A transactional email is an automated message sent in response to a business interaction, such as an order confirmation, receipt, password reset, or shipping notice. Businesses often send these messages through dedicated systems, and recipients may recognize their format and trust them as routine communications.
That trust can be abused in cyber attacks. A genuine notification may contain attacker-controlled instructions, such as a fraudulent support number, even if sender-authentication checks pass. Those checks help establish where mail came from or whether it was altered; they do not prove that its contents are safe. Verify unexpected requests through a contact method obtained independently, and organizations should monitor transactional mail for unusual instructions or contact details.