Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense
Cloned voices, deepfaked video calls, and flawless phishing now target people rather than machines, and nobody can reliably spot a good fake. This hands-on course teaches the one skeleton every con shares and the verification protocols that beat it in any costume. You'll learn out-of-band verification, code words, callback culture, dual approval, and the STOP drill for pressure moments. You'll finish knowing what to do when you suspect, what to do in the first hour if you slipped, and how to protect your team and family.
Course details
Duration
1h 03m 10s
Lectures
15
Video
1 hour
Quizzes
1
Level
Beginner
Course Description
Every social engineering attack, however advanced the AI behind it, is identity plus pretext plus pressure plus ask. AI perfected the first three; the ask can't hide. This course trains you to judge the request, verify through a channel you choose, and report fast, so the fake's quality never decides the outcome.
What you'll learn
- The four-part skeleton of every con, and the levers of authority, urgency, fear, and helpfulness
- Spotting AI phishing by sender, links, and context, and handling voice-clone calls and deepfake meetings
- Breaking multi-channel attack chains with verification you originate
- Out-of-band verification, code words, callback culture, and dual approval on payments and data
- Executive impersonation, BEC 2.0, and the STOP drill for verifying under pressure
- The suspicion playbook, the fast first hour, and protecting your likeness, team, and family
Who it's for
Employees in any role, especially finance, accounts payable, executive assistants, and executives, plus anyone who wants to protect family members from voice-clone scams.
15 short video lessons in three modules: Know the Con; Verification Protocols; and Response & Culture.
This course is awareness training and is not legal or security-consulting advice. Your employer's security policy governs.
Module 1: Know the Con
-
1.1 Anatomy of an AI Social Engineering AttackEvery con shares one skeleton — learn it once, recognize it everywhere.
In this lesson:
- Break any social engineering attack into its four parts
- Recognize the pretext, the pressure, and the ask
- Understand why AI upgraded the con but not the skeleton
-
1.2 Spotting AI Phishing
The signals that survive fluency — sender, context, and destination.
In this lesson:
- Move from prose-checking to signal-checking
- Inspect senders, links, and context reliably
- Handle attachments and QR codes safely
-
1.3 The Voice-Clone Call
Recognizing vishing in real time — at work and at home.
In this lesson:
- Recognize a vishing call while it's happening
- Handle the four vishing scripts calmly
- Set up family protection against emergency scams
-
1.4 Deepfakes on Video Calls
When the meeting itself is the con — live video impersonation.
In this lesson:
- Treat video calls as unverified channels
- Recognize the deepfake-meeting playbook
- Apply in-meeting verification without awkwardness
-
1.5 Multi-Channel Attack Chains
When email, voice, and video corroborate each other — the con in stereo.
In this lesson:
- See how channels are chained to manufacture credibility
- Break the corroboration illusion
- Verify outside the attacker-supplied loop
Module 2: Verification Protocols
-
2.1 Out-of-Band Verification: The Golden Rule
The one principle every other protocol builds on.
In this lesson:
- Define out-of-band verification precisely
- Choose valid verification channels
- Apply the rule to the four asks
-
2.2 Code Words & Callback Culture
Pre-agreed secrets and normalized callbacks — cheap, powerful, official.
In this lesson:
- Set up verification code words correctly
- Build callback culture at work and home
- Keep code-word discipline over time
-
2.3 Payment & Data-Release Controls: Dual Approval
Structural controls that survive any one person's bad day.
In this lesson:
- Apply dual approval to payments and data releases
- Treat banking-detail changes as the highest-risk event
- Protect the controls from exception-engineering
-
2.4 Executive Impersonation & BEC 2.0
The most expensive con in business — upgraded with AI, beaten with protocol.
In this lesson:
- Understand BEC and its AI upgrade
- Recognize the executive-impersonation playbook
- Apply protections both as staff and as an executive
-
2.5 Verifying Under Pressure: Urgency Is the Tell
Training the pause when everything screams now.
In this lesson:
- Understand what pressure does to decision-making
- Reframe urgency as evidence
- Rehearse the pressure drill until it's reflex
Module 3: Response & Culture
-
3.1 When You Suspect: Pause, Verify, Report
The complete suspicion playbook, assembled and rehearsed.
In this lesson:
- Run the full suspicion sequence end to end
- Handle the in-between cases confidently
- Report in a way that helps responders
-
3.2 If You Clicked or Paid: The Fast First Hour
Damage control — the actions that decide how bad it gets.
In this lesson:
- Run the first-hour playbook after a click or credential slip
- Act on a fraudulent payment within the recall window
- Replace shame-paralysis with speed
-
3.3 Protecting Your Own Voice & Likeness
You are cloning material — managing that reality, and responding if it happens.
In this lesson:
- Assess your own clonability honestly
- Reduce casual harvesting without hiding
- Respond effectively if you're deepfaked
-
3.4 Extending the Shield: Colleagues & Family
Teaching what you know — the two audiences that need it most.
In this lesson:
- Share the essentials with teammates effectively
- Protect family members — especially elders and teens
- Teach without fear-mongering
-
3.5 The Verification-First Culture
Everything assembled into a way of operating — the course finale.
In this lesson:
- Assemble the course into the verification-first identity
- Own your role in the culture regardless of title
- Complete Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense
Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense — Final Exam
Learn at your own pace
Study the materials at your convenience, you can always return to them to repeat
Certificate of completion
Complete every lesson and pass the final exam to earn a RiseCert certificate of completion you can download and share.
Your Name
Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense
RISECERT
CERTIFICATE
For demonstrated knowledge and successful completion of all course requirements for:
MM.DD.YYYY
Certificate Date
Ready to get started?
Enroll in Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense and earn your RiseCert certificate of completion.
