The Shocking Truth About Phishing: Why Good Employees Keep Falling for Scams

Phishing attacks have evolved. What used to be crude,typo-filled emails from “Nigerian princes” has transformed into highlysophisticated, targeted attacks that even the most vigilant employees can fallvictim to. But here’s the shocking part: it's not because these employees arecareless. In fact, it’s often the opposite—good, security-conscious employees,like Mike the accountant, are repeatedly falling for scams, and it’s not justdue to the growing sophistication of phishing emails. It’s because they’rebeing set up to fail through something called learned helplessness.

Meet Mike: The Story of a Good Employee Who Became Vulnerable

Mike is an accountant at a mid-sized company. He’sdetail-oriented, follows all the company’s security protocols, and regularlypasses his phishing awareness tests. But over time, something begins to change.The phishing emails he receives become more sophisticated, disguised as urgentrequests from leadership or vendors he interacts with on a daily basis. Thetypical signs of phishing, like bad grammar and misspelled domains, are harderto spot.

One day, Mike clicks on a link in an email that looksidentical to an official company invoice. A red alert pops up: "You'veclicked on a phishing link!" Mike is embarrassed and frustrated, butbrushes it off as a one-time mistake. But it happens again. And again. Eachtime, the phishing simulations are more deceptive, and Mike is reprimandedwithout any real feedback on how to improve. He starts to wonder: Why bother?No matter what he does, it seems inevitable that he’ll get tricked again.

This is learned helplessness in action. Mike, once adiligent and security-conscious employee, is now disengaging from phishingtraining because he feels like he’s in a no-win situation. And he’s not alone.

The Phishing Problem: Traps Without Education

Phishing emails are designed to exploit human behavior, andas they become more complex, employees are increasingly set up for failure. Toomany phishing awareness programs rely on a "gotcha"mentality—designing simulations meant to trick users without providingconstructive feedback or education. When employees like Mike fall for thesetraps, they’re often met with reprimands or scolding rather than learningopportunities.

This approach does more harm than good. Employees quicklystart to feel that no matter what they do, they’re destined to fail. They startavoiding interactions with potentially risky emails, but without real guidance,they remain vulnerable. This is the essence of learned helplessness: repeatedexposure to difficult, unsolvable problems (like impossible-to-detect phishingemails) leads to a sense of powerlessness. And when employees feel powerless,they stop trying.

Breaking the Cycle: Just-in-Time Training and Fairness

So how do we fix this? The solution is twofold: just-in-timetraining and fairness.

Just-in-time training delivers real-time, constructivefeedback to employees the moment they make a mistake. When Mike clicks on thatphishing email link, instead of just being told he failed, he should be shownexactly why the email was a phishing attempt. The training should walk himthrough the subtle signs he missed—perhaps the domain was slightly off or thetone of the message didn’t match the sender's usual style. This approach notonly educates the user but empowers them. They learn how to spot phishingattempts before they click, breaking the cycle of helplessness and replacing itwith confidence.

But timing isn’t everything. Fairness in phishing trainingis equally important. All too often, phishing simulations are designed to be asdeceptive as possible, sometimes even using inside knowledge about the companyto trick employees. For example, sending an email that mimics a real ongoingproject or using the CEO’s real name and email format to trick employees. Thistype of training is unfair and counterproductive. It sets up employees to failrather than teaching them to succeed.

Instead, phishing training should simulate realistic, yetdetectable, phishing attempts. The goal is to challenge employees, not defeatthem. When employees like Mike are given fair opportunities to spot phishingemails and receive immediate, constructive feedback when they make mistakes,they’re far less likely to disengage from the process.

Gamification: Making Phishing Defense Engaging

Another powerful tool to prevent learned helplessness isgamification. By turning phishing training into an interactive, rewardingexperience, companies can motivate employees like Mike to stay engaged. Ratherthan feeling punished every time they click a phishing link, employees earnpoints or rewards for spotting phishing attempts or completing trainingmodules.

This creates a positive feedback loop—employees activelywant to participate and improve their phishing detection skills, rather thandreading the next email test. When phishing training becomes a challenge toovercome rather than a trap to fall into, employees feel empowered, notdefeated.

Gamification also encourages healthy competition andteamwork. Imagine Mike’s department competing against another team in acompany-wide phishing challenge. The stakes are friendly, but meaningful: teamsare motivated to help each other succeed, and the result is a more resilient,security-conscious organization.

Training with Purpose, Not Punishment

The key to effective phishing training is to remember itspurpose: to educate, not entrap. When training programs rely too heavily ondeception, they create a culture of fear and learned helplessness. Employeesfeel like they’re constantly being set up to fail, and their morale andsecurity awareness plummets as a result.

Instead, companies need to embrace training that offerseducation with purpose. This means:

- Simulating real-world phishing attacks, but keeping themfair and detectable.
- Providing just-in-time feedback that’s constructive and immediate.
- Gamifying the process to keep employees engaged and motivated.

By focusing on education, companies can create a culture ofempowered, security-conscious employees who feel confident in their ability todetect and respond to phishing attempts.

Conclusion: Stop Setting Employees Up to Fail

Phishing isn’t going away anytime soon, but the way we trainemployees to handle it needs to evolve. The story of Mike is far toocommon—good employees are being set up to fail through unfair, punitivetraining programs that lead to learned helplessness. This doesn’t have to bethe case.

With PhishFirewall, you can break this cycle. Our platformuses gamification to keep employees engaged, just-in-time training to providereal-time feedback the moment they need it, and ensures that all simulationsare fair and educational. We don’t believe in 'gotchas.' Instead, we empoweryour team to become more resilient and proactive in their defense againstphishing attacks.

If you're ready to transform your security awarenesstraining and equip your employees with the tools they need to succeed, notfail, PhishFirewall is the solution. Let us help you create a culture ofconfidence, not helplessness. Contact us today to see how we can automate yourphishing defense and deliver results in under 30 minutes.

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