---
title: "An Email Phishing Test That Totally Backfired | Phish Protection"
description: "An Email Phishing Test That Totally Backfired: How good are your employees at spotting phishing emails? There"
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canonical: "https://phishprotection.com/blog/an-email-phishing-test-that-totally-backfired/"
---

Quick Answer

According to \[The Big Lead\](https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/tribune-publishing-dangles-fake-raises-to-employees-in-phishing-scam-test-01ejy89qnxq0), "\_The media giant has spent the last few years cutting staff at newspapers across the country, leaving workers underpaid and overworked\_. On Wednesday the company sent out emails to employees suggesting they would be getting raises for all their hard work. It turns out it was a test to see how susceptible they were to a \*\*phishing scam\*\*. Needless to say, the employees were furious."

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![Phish Protection blog post image](https://media.mailhop.org/phishprotection/images/2020/10/Latest-Email-Phishing-Protection-Statistics.jpg) 

_How good are your employees at spotting phishing emails?_ There’s a really easy way to find out. Send each one of them a fake **phishing email** and see how many click. And that’s exactly what Tribune Publishing, publishers of the Chicago Tribune, did recently, and boy did it backfire.

According to [The Big Lead](https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/tribune-publishing-dangles-fake-raises-to-employees-in-phishing-scam-test-01ejy89qnxq0), “_The media giant has spent the last few years cutting staff at newspapers across the country, leaving workers underpaid and overworked_. On Wednesday the company sent out emails to employees suggesting they would be getting raises for all their hard work. It turns out it was a test to see how susceptible they were to a **phishing scam**. Needless to say, the employees were furious.”

The article goes on to detail _the furious responses of some employees to the insensitive phishing test_. What the article didn’t mention, however, is how many employees fell for the scam and clicked on a link. It was probably a lot.

The sad thing about this incident is it didn’t have to happen. _Tribune didn’t have to test their employees with fake phishing emails to know many of them wouldn’t pass the test_. There’s already been plenty of research to confirm that.

[Research](https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/6/1/tyaa009/5905453) recently published in the Journal of Cybersecurity concluded that when “_a phishing email aligns with a user’s work context, it is much more challenging for users to detect a phish_.” In other words, when an overworked and underpaid employee is told they’re going to be rewarded with a raise, _they’re going to click on the link. You don’t need to run a test to confirm it_.

What the research also found was, when the **phishing email** aligns with the worker’s context, _the clickthrough rates can be shockingly high_. For example, emails about safety requirements (49.3%), unpaid invoices (20.5%) and scanned files (19.4%) had the highest click rates. _Almost half click on safety-related phishing emails!_

Maybe you think it’s unfair to target employees with such an insensitive test, and that makes their employers the “bad guys”. Do you know who else are bad guys? Hackers. And this is the exact type of messaging they’d use to target your employees. Better that it be during a test. Of course, there’s something more effective at stopping **phishing attacks** than “awareness” tests and it has zero chance of offending employees: **cloud-based email security** like [Phish Protection](/).

![Latest Email Phishing Protection Statistics](https://media.mailhop.org/phishprotection/images/2020/10/Latest-Email-Phishing-Protection-Statistics.jpg) 

Phish Protection doesn’t care if employees can pass a fake phishing email test because _Phish Protection keeps phishing emails out of inboxes_. So, there’s no need to even run a test with Phish Protection and therefore, there’s little chance of aggravating employees.

Since Phish Protection is **cloud-based**, it requires no upfront investment, sets up in 10 minutes and works with all major email providers. Best of all, it _costs only pennies per employee per month_.

If you want to protect your organization from phishing attacks, and you care about your employees, you’ll skip the phishing test and go right to [Phishing Protection](/) \- **cloud-based email security** for cost-conscious companies. Try it **free for 60 days**. Your employees will thank you for it.

## Topics

[ Phishing ](/tags/phishing/) 

![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/phishprotection/images/authors/brad-slavin.jpg) 

[ Brad Slavin ](/authors/brad-slavin/) 

General Manager

Founder and General Manager of DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across DuoCircle's 2,000+ customer base.

[LinkedIn Profile →](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradslavin) 

## Protect your inbox from phishing attacks

Real-time email security with 60-day free trial. No credit card required.

[Start Free Trial](https://portal.duocircle.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=101&brand=phishprotection) [View Pricing](/pricing/) 

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