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Surfshark's New AI Feature Takes a Bite Out of Scam Emails

Gmail users will receive an extra layer of protection from Surfshark's Chrome browser extension.

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Headshot of Tyler Graham
Tyler Graham Writer
Tyler is a writer for CNET covering laptops and video games. He's previously covered mobile devices, home energy products and broadband. He came to CNET straight out of college, where he graduated from Seton Hall with a bachelor's degree in journalism. When Tyler's not asking questions or doing research for his next assignment, you can find him in his home state of New Jersey, kicking back with a bagel and watching an action flick or playing a new video game. When Tyler's not asking questions or doing research for his next assignment, you can find him in his home state of New Jersey, kicking back with a bagel and watching an action flick or playing a new video game. You can reach him at tgraham@cnet.com.
Expertise Video gaming, computer hardware, laptops, home energy, home internet
Tyler Graham
2 min read
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Surfshark sweetens the deal on one of its best VPN subscription deals by offering new browser extension tools.

 Sarah Tew/CNET

Targeted scam emails could be a thing of the past for Surfshark's One and One Plus bundle subscribers. Surfshark is a VPN 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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VPNs, or virtual private networks, are important privacy and security tools for any internet user. They anonymize your internet traffic by routing it through their servers, which can be anywhere in the world. Surfshark has long been recommended by CNET as one of the best VPNs, and offers particularly good value for money, which extensions like this increase.

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.

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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.