reporting step your organization can support.
Plain-English definition • Warning signs • Safe simulation ideas • Reporting practice
01Understand the threat
Deepfake Phishing: a practical definition
Deepfake phishing uses synthetic or manipulated voice, video, images, or identity cues to make an impersonated person appear more convincing during a deceptive request.
Visual or audio familiarity is no longer sufficient proof of identity. The safe response depends on an independent business process, especially for payments, access, secrets, and sensitive data.
Source: CISA Phishing Guidance
02Recognition clues
Warning signs employees can check in a deepfake phishing message
No single clue proves that a message is malicious. Teach employees to combine the request, sender, business context, destination, and available verification route before acting.
Consequential request
The communication asks for money, authentication, confidential information, account changes, or an exception to normal controls.
Resistance to verification
The person discourages a callback, second approver, known-channel message, or other established confirmation step.
03Safe response
Move from suspicion to a supported next step
| Moment | Employee action | Program preparation |
|---|---|---|
| Before acting | Use a known contact route and the established approval process; treat familiar voice or appearance as one cue, not as authorization for a consequential action. | Publish the authentic contact, application, or reporting route somewhere employees can reach without using the message. |
| When uncertain | Pause the request and report it through the approved channel with enough context for review. | Explain what the response team needs and how employees will know that their report was received. |
| After an interaction | Stop, contact the responsible team promptly, and describe the action taken without hiding the mistake. | Provide a well-known response route and avoid communications that discourage early reporting. |
Source: NIST: Recognizing, verifying, and reporting phishing
04Practice safely
Deepfake Phishing simulation and discussion ideas
Choose one learning objective per exercise. Use fictional people, organizations, accounts, payments, documents, and events, and test the reporting route before sending to employees.
Facilitated call scenario
Discuss an unexpected executive voice message and have participants select the known callback and approval route.
Channel-change exercise
Practice responding when an email request is followed by an unfamiliar voice note or meeting invitation.
Verification drill
Test whether the team can complete a two-person approval without relying on the content of the simulated media.
05Campaign workflow
Build the exercise around a decision employees can repeat
- 1
Define the behavior
Write down the deepfake phishing clue being practiced, the expected action, the authorized audience, and the owner of follow-up.
- 2
Confirm the real process
Test the independent verification route, message-reporting option, response handoff, and employee support path from a representative account.
- 3
Pilot the scenario
Check delivery, links, landing content, accessibility, event records, automated inspection, stop conditions, and the explanation employees will receive.
- 4
Review in context
Reconcile intended recipients, successful deliveries, unique employee events, verified reports, response handling, and completed follow-up before drawing conclusions.
Source: NIST SP 800-50 Rev. 1: Building a Cybersecurity and Privacy Learning Program
06Useful measurement
Evaluate recognition, reporting, and the surrounding process
Record actual counts and denominators for delivery, unique recipient events, reports, and follow-up. Separate automated email inspection and repeat events where the available evidence supports doing so.
A deepfake phishing exercise samples one scenario under one set of conditions. It does not establish an employee's intent, overall security awareness, or likelihood of responding the same way to a real attack.
Use findings to improve the real workflow: clearer verification instructions, easier reporting, faster response handling, better role-specific training, or a business control that reduces reliance on email alone.
Common questions
Common questions about Phishmake's features, onboarding, and support, answered to help you get started with confidence.
Can employees reliably spot a deepfake by appearance or sound?
Training should not depend on a person detecting media artifacts. A known-channel verification and approval process remains useful even when the media appears convincing.
Do we need synthetic media for a deepfake exercise?
No. A tabletop or written scenario can practice the verification decision without creating synthetic media or processing a real person's likeness.
Can deepfake phishing be used in a phishing simulation?
It can be practiced when the scenario is authorized, proportionate, and tied to a real reporting or verification process. Do not clone a real person's voice or likeness without explicit informed authorization. Prefer clearly fictional media or a tabletop, and do not use a personal crisis or humiliating scenario.
How should deepfake phishing simulation results be measured?
Review successful delivery, unique employee events, reports, response handling, and completed follow-up. Include scenario difficulty and operating context, and do not treat a click or report as a complete measure of employee risk.
Sources & further reading
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