Over 90% of successful cyberattacks begin with a phishing email. In 2026, AI-generated phishing is more convincing than ever — gone are the obvious spelling errors and crude formatting. Modern phishing emails are virtually indistinguishable from legitimate communications. Here is how to protect yourself.
Urgency and threats: "Your account will be closed in 24 hours" or "Unauthorized login detected — verify immediately." Legitimate companies rarely create this urgency. Sender address mismatch: The display name says "PayPal" but the email comes from paypal-security@random-domain.com. Always check the actual email address. Generic greetings: "Dear Customer" instead of your name. Unexpected attachments: Especially .zip, .exe, or Office files with macros.
URL inspection: Look carefully at the domain. "paypa1.com" (with a 1) or "paypal-secure-login.com" are fakes. The real domain is always immediately before the TLD (e.g., paypal.com). Missing HTTPS: Check for the padlock icon — though note that attackers now use HTTPS too. Check a site's SSL certificate with our SSL/TLS Checker. Poor design quality: Misaligned elements, broken images, or missing pages that a real company would never have.
AI-generated content: Phishing emails written by AI have perfect grammar and match the company's tone exactly. Real-time man-in-the-middle: Fake login pages that relay your credentials to the real site instantly, capturing your 2FA code in real time. Business Email Compromise: Attackers compromise a real email account and send phishing from a legitimate address. QR code phishing: Malicious QR codes in physical mail or printed materials.
Enable 2FA on all accounts (preferably hardware keys or authenticator apps — not SMS). Use a password manager that will not auto-fill on fake domains. Keep your browser updated — modern browsers detect many known phishing sites. Use DNS filtering (Cloudflare 1.1.1.2 or Quad9) to block known malicious domains. Verify your DNS is properly configured with our DNS Leak Test.
Change the password immediately for any account you may have entered credentials for. Enable 2FA if you have not already. Check for unauthorized activity in your accounts. Run our breach checker to monitor for newly exposed data. Consider a full Privacy Checkup to verify your connection is not compromised.