Unexpected web sign-in
A voicemail notice asks the employee to authenticate through a page they do not normally use for messages.
Voicemail Phishing Awareness
How to Recognize and Report Voicemail Phishing
Voicemail phishing imitates a missed-message notification or delivers a deceptive recording to prompt a sign-in, download, callback, payment, or disclosure.
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
Voicemail Phishing: a practical definition
Voicemail phishing imitates a missed-message notification or delivers a deceptive recording to prompt a sign-in, download, callback, payment, or disclosure.
The lure may arrive as a link, audio attachment, QR code, or phone number. Employees should use the known phone or messaging system rather than the route supplied by the notification.
Source: CISA Phishing Guidance
02Recognition clues
Warning signs employees can check in a voicemail 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.
Unusual audio file
The attachment type, archive, or external player does not match the organization's voicemail workflow.
Callback changes the channel
The recording or message directs the employee to an unfamiliar number and then requests information or action.
03Safe response
Move from suspicion to a supported next step
| Moment | Employee action | Program preparation |
|---|---|---|
| Before acting | Open the known phone or messaging application independently and use the directory or official account route for any callback. | 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
Voicemail 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.
Fictional missed-message notice
Practice reaching the normal voicemail service instead of opening the message link.
Audio-attachment review
Use an inert file or screenshot to discuss expected voicemail formats and reporting.
Callback tabletop
Rehearse how to verify an urgent recorded request through a known contact.
05Campaign workflow
Build the exercise around a decision employees can repeat
- 1
Define the behavior
Write down the voicemail 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 voicemail 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 a voicemail notification be phishing?
Yes. The message can imitate a phone system or lead to a deceptive sign-in. Employees should use the known voicemail application or service.
Should employees return the call?
Use a known directory or official contact rather than the number supplied in an unexpected notification or recording.
Can voicemail 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 use active audio payloads, uncontrolled callback numbers, real private recordings, or a live call without separate authorization and privacy review.
How should voicemail 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
Published by Phishmake · Updated
Keep building your program
All resourcesPut it into practice
Turn voicemail phishing awareness into a repeatable response.
Use Phishmake to run controlled employee simulations, review campaign activity, assign relevant training, and keep follow-up records in one workflow.