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Netcraft identified nearly 40,000 unique phishing URLs relevant to the U.S. financial-services sector in the first half of 2026. The figure counts URLs—not victims, confirmed losses, or verified successful attacks—and the report describes a sprawling infrastructure footprint, with activity spread across hundreds of providers and registrars.
What the nearly 40,000 figure does—and does not—mean
Netcraft’s H1 Phishing Landscape Report: U.S. Financial Sector, published September 22, 2026, counted almost 40,000 unique phishing URLs relevant to U.S. financial services during H1. It is a measure of observed URLs, not a count of individual campaigns, people targeted, victims, or financial losses. Netcraft’s collection and attribution describe the activity it observed; they are not a complete census of all phishing.
The infrastructure associated with the URLs involved 645 distinct hosting providers and 576 distinct domain registrars. That breadth points to a distributed operation rather than reliance on a single host or registrar. Netcraft’s report says, “The infrastructure used suggests automated rotation of domains to keep operations continuous.”
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How AI and free hosting can lower the effort to launch campaigns
Netcraft reports that 12.6% of the observed phishing URL volume used free developer or application hosting. It links the availability of free hosting in generative-AI website builders and cloners to faster, lower-effort deployment.
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That supports a narrower conclusion than the headline phrase “automated AI agents” may suggest: AI tools can help create and deploy websites, but the report does not establish that autonomous agents ran every campaign or quantify how many URLs were generated by agents. Free hosting also does not, by itself, show how a particular phishing site was built.
Which financial services and brands drew the most activity?
Targeting differed by subsector. Payment service providers accounted for 37.2% of the phishing volume Netcraft observed. Within that payment-service-provider activity, PayPal represented 80.6%. In the separate card-network subsector, American Express represented 72.8%. These are shares within their respective categories, not shares of all observed phishing URLs.
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A new host and a concentrated .es domain cluster
Omegatech
Netcraft says roughly 3% of observed attacks by June were hosted through Omegatech, which began operations in January 2026 and claims a base in Seychelles. Netcraft characterizes the provider as a “paper shell” for transnational hosting and describes it as “bulletproof.” Those are Netcraft’s assessments, not an independently adjudicated legal finding about the company or its operations.
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Sixteen .es domains
From March 25 to April 21, a cluster of 16 .es domains generated 585 unique attack URLs and impersonated 41 financial brands, according to Netcraft. The report says the domains disclosed minimal registration data. The example illustrates how a relatively small group of domains can produce many distinct URLs; the URL count should not be read as 585 victims or 585 separate campaigns.
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- FAST & CONVENIENT LOGIN: Plug in your YubiKey 5C NFC via USB and tap it, or tap it against your phone (NFC), to authenticate. No batteries, no internet connection, and no extra fees required
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Campaigns did not all move in the same direction
Netcraft reports that the Darcula-based campaign impersonating Fidelity Investments fell to near-zero phishing sites by Q2 2026. At the beginning of the year, it had represented more than half of the phishing infrastructure targeting Fidelity. This decline contrasts with the report’s broader evidence of ongoing URL activity: changes in one brand-specific campaign do not imply that overall phishing stopped or declined by the same amount.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What organizations can take from the findings
The infrastructure spread and domain rotation described by Netcraft support practical attention to lookalike and newly registered domains, monitoring for brand impersonation, and coordination across hosting providers and registrars when a site needs to be reported or removed.
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- WORKS WITH 1000+ ACCOUNTS: Compatible with Google, Microsoft, and Apple. A single Security Key NFC secures 100 of your favorite accounts, including email, password managers, and more.
- FAST & CONVENIENT LOGIN: Plug in your Security Key NFC via USB-A and tap it, or tap it against your phone (NFC) to authenticate. No batteries, no internet connection, and no extra fees required.
- TRUSTED PASSKEY TECHNOLOGY: Uses the latest passkey standards (FIDO2/WebAuthn & FIDO U2F) but does not support One-Time Passwords. For complex needs, check out the YubiKey 5 Series.
- BUILT TO LAST: Made from tough, waterproof, and crush-resistant materials. Manufactured in Sweden and programmed in the USA with the highest security standards.
- Track domains that resemble company, payment, and card-network names, including newly registered domains.
- Include developer and application-hosting services in monitoring, not only conventional web hosts.
- Prepare a response process for reporting suspicious URLs and coordinating takedowns across providers and registrars.
- Interpret threat counts carefully: URL volume is useful for understanding infrastructure, but it does not establish victim counts or losses.
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