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Targeted scam emails could be a thing of the past for Surfshark's One and One Plus bundle subscribers. Surfshark is a privacy and cybersecurity company that offers bundles that include various privacy and security tools. It's now adding a scam email checker that weeds phishing attacks out of subscribers' Gmail inboxes.
The new AI tool was trained to analyze emails for telltale signs of manipulation, the company announced Monday, including suspicious content, sender information and other characteristics common in phishing attempts. It also scans links in the email's body copy to check for potential malware.
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The new tool is currently available for Google Chrome and Gmail, since it's tied into the latest update for the Surfshark Chrome browser extension. The feature is not available on non-Chrome-based browsers.
A representative for Surfshark did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
How to use Surfshark's new AI scam email checker
To use the new Surfshark tool, you need an active Surfshark One or One Plus subscription (starting at $59 for 27 months) and the Surfshark Chrome browser extension installed on your device.
Once installed, access the extension settings and enable the new tool in the email scam checker tab. This will allow you to use the feature on your Gmail account.
You'll see a check email button whenever you open a suspicious email within Chrome. Clicking that will run the AI scam email checker and filter out phishing attempts and malware.
Surfshark currently allows unlimited devices to be connected to a single account, so you can share this tool with your friends and family.
In its blog post about the new tool, the company says all data filtering through the email scam checker is briefly stored on internal servers. Nothing is exported to "outside platforms that might use the data for AI training."
Surfshark says it deletes your data after a scam checker request is completed.
