Unexpected operational alert
A text claims to concern payroll, a delivery, MFA, benefits, a manager, or an account without matching an expected workflow.
Smishing Awareness
How to Recognize and Report Smishing
Smishing is phishing delivered through SMS or another text-messaging channel to prompt a link visit, call, payment, disclosure, download, or reply.
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
Smishing: a practical definition
Smishing is phishing delivered through SMS or another text-messaging channel to prompt a link visit, call, payment, disclosure, download, or reply.
Phone numbers are weak identity signals, shortened links are common, and personal and work communication may appear on the same device. An email simulation platform does not automatically provide SMS delivery capability.
Source: CISA Phishing Guidance
02Recognition clues
Warning signs employees can check in a smishing 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.
Short or obscured destination
The message uses a shortened link or asks the recipient to move to an unfamiliar site or number.
Reply pressure
The sender asks for a code, personal detail, payment, or immediate confirmation through the text conversation.
03Safe response
Move from suspicion to a supported next step
| Moment | Employee action | Program preparation |
|---|---|---|
| Before acting | Open the known work application or contact the responsible team through the company directory; do not use the link or callback details in the text. | 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
Smishing 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.
Screenshot discussion
Use a fictional SMS screenshot inside training to practice recognition without sending to personal phones.
Work-device tabletop
Walk through how an employee reports an unexpected text received on an authorized corporate device.
Cross-channel verification
Practice checking a supposed manager request through the known directory and normal work channel.
05Campaign workflow
Build the exercise around a decision employees can repeat
- 1
Define the behavior
Write down the smishing 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 smishing 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 Phishmake send smishing simulations?
Do not infer SMS capability from this educational page. Confirm current product capabilities directly. Phishmake's documented core workflow centers on email phishing simulations and awareness training.
How can employees report suspicious texts?
Publish a route that works from the devices in scope, such as the approved security or support channel. Test the handoff before asking employees to use it.
Can smishing 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 send to personal phone numbers or imply SMS simulation support without explicit authorization, lawful basis, provider controls, and a tested reporting path. A lesson or tabletop is often the safer format.
How should smishing 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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