This blog focuses on how vishing works and how we weaponize human behavior to get in.

The Psychology Behind Vishing

Effective vishing exploits emotion and urgency. Every call is calibrated to:

• Create pressure (“We need this now.”)
• Leverage authority (“Your manager asked us to do this.”)
• Instill doubt (“We’re seeing some odd behavior on your login.”)
• Play to empathy (“We just need your help getting this fixed.”)

It doesn’t feel like an attack. It feels like helping.

Caller ID Spoofing and Trust Building

We use VoIP infrastructure that lets us spoof internal extensions or known vendor numbers. When someone sees a trusted number pop up, they’re already halfway to saying yes.

Pair that with a calm tone, believable scenario, and insider lingo...and most people comply.

Verbal Privilege Escalation in Action

In a recent vishing engagement, we couldn’t get full access in a single call. So we split it into four.

Call 1: Gathered first name confirmation and verified the department
Call 2: Cross-referenced naming conventions with LinkedIn and ZoomInfo
Call 3: Used a new pretext, impersonated IT, and requested a system reset
Call 4: Spoofed an internal number and gained access to a password reset flow

We used small crumbs of information to sound legitimate. That’s verbal privilege escalation, and it mirrors what real attackers do.

Pretext Diversity is Key

No two calls are the same. We’ve used over a dozen different pretexts in one campaign. HR issues. Security incidents. Vendor complaints. Each one tailored to the target’s role and environment.

The more complex your org chart, the easier it is to play people against each other.

Build Defenses That Think LIke Attackers

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