Got Questions? We've Got Answers!
Answers to the most common questions about this course.
What is the Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense course?
Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense is a RiseCert online course on beating attacks that target people rather than machines. It covers AI phishing, voice-clone calls, deepfake video meetings, multi-channel attack chains, and executive impersonation, plus the verification protocols, response playbooks, and culture habits that work even when the fake is flawless.
Who should take a deepfake awareness course?
The course suits employees in any role, with extra value for people who can move money or data: accounts payable, finance, executive assistants, and executives. It also covers protecting yourself and your family at home, including elders targeted by grandparent scams and teens targeted by sextortion and fake-friend scams. No technical background is needed.
How can you tell if a voice or video call is a deepfake?
Often you can't, and the course doesn't ask you to. The best fakes show no glitches, and caller ID is spoofable. Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense teaches you to judge behavior and the request instead, then verify out-of-band: a channel different from the request's, chosen by you, and established before the request existed.
What is out-of-band verification?
Out-of-band verification means confirming a request through a channel that is different from the one it arrived on, chosen by you rather than the requester, and established before the request existed, such as a saved contact or the number on your card. The course's test is simple: did I possess this channel before today? If not, it doesn't count.
How does a family code word protect against voice-clone scams?
A family code word is a pre-agreed phrase that real family members can give when something is truly wrong. Clones are built from harvested public data, so a phrase agreed in person and never posted is out of reach. The course pairs it with the callback habit and a rule that no real emergency is hurt by a two-minute check.
What is BEC 2.0?
Business email compromise impersonates executives and partners to redirect payments. The course calls the AI-upgraded version BEC 2.0: a fluent email in the executive's real style, a voice-clone follow-up, video if needed, and multi-channel chains over days. Attention can't catch it; the stacked protocol of out-of-band verification, code words, and dual approval does.
What should I do if I already clicked a phishing link or sent money?
Act fast. After a click or credential slip, report to security first, change the password everywhere it's reused, revoke sessions, and watch for follow-ups, about 15 minutes. After a fraudulent payment, call your bank's fraud line now, report to law enforcement such as IC3 in the US, alert finance, and never pay cold-calling recovery services.
What will I be able to do after this course?
You'll be able to dissect any con into identity, pretext, pressure, and ask; check senders, links, and context; exit a suspicious call politely; verify inside a meeting; break multi-channel chains; run out-of-band checks, code words, and dual approval; use the STOP drill under pressure; run the suspicion and first-hour playbooks; and teach the five-minute kit.
How is this different from general phishing awareness training?
General training often teaches spotting fakes by typos and odd logos. Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense assumes the fake is perfect across email, voice, and video, and builds protocols that ignore fake quality: out-of-band verification, code words, callback culture, dual approval, and a rehearsed STOP drill, plus guidance for executives being impersonated and for protecting family.
Do I need technical knowledge to take this course?
No. There are no prerequisites. The course is hands-on and plain-language, built around scenarios such as a Friday vendor call asking to reroute invoices, a deepfaked meeting with senior faces, and a late-night call in a child's voice. It gives you rehearsable exit lines and habits that need no budget or technical skill.
How long is the course?
The course has about an hour of video, just over 64 minutes, across 15 lessons, plus a final exam. Lessons run about four minutes each and are organized into three modules: Know the Con; Verification Protocols; and Response & Culture. Most learners finish it in one or two sittings.
Is the course self-paced, and how long do I have access?
Yes. The course is 100% online and self-paced, and your access does not expire. You can start, pause, and resume at any time on a computer, tablet, or phone with a modern web browser. There's nothing to install, so you can revisit the protocols before setting up a family code word or team callback norm.
Is there a final exam?
Yes. The course ends with a 30-question multiple-choice final exam covering all three modules. You need a score of 80% or higher, 24 of 30, to pass, and you can retake the exam as many times as you need. Finish all 15 lessons and pass the exam to complete the course and earn your certificate.
Will I get a certificate?
Yes. After you complete all 15 lessons and pass the final exam, you can download a RiseCert certificate of completion from your account. It is a course completion certificate, not a license, professional security certification, or continuing education (CE or CPE) certificate.
Is the course approved for CPE or continuing education credit?
No. Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense is not currently approved for continuing education credit, including CE, CPE, or CEU credit, by any state, licensing body, or accrediting organization. If you need credit toward a license or professional designation, take a course approved by the body that issues it.
Is this course legal or security-consulting advice?
No. The course is defensive, awareness-level education and is not legal or security-consulting advice. Your employer's security policy, its security team, and counsel govern what you do at work, including payment controls and incident reporting. For fraud you've already suffered, the course points to your bank and law enforcement.
Does the course recommend deepfake detection tools?
No. The course is vendor-neutral and endorses no product. It treats visual and audio tells as signals that may inform but never decide, because the best fakes show none of them. Its defenses are process-based, verification through a channel you choose, code words, and dual approval, so they keep working as fakes improve.
How much does the course cost?
The course costs $99 per learner as a one-time purchase, with no subscription or recurring fees. To enroll a finance team, department, or whole organization, contact RiseCert through the Contact Us page at risecert.org.
What is the refund policy?
All sales are final and no refunds are issued, as stated in the RiseCert Terms of Use. Please review the course description, lesson list, and these FAQs before purchasing, and contact RiseCert through the Contact Us page at risecert.org with any questions first.
Will the course help me if I'm the executive being impersonated?
Yes. Deepfakes & AI Social Engineering Defense covers the executive's side: announce that you expect callbacks, never make real requests shaped like the con, keep your assistant and finance lead in the code-word loop, and warn the company quickly if you're cloned. Lesson 3.3 adds steps to reduce free voice samples and respond to impersonation.