Train employees to pause, independently verify unusual or high-risk requests, and report suspected impersonation through a clear internal route. Use realistic examples from email, text, social media, and phone, then reinforce the habits with updated guidance and suitable practice. Training works best alongside policies and technical safeguards—not as a substitute for them.
Start with the behavior employees should follow
Give staff a simple response they can use across channels: pause, verify, report. Make clear that an unexpected request for money, credentials, sensitive information, or a consequential account change is a reason to check before acting. Urgency is not proof of fraud, but it is a cue to slow down.
- Pause. Do not let a deadline, threat, or claim of authority rush a decision. Avoid replying with sensitive information or using a link or phone number supplied in a suspicious message.
- Verify independently. For financial or otherwise sensitive instructions, contact the person or organization using a known phone number or another established channel obtained separately from the request. For example, confirm a vendor’s payment-account change with a trusted contact already on file.
- Report. Send the message or describe the contact using the organization’s designated internal route. If the employee has already clicked, shared information, or sent money, they should report that promptly rather than trying to conceal or fix it alone.
The FTC advises businesses to train staff to avoid phishing and recognize common ways attackers can infect devices with malware. Its Cybersecurity for Small Business guidance also supports pairing training with an employee reporting path and security measures.
Teach cues across email, text, social media, and phone
Impersonation is not limited to email. FTC and NIST guidance describes scammers posing as trusted people or organizations through email, text, social media, and phone. Teach employees to notice cues, but not to treat any single cue as conclusive: legitimate messages can look unusual, and convincing fraudulent ones can look familiar.
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- Sender or caller does not match the claimed identity: check the full email address, number, account, or domain rather than relying on a display name, logo, or familiar profile photo.
- Unexpected request: be cautious when a message asks for credentials, personal or business data, money, gift cards, or a change to payment details that the recipient was not expecting.
- Pressure or intimidation: threats, secrecy, an urgent deadline, or a demand to bypass normal procedures are reasons to stop and verify. The FTC identifies urgency, intimidation, and fear as tactics used to discourage checking.
- Unusual channel or process: a manager asking for a transfer by text, or a vendor changing payment instructions by email, should be verified through the organization’s normal independent process.
- Links or contact details supplied in the request: do not use them to validate the request. Navigate using a trusted bookmark or contact the organization through details already known to be genuine.
NIST’s small-business phishing guidance similarly recommends taking a moment before acting on an urgent request. The training message should be: a cue means check, not automatically delete or accuse someone.
Build practice around real workplace scenarios
Use brief, role-relevant examples rather than teaching only a list of warning signs. Ask employees what they would do next, which independent channel they would use, and where they would report the attempt. FTC materials describe business impersonation patterns that can inform scenarios.
Fake manager or executive request
An employee receives an unexpected message from someone claiming to be a senior colleague, requesting an urgent payment or confidential information. Practice checking through a known number or established internal channel and following the normal approval process, even if the message insists on secrecy.
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Vendor or customer payment change
A message says a supplier’s bank details have changed, or asks staff to redirect a payment. The employee should not accept the new details from the message alone. Have them verify with a trusted contact already on file and apply any required second-person approval.
Password-reset or account prompt
An employee receives an unexpected link or call asking them to reset a password or confirm credentials. Teach them not to enter credentials through the provided link or disclose them to a caller. They should use the organization’s usual sign-in route and report the unexpected prompt.
New-hire targeting
New employees may not yet know who normally approves payments, handles account access, or receives incident reports. Include onboarding exercises that identify those contacts and show how to verify requests without relying on a sender’s claimed job title.
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The FTC’s Scams and Your Small Business guide covers business scams and impersonation patterns, including urgent requests and messages posing as senior staff. Adapt examples to your organization’s roles and workflows without using real employees’ sensitive information.
Make reporting easy and safe
Training is incomplete if employees know what looks suspicious but not what to do with it. Specify the internal team, reporting button, email address, phone number, or other route your organization actually supports. Do not publish a generic instruction such as “tell IT” unless staff know how to reach the right person.
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- Explain what to do if an employee clicked a link, opened an attachment, disclosed data, or authorized a payment; direct them to report immediately through the designated route.
- Tell employees not to forward suspicious content broadly or investigate it by interacting with the sender.
- Make clear that prompt reporting is valued, including when someone has already made a mistake.
FTC business guidance recommends establishing a way for employees to report suspicious activity. The organization must supply its own specific contact details and response process; external reporting does not replace that internal route.
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Reinforce training and interpret simulations carefully
Keep examples and reminders current as the organization’s processes and the scams it encounters change. The FTC advises businesses to keep staff training current and says organizations may consider phishing simulations. Simulations can provide practice, but they should reinforce safe behavior rather than shame employees or stand in for a reporting process.
If you use simulated phishing emails, account for how difficult each message is to detect before comparing results. NIST’s Phish Scale User Guide, Technical Note 2276, published November 15, 2023, describes a method for rating an email’s human phishing-detection difficulty as part of awareness and training programs. It is an implementation aid, not a guarantee that training will prevent incidents. The reviewed guidance does not establish a universal training frequency, ideal simulation score, or proven percentage improvement.
Evaluate whether employees can explain and use the desired actions: pause, verify independently, and report. Treat a simulation result as one input about training and message difficulty, not as a standalone measure of an employee’s competence or an organization’s security.
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Back training with policy and technical controls
Employees should not have to rely on instinct alone to stop a convincing impersonation attempt. Establish a formal independent-confirmation process for wire transfers and payment-detail changes, with clear approval responsibilities. Explain which contact records are trusted and how staff should handle exceptions.
Combine those procedures with safeguards such as email authentication, current security tools, and a functioning incident-reporting process. FTC guidance on protecting personal information helps businesses think about protecting sensitive data. Training supports these controls by helping employees recognize when to use them; it does not replace them.
What to look for in a training approach
When choosing or designing training, compare its practical coverage rather than relying on a vendor label or a single simulation score.
- Channel and scenario coverage: Does it address email, text, social media, and phone, with examples relevant to your employees’ actual work?
- Actionable verification: Does it show how to verify through a separately known contact method and explain what requests require that step?
- Clear reporting: Can staff readily identify the internal route and what to do after a possible mistake?
- Updates and evaluation: Is the material refreshed as threats and business processes change, and are simulation results interpreted in light of message difficulty?
These are practical evaluation criteria drawn from FTC and NIST guidance, not a ranking of training products. FTC’s September 2025 article on stopping would-be business impersonators names free phishing simulators from Microsoft and KnowBe4; that mention is not an endorsement.
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