Notification abuse is the misuse of a legitimate service’s alerts or messaging features to make social engineering more convincing. Because users often expect payment, account, or workplace notices from familiar services, a message delivered through a trusted workflow can seem more credible than an ordinary unsolicited email or text.
In attacks, criminals may misuse accounts or features to send deceptive alerts that direct people to fake sign-in pages or fraudulent payment requests. This does not by itself prove that the service’s underlying systems were breached; legitimate workflows can be abused in other ways. Defenders should monitor unusual notification patterns and account activity, while users should verify unexpected alerts in the official app or through a known login route rather than following embedded links.