Practical guide
A Sender Name Is Not Proof of Who Wrote the Email
Compare the identity claim with the actual request before trusting a polished account message.
Read the name as a label
A message labeled Account Security may look authoritative before you read a single sentence. That label tells you what the sender wants to be called; it does not explain why the request is legitimate. Start with the action being requested and whether you expected it. For example, a routine welcome email has a different context from an unsolicited demand to provide a recovery code. Attractive formatting should not make you skip the questions you would ask of a plain message.
Look for a coherent destination
Inspect the available sender and reply details without assuming that an address alone proves authenticity. The FTC warns that phishing messages can look like communications from familiar companies. If the claimed service and the requested destination do not make sense together, stop. Avoid trying to become an email-forensics expert in the middle of a rushed task. You can decide not to use a suspicious message while verifying the underlying account issue through a separate, known route.
Do not outsource trust to good grammar
Typos can be a warning, but clean writing is not a security guarantee. A polished paragraph can still ask you to do something inappropriate. Consider a message that carefully explains why you should send your password to keep your profile active. Its style does not change the request. Read with the same discipline you would use for a hurried message: what account, what action, what authority, and why now? Evaluate those relationships instead of scoring the email's professionalism.
Use a two-sentence verification question
If you contact the service, keep the question simple: I received this claimed account notice at this time. Is this action required, and where is the official process? That separates the question from the sender's proposed link or reply address. Share only the identifying details necessary for support to locate the notice. Once the issue is resolved, report a deceptive message through the appropriate channel if available. You do not need to debate the sender or prove publicly that you detected a fake.
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FTC: familiar-looking phishing messages ↗