Introduction
We ran a phishing simulation to understand how employees respond to a well crafted email that appears to come from their CEO.
We sent one email. It looked like it came from the company’s founder. It said there was an urgent vendor payment needed before end of day. It had no spelling mistakes, used the right logo, referenced a real ongoing project, and was sent from a domain that looked almost identical to the company’s real domain.
163 out of 200 employees opened it. 141 clicked the link. 68 entered their login credentials.
Here is the part that surprised us most. The people who clicked were not junior staff or recent joiners. They were the finance manager, the operations director, the senior sales head, and department heads who have been with the company for years.
This is not a story about careless employees. It is a story about how a well crafted phishing attack exploits the exact behaviours that make good employees effective at their jobs, including responsiveness, respect for authority, and a desire to get things done.
Exactly What We Sent
Here is the simulation email, reproduced in full. Read it the way your finance team would read it on a busy Tuesday morning, not as someone looking for a phishing attack, but as someone trying to help their CEO before a deadline.
Why it works the 4 triggers in this email
1. Authority sent from the CEO's name and a near identical domain
2. Urgency phrases like before end of day, time sensitive, and contractual deadline
3. Isolation the instruction do not discuss with anyone else removes the safety check
4. Familiarity real project name, real manager name, and an authentic writing tone
Who Clicked - The Results by Role
The results of the simulation were shared with senior leadership. What they revealed was uncomfortable but important: the people most at risk were not who anyone expected.
| Role | What They Did | Click Rate |
| Finance Manager | Clicked the link and entered credentials | Clicked |
| Operations Director | Clicked the link and hovered over the attachment | Clicked |
| Senior Sales Head | Opened email, clicked link, forwarded to assistant | Clicked |
| 2 Department Heads | Clicked the link within 4 minutes of receipt | Clicked |
| Junior Finance Analysts (3 of 5) | Clicked - one actually replied asking for bank details | Clicked |
| IT Team (2 of 4) | Did not click - flagged email as suspicious and reported | Safe |
| Junior Staff (general) | Mixed - 38% clicked, 62% ignored or reported | Mixed |
Notice what the results tell us. The IT team was the only group where the majority did not click. Not because they are more intelligent than the finance director, but because they think about email differently. They have been trained to question it.
The finance director has an MBA and 18 years of experience. She clicked within 6 minutes. The IT graduate who joined four months ago reported it immediately.
Why Good Employees Fall for This
Business owners often assume that phishing attacks succeed because employees are distracted, careless, or not paying attention. That assumption gets the psychology exactly backwards.
The employees who clicked in this simulation were paying close attention. They read the email carefully. They processed the context. They made a rational decision based on the information in front of them. The problem was that the email was designed to exploit precisely the behaviours that make them effective.
The 4 psychological triggers in every effective CEO fraud email
1. Authority: The email appears to come from the CEO, the one person in the company whose instructions employees are conditioned not to question. The brain processes authority figures differently and assigns higher trust automatically.
2. Urgency: Phrases like before end of day and contractual deadline trigger a threat response. The brain shifts from analytical processing to action oriented processing. The instinct is to help quickly.
3. Isolation: The instruction do not discuss with anyone else removes the single most effective defence an employee has, the ability to ask a colleague if this seems right. The attacker knows this. That line is deliberate.
4. Familiarity: Using the real project name, the real CEO's name, and an authentic writing tone removes the most common phishing red flag. There are no misspellings, no unfamiliar sender, and no obvious reason for suspicion.
These four triggers are present in almost every successful BEC (Business Email Compromise) attack. The same email, adjusted for context, is being sent to companies across India and globally every day. The average BEC attack costs Rs 3.9 crore according to IBM 2025. And the attacker does not need malware, hacking tools, or technical skills. They need one well written email.
After sharing the results with leadership, the company implemented a simple verification rule for payments and conducted a short awareness session. Within 6 weeks, click rates dropped significantly, and employees began actively reporting suspicious emails.
The total cost of these changes was minimal compared to the potential financial loss from a real attack.
3 Things You Can Implement This Week
You do not need a security team or a budget. These three actions cost almost nothing and address the biggest risks the simulation exposed.
1. Create a payment verification rule and tell everyone today
Set one clear rule for your finance team. Any payment instruction received by email, regardless of who it appears to be from, must be verified with a phone call to a known number before processing. Not a reply to the email. A call. This single step stops most BEC fraud attempts and takes only minutes to implement.
2. Run a 15 minute phishing awareness session
Show your team real examples of phishing emails, including one that looks like a CEO message. Explain the four triggers: authority, urgency, isolation, and familiarity. Present it as practical guidance, not a test. Employees who receive shared feedback after simulations recognise threats more effectively over time.
3. Make it easy to report suspicious emails
Employees often hesitate to flag emails for fear of being wrong. Remove that hesitation. Make it clear that reporting a suspicious email to IT, even if it turns out to be safe, is always the right action. This simple cultural shift strengthens your fastest detection system, your people.
The Test You Do Not Want to Fail Is the Real One
The simulation we ran cost a fraction of what a successful attack would have cost. The company learned more about their actual security posture in two hours than they had from two years of IT policy documents.
The finance director who clicked the link is not a weak link in your security chain. She is your company. The real question is whether she has been given the information, the tools, and the confidence to make a different decision when the real email arrives.
Right now, attackers are crafting emails for companies like yours. They are using AI to personalise them. They are studying your organisation, identifying key people, and building messages that look exactly like they came from inside your company.
The difference between a company that loses money and one that does not is rarely technology. It is whether their people understand how these attacks work and feel confident enough to question them.
FAQ
1. What is a phishing simulation and why is it important?
A phishing simulation is a controlled test where fake phishing emails are sent to employees to measure how they respond. It helps businesses identify security gaps, improve employee awareness, and reduce the risk of real phishing attacks.
2. Why do employees click fake CEO or phishing emails?
Employees often click phishing emails because attackers use psychological triggers like authority, urgency, familiarity, and trust. Even experienced employees can be influenced when emails appear legitimate and time-sensitive.
3. What is a fake CEO email attack?
A fake CEO email attack, also known as business email compromise, is when attackers impersonate senior executives to trick employees into transferring money or sharing sensitive information.
4. How can businesses prevent phishing and email fraud attacks?
Businesses can prevent phishing attacks by training employees, running regular phishing simulations, enabling two factor authentication, and implementing verification processes for sensitive actions like payments.
5. How effective are phishing simulations in reducing cyber risk?
Phishing simulations are highly effective. Organizations that conduct regular simulations with feedback can reduce employee click rates by up to 70 to 80 percent over time.
