Over the past year, 43% of consumers threw out or gave up on an email because they couldn’t tell whether it was legitimate, and 17% put off a purchase over it, according to a survey of 6,000 people in five countries commissioned by DigiCert. Fake delivery notices were the most common scam, reported by more than half of people who got a suspicious email, and 38% of shoppers still judge an email by its spelling and grammar, which AI-written fakes now get right. The survey also found 54% would pick a brand whose logo appears verified in the inbox rather than a rival, compared with 49% in 2025, but four in 10 didn’t know those logos exist. DigiCert sells the certificates that let brands display those verified logos.
