Report by KnowBe4
Phishing Threat Trends Report, Vol. 8.
Key Findings
Overall phishing volume grew 29.8% year-over-year.
Organizations receive an average of one dangerous email for every 733 emails received.
419 (advanced-fee) fraud dropped 31.3%.
Spear phishing increased 41.1%.
Company impersonation increased 28%.
In Q3 2026, an attack was two times more likely to originate from legitimate infrastructure compared to Q2 2026.
Toolkit-driven phishing grew 54%.
Three primary toolkits accounted for 90.2% of all kit-driven phishing.
Business Email Compromise (BEC) accounted for 51.2% of phish types.
Attackers are 5.4 times faster at turning breaking news headlines into active phishing lures compared to 2022.
Missed message lures fell 11.3%.
Mobile-focused scams fell 47.3%.
Toolkit-driven phishing accounted for 29.2% of all inbound malicious mail.
90.4% of phishing emails arrived during working days (Monday–Friday).
Phishing email volume peaked on Monday at 20.6% of weekly phishing traffic.