What is “Email Spoofing?”

According to the website SearchSecurity.TechTarget.com, email spoofing is “the forgery of an email header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere than the actual source.”

Well that’s great and all, but what does this mean and how can I prevent it?

Basically a “spoofed” email looks like it may be an email message actually being sent from YOU or someone you know. This is possible due to the way email is sent via the SMTP protocol or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and mailing software like Outlook or Gmail. What these “spoofers” are doing is editing how the messages are created and because SMTP doesn’t have a method for ensuring authentication (hence the “simple” in its name) it’s actually fairly easy to fake who the message is being sent from.

Ok. Got it. But what can I do to TELL if an email has been spoofed?

Well the first thing that you can do is take a look at the email address that the message is being sent from – when you highlight the email address, does it pop and show you the address that you were expecting?

How to Stop Email Spoofing – A Crash Course

From SearchSecurity.TechTarget.com:
– Keep your antimalware and Internet security software up-to-date.
– Do not share private or financial information through email.
– Turn SPAM filters on to the strongest settings, or use tools like Gmail’s Priority Inbox.
– Avoid clicking suspicious links or downloading suspicious attachments.
– Never enter sensitive information into links that are not secure.
– Learn how to open and read email headers for signs of email spoofing